---
title: Sell Your Business to a Long-Term Owner | HarborWind
description: Thinking about selling your founder-led business? We buy to hold, protect your team, and honor what you built. Start a confidential, unhurried conversation.
image: https://harborwind.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/harborwind-partners/images/og-default.png
---
- [Home](https://harborwind.com/)
- [About](https://harborwind.com/about)
- [Team](https://harborwind.com/team)
- [Insights](https://harborwind.com/insights)
- Industry Focus
- [Our Investments](https://harborwind.com/portfolio)
- [Investment Criteria](https://harborwind.com/investment-criteria)
- [Niche Manufacturing](https://harborwind.com/niche-manufacturing)
- [Specialty Chemicals](https://harborwind.com/specialty-chemicals)
- [Industrial and Essential B2B Services](https://harborwind.com/b2b-services)
- [Portfolio](https://harborwind.com/portfolio)
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
Menu
[Home](https://harborwind.com/) [About](https://harborwind.com/about) [Team](https://harborwind.com/team) [Insights](https://harborwind.com/insights)
Industry Focus
[Our Investments](https://harborwind.com/portfolio) [Investment Criteria](https://harborwind.com/investment-criteria) [Niche Manufacturing](https://harborwind.com/niche-manufacturing) [Specialty Chemicals](https://harborwind.com/specialty-chemicals) [Industrial and Essential B2B Services](https://harborwind.com/b2b-services)
[Portfolio](https://harborwind.com/portfolio)
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
1. [Home](https://harborwind.com/)
2. Sell Your Business to a Long-Term Owner | HarborWind
For Business Owners
# You built something worth keeping. We agree.
If you have spent a career building a company, the decision to sell it carries more than a number. What happens next, to the business and to you, matters just as much. We would like to talk that through.
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact) A first step, and nothing more.
Why HarborWind
## A seller can choose among many independent sponsors. Here is what is true about the two people you would be choosing here, stated plainly, on the axes that actually matter.
1. 01
### We have actually done this
One of us built a digital transformation consultancy and sold it to private equity in 2022, to Ensono, a KKR portfolio company. The other spent 18 years buying, sitting on the boards of, and growing companies like yours. Between us, that is a company built and sold and 18 years in the ownership seat, with a name, a buyer, and a year you can check.
2. 02
### We stay in our lane
We focus on three kinds of business: Niche Manufacturing, Specialty Chemicals, and Industrial and Essential B2B Services. Working in known territory means the questions we ask in diligence are informed ones, and it means we can move at the pace of a buyer who has seen a business like yours before.
3. 03
### You deal with us directly
When you reach out, one of the two of us writes back, personally. The person who would sit across the table in a real negotiation is the same person you talk to from the first email, all the way through close.
**Sean Mahoney**Managing Partner. Built and sold a software company; leads how we modernize the businesses we buy.
**Rocky Lopez**Managing Partner. 18 years buying, chairing, and growing lower-middle-market companies.
The Road
## From the first call to the years after
The hardest part of selling is not knowing what happens after you say yes. Here is the whole path, and exactly what we ask of you at each step.
1. Stop Oneyou are here
### The first call
A conversation, and nothing more. You tell us about the business at a high level, we tell you how we think about companies like yours, and together we decide whether a second conversation is worth having.
**What we ask for**Nothing on paper. Talk to us the way you would talk to a peer.
2. Stop Two
### Getting to know the business
Over a few weeks we learn how the company actually works: its people, its customers, and the things that make it yours. There is no rush, and financials can stay high level while we get oriented.
**What we ask for**A picture of the business, shared at whatever level of detail you are comfortable with.
3. Stop Three
### The number
We put a real number on the table and walk you through how we arrived at it, so you understand the reasoning behind it and where it comes from. Once we agree on terms in a letter of intent, they hold. The number we sign is the number we close.
**What we ask for**Enough financial detail to value the company honestly.
4. Stop Four
### Diligence and close
This is the part owners worry about most: a deal that drags on, or falls apart and leaves the business exposed. We line up our capital before we sign, so when we commit, we can close. We keep the process quiet and contained, so your team and your customers stay steady while it runs.
