Generating Wealth by Doing Micro Private Equity with Brent Beshore

Brent Beshore, founder of Permanent Equity, started his firm 15 years ago by googling "due diligence" after buying his first business with an SBA loan. Today, his portfolio spans 700 employees and roughly $350 million in annual revenue across businesses like swimming pool builders, fence manufacturers, and executive matchmaking firms. The core insight driving his approach is simple: families build wealth by compounding over decades, not by levering up, stripping costs, and flipping companies in two to five years.

Why Permanent Equity is the Opposite of Traditional Private Equity

Beshore describes the standard private equity playbook as "buy, lever, strip, and flip." Firms load portfolio companies with debt to minimize equity, make aggressive changes, and sell within a short window. If things go wrong, the company detonates and people get cut. Permanent Equity does the opposite. It buys majority stakes in family-run businesses making $3–$15 million in annual earnings, uses little to no debt in the transaction, keeps existing leadership in place, and holds indefinitely. The goal is to be a "kind, generous long-term partner" rather than a financial engineer.