Intro Post: Wartime General Interested in Turnaround Opportunities

Hi everyone - I’ve been quietly following the discussions here for a while and wanted to introduce myself. Like many of you, I was drawn to search after many years in corporate. I’ve been actively searching since October and have reviewed roughly 60 businesses so far across a range of industries. The process has been incredibly valuable, even though I haven’t pulled the trigger on a deal yet. One thing the search has clarified is that I’m probably more of a wartime general than a peacetime operator. Many of the businesses I’ve evaluated are stable and steady - which are great businesses - but what energizes me most is stepping into messy situations, installing clarity, and stabilizing operations. That’s been a consistent theme in my corporate career. By background, I’ve spent my career in operations and planning leadership roles. I was trained in a blue-chip environment at Nestlé, and most recently spent time at an Amazon aggregator (Thrasio), where I helped stabilize parts of the business before and after its Chapter 11 restructuring. I’ve done a fair amount of consulting on the side over the years as well. My core skill set is aligning finance, operations, and commercial teams around a single operating plan so leadership can clearly see where the business is headed and make confident decisions. I do my best work when I'm dropped into a messy problem and asked to provide clarity, direction, and traction quickly. Given that, I’m starting to wonder whether distressed or turnaround acquisitions might actually be a better fit for my operating style than the typical “stable cash-flowing business” path in ETA. So, a few questions for the group: 1. How viable is ETA focused specifically on distressed or turnaround businesses? 2. I’d love to connect with anyone here who has pursued that path - either successfully or unsuccessfully - to learn from your experience. Here is my LI profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-young-b45977236/ 3. Separately, if anyone here owns or backs companies that could benefit from a turnaround operator, I’d be very interested in helping stabilize and professionalize the business while I continue my search. Appreciate any thoughts or connections from the group. Looking forward to learning from everyone here.