**What we ask for**Access to the details, and patience for a few focused weeks.
5. Stop Five
### The years after
The day we close is the beginning of the part that matters. Your name stays. Your people stay. The company stays in the community that built it, and we grow it rather than cut it, over years rather than quarters.
**What we ask of you**Whatever role you want in the next chapter, from a clean handoff to a stake you keep and a seat at the table.
Fit
## Is your business a fit?
We buy a specific kind of company. Tap the ones that sound like yours, then see where you land. Nothing here is a test you can fail.
**Take a look.**Tap the criteria that sound like your business. There is no wrong answer, and nothing gets shared.
See where you land
### This sounds like the kind of company we are built to buy.
On the things that matter to us, there is a strong match. The honest next step is a conversation, which commits you to nothing.
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
### There is real overlap here.
Enough lines up that it is worth a first conversation to find out together whether we are the right buyer for you. No obligation, and nothing shared until you decide it should be.
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
### We may sit outside your lane today, and that is useful to know.
We focus on a narrow set of businesses, and yours may not overlap much right now. If that changes, or if you would value a second opinion on your options, we are glad to point you in a good direction. You are welcome to stay in touch or read on below.
[Join the mailing list](https://harborwind.com/insights)[Read a founder's guide to selling](https://harborwind.com/insights/founders-guide-selling-manufacturing-business)
- Revenue: Above $10M
- EBITDA of $2M–$8MRoughly, annual operating profit.
- Niche Manufacturing, Specialty Chemicals, or Industrial and Essential B2B Services
- You are the owner, thinking about a sale, a partial sale, or simply what comes next
- The company operates in the United States
The Ask
## The road starts with a call
Send a short note, or just your name and a line about the company. One of the two of us will read it and write back.
The first conversation is confidential, unhurried, and without obligation. We will reply within one business day.
### Ready to talk
A short note reaches one of the two of us directly, and we write back.
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
### Not ready yet
You do not have to be ready to sell to hear from us. Stay close with a short, infrequent note for owners thinking about what comes next.
[Stay in the loop](https://harborwind.com/for-business-owners#subscribe)
Reading
## Things worth reading
From our Insights, for whenever you are ready.
- ### [Why founder-led businesses are different Perspective](https://harborwind.com/insights/why-founder-led-businesses)
- ### [Earnouts, explained for manufacturers Guide](https://harborwind.com/insights/earnout-explained-manufacturing)
- ### [A founder's guide to selling a manufacturing business Guide](https://harborwind.com/insights/founders-guide-selling-manufacturing-business)
## Ready to explore a partnership?
Whether you’re thinking about succession, a growth partnership, or simply curious, we’d love to have a first conversation.
[Start a Conversation](https://harborwind.com/contact)
Buy. Build. Compound.
## Firm
- [About](https://harborwind.com/about)
- [Team](https://harborwind.com/team)
- [Portfolio](https://harborwind.com/portfolio)
- [Media Kit](https://harborwind.com/media-kit)
## Approach
- [Investment Criteria](https://harborwind.com/investment-criteria)
- [For Business Owners](https://harborwind.com/for-business-owners)
- [For Advisors & Intermediaries](https://harborwind.com/for-intermediaries)
- [Selling Your Business](https://harborwind.com/selling-your-business)
## Sectors
- [Niche Manufacturing](https://harborwind.com/niche-manufacturing)
- [Specialty Chemicals](https://harborwind.com/specialty-chemicals)
- [Industrial and Essential B2B Services](https://harborwind.com/b2b-services)
## Writing
- [Insights](https://harborwind.com/insights)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/harborwind-partners)
## Offices
**Chicago**901 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 306
Chicago, IL 60607
[(312) 449‑4963](tel:+13124494963)
**Boston**24 School St, Second Floor
Boston, MA 02108
[(617) 701‑4963](tel:+16177014963)
HarborWind Partners invests its own equity alongside other equity partners to fund acquisitions. Nothing on this website constitutes an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to purchase any securities. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
© 2026 HarborWind Partners
HarborWind Partners Buy. Build. Compound.
Close
## Start a Conversation
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