Big Shoulders Capital is a family office that makes debt and equity investments in underperforming lower middle-market manufacturing companies. Unlike typical private equity, Big Shoulders invests its own funds. We aren’t subject to fixed timelines so we can be more patient with our portfolio companies.
Our principals have significant experience in the machinery and manufacturing businesses. We understand the industries and clients we serve, and we can supply quick funding to meet borrowers’ and lessees’ needs. We’ve heard countless reasons why banks cannot extend financing to our clients. We readily take on—and find value in—complex situations.
We devise creative solutions through a variety of structures for our clients: inventory loans, accounts receivable loans, and working capital financing; equity plays; bridge loans; debtor-in-possession loans (DIP financing); note purchases and bank loan refinancing; acquisition financing; and an array of flexible options for commercial and industrial asset-based funding. We will figure out a way for you to keep operating and growing.
We are also a trusted partner for workout bankers, restructuring and turnaround consultants, debt placement brokers, attorneys, bankruptcy advisors, factoring companies, and lenders who want to exit a credit. We value all of our working relationships.
Our mission is to be the most trusted acquirer of and lender to businesses in transition.
Big Shoulders Capital is organized as an Illinois LLC with its headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago
OUR FOCUS
Companies in transition seeking a creative, agile liquidity source
Asset intensive businesses needing flexible liquidity or growth capital
Acquiring manufacturers with low, no, or negative EBIDTA
Non-performing commercial and industrial loans
Loans and investments up to $15 million, secured by machinery, inventory, accounts receivable and real estate
Companies with $10 million to $100 million in revenue
Direct and sponsored transactions typical loan length: 1 to 4 years
OUR NAME
Our name comes from the 1914 poem, “Chicago,” by the city’s unofficial poet laureate, Carl Sandburg, who described it as a “chant of defiance by Chicago.”
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders…