A private holding company · Dallas, Texas
We carry on the life's work of Texas founders.
Craft Capital buys one owner-operated Texas business at a time — from founders who have spent a lifetime building something real — and holds it for the long run. The name stays. The team stays. The standards stay. We are not on a clock.
Currently focused on property management, residential services, and home trades businesses in Dallas-Fort Worth. $2M–$20M in revenue. Ten-plus years in business.
An open letter
The business you spent your life building deserves a buyer who will carry it on.
What you built is not a line on a balance sheet. It is the shape of your adult life. Thirty, forty, sometimes fifty years of early mornings and late nights. Payrolls made on faith. Missed dinners. Storms you carried quietly while the rest of the world was sleeping. Customers earned one handshake at a time and kept through two recessions and a pandemic.
And now you're starting to think about what comes next. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe in a year. Maybe in five. But it's on the list, and the people who have started pitching you do not seem to understand what you actually care about.
They will keep the sign up for eighteen months and then, quietly, start rewriting the place — a new brand, a new layer of management, a layoff plan the team sees coming six weeks too late. A year later, the thing you poured your life into has started, quietly, to disappear.
That is not an acquisition. That is a quiet erasure of someone's life's work.
Craft Capital was built to be the other kind of buyer. We buy one good business at a time from a founder who is ready to step back, and we carry the work forward — the name, the team, the people, the way the work gets done. Not for five years. For the next thirty. We use our own capital. We have no fund, no clock, no one to sell you to next.
If any of that sounds like the conversation you've been waiting to have, we would be honored to listen.
Texas · Held for the long run
Built close to home. Carried for the long run.
What we buy
The kind of business we were built to carry.
There is a shape to the businesses we look for. It is almost always a business built by one person over decades, with a team that has been there nearly as long. If yours is close but not a perfect fit, tell us anyway. We would rather have the conversation.
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Owner-operated for ten years or more.
A business where the founder's fingerprints are still on the work, and the people who know why things are done a certain way are still the ones doing them.
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$2M to $20M in annual revenue.
Big enough to matter. Small enough that the founder still knows every client by name.
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A team that's been there for years.
We don't buy businesses in order to cut payroll. The team is usually the reason we want the business in the first place.
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Headquartered in Texas.
Especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. We are building something close to home, and we stay involved in person.
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Residential property, services, and trades.
Property management, home services, and the skilled trades that keep DFW homes running. Three segments, one shape of business we know well.
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A founder who is ready — or getting ready — to step back.
A full exit, a partial exit, or a multi-year transition where you stay as involved as it serves you and the business. We do not have a preferred answer.
Where we're looking
Three shapes of business we're looking at today.
The shape of a business matters more than the industry label. These are the three kinds of business we are actively looking at right now — all of them owner-operated, Texas, built over decades, and ready for a buyer who will carry the work forward.
Residential property management.
Multifamily, residential, and small commercial portfolios headquartered in Dallas-Fort Worth — managed by the same person for a decade or more, with a team that has been there nearly as long. This is today's primary focus.
Residential services & home operations.
The businesses that quietly run other people's homes — home management, maintenance coordination, concierge, home watch, turn-key operations for owners and their properties. Almost always built by one person who knew every client by name and every house by heart.
Home trades.
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, handyman, and the other owner-operated trades that keep DFW homes running. Crews that have been on the truck for a decade. The kind of business where the founder still picks up when a customer calls on a Saturday.
How we work
Four steps. No theater. No committees.
You have spent decades doing things the right way. We are not going to put you through a process that pretends otherwise.
1
A private conversation.
Just us, on a call or over coffee in Dallas. No broker. No investment committee. No recorded pitch. You learn who we are. We learn what matters to you — and what you want the next thirty years to look like for the thing you built.
2
A one-page LOI in two weeks.
If the fit is real, we put a clear offer on paper. One page. Plain English. A number, terms, and the promises we intend to keep about the name and the team. No games. No surprises later.
3
Diligence that respects your time.
A small, senior team. Two or three people you will actually know by name. We do not parade associates through your office. We do not ask for a single document we do not need. And everything is confidential — we don't tell anyone we're talking, including other sellers.
4
A close in 60 to 90 days.
We use our own capital. No financing contingency. No last-minute lender surprises at the wire. On closing day, the name is the same, the team is the same, and you leave the office knowing what you built is in hands that will carry it.
What stays the same
The things you built. Still standing. Thirty years from now.
The promises below are the heart of the deal. If we cannot make them in good faith for your business, we will not write an LOI in the first place.
Your team stays.
Every person who comes with the business keeps their job, their pay, and their title. The people who built this alongside you are the ones we want running it.
Your name stays.
We are not here to paint over your sign. Your name on the door is part of why the business works, and part of what your team and your customers are loyal to.
Your customers stay.
No churn-and-burn. No aggressive fee hikes to juice a quick return. The relationships you spent decades earning are not a lever for us to pull.
Your standards stay.
The way you ran the business is the reason we want to buy it. We will not move the back office to another state. We will not strip out the thing that made it work.
Who we are
Why Craft Capital exists.
I'm Grant Baldwin, founder and principal of Craft Capital. I started this firm because of something I kept noticing about the founders I'd meet around Dallas.
Someone running a quiet, profitable business they had built with their own hands over decades. The business had a name people in the neighborhood knew. A team that had been there for years. Customers whose parents had been customers. You could feel, sitting across the table, that every object in the room was the shape of a working life.
And then I would watch what happened when it came time for them to step back. A competitor would absorb the customers and ship the back office to another state. A private acquirer would promise the world and then, a year in, start rewriting the place. A family member would be offered the keys and wasn't ready. And in every version of the story, the thing they had given their entire adult life to would start, quietly, to disappear.
Craft Capital is my response to that. We buy good businesses from Texas founders and we carry the work forward — the name, the team, the people, the way the work gets done. Not for five years. For the long run. Long enough that a founder can step back knowing the thing they gave their life to is being honored, not dismantled.
We are small on purpose. We use our own capital. We do not run a fund, do not issue press releases, and answer to no outside investors. I try, always, to be the kind of buyer I would want in the room if I were on the other side of the table — and I were handing over the thing I had given my one working life to.
Dallas, Texas · Founder-led · Privately held
Frequently asked
Questions founders ask us.
Are you a private equity fund? +
No. We are a single privately held holding company. There is no fund, no outside investors, no carry, and no clock. No one is waiting for us to sell your business to a bigger buyer in five years.
How do you finance an acquisition? +
With our own capital. We do not rely on bank financing to close, and there is no financing contingency in our LOI. When we sign, we mean it.
What happens to my employees? +
They keep their jobs at the same pay and the same title. We do not buy businesses in order to cut payroll — your team is part of the reason we want the business in the first place.
What happens to my name and brand? +
It stays. We are not here to repaint signs or chase a corporate identity. Your name is part of the equity we are paying for, and we intend to honor it.
Do I have to leave on day one? +
No. We are comfortable with full exits, partial exits, and multi-year transitions. If you want to step back entirely, we will be ready. If you want to stay involved for another three or five years, we would consider it a gift.
What size businesses do you look at? +
Roughly $2M to $20M in annual revenue, with ten or more years of history, headquartered in Texas.
Will anyone find out we're talking? +
Not from us. Every conversation is confidential — always. We do not share that we are in discussions with anyone, including other founders we are talking to. Your team, your customers, and your competitors will not hear about this from our side of the table.
What's the fastest you can close? +
A clean transaction can close in 60 to 90 days from signed LOI. We are not trying to rush you. That is simply the pace we can move at when the fit is right.
I'm not ready to sell yet. Should I still reach out? +
Yes. Most founders we end up buying from first reached out a year or two before they were ready. A quiet conversation now costs you nothing and gives you a buyer in the wings for the day you decide it's time.
Contact
If you've started thinking about what comes next — even quietly — we would be honored to listen.
The best way to reach us is a direct email. One line is plenty. A sentence about your business, the city you're in, and roughly when you're thinking about stepping back. That's it. No form. No NDA on the first note. No obligation.
There is no inbox triage and no assistant. Every note comes straight to the principal and is answered by hand within one business day. Confidential from the first line.