Salt Creek Advisory
Salt Creek Advisory describes itself as a family-owned investment bank founded by brothers Jack Pitts and Connor Pitts. The firm states that it advises privately held lower middle market businesses on sell-side and buy-side M&A, with a stated focus on companies generating approximately $2 million to $75 million in revenue.
What stands out about Salt Creek Advisory
Salt Creek Advisory publicly offers sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory, including competitive sale processes, target identification, confidential outreach, and negotiation. It states that standard M&A engagements use a success fee with no retainer or upfront fees, but the fee guide does not publish a universal success-fee percentage, minimum fee, tail period, termination schedule, or complete expense schedule.[1][2][3][4][6][8][9]
What does Salt Creek Advisory do?
Salt Creek Advisory describes itself as a family-owned investment bank founded by brothers Jack Pitts and Connor Pitts. It identifies Chicago and the Midwest as its base and states that it serves lower middle market business owners nationwide.
The firm states that it focuses on buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory for lower middle market businesses. [1][2]
Salt Creek publicly offers sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory for privately held companies. Its stated services include competitive sale processes, target identification, confidential outreach, buyer development, and negotiation.
For select buy-side mandates, the firm states that it may define platform and add-on criteria, conduct outreach, sequence diligence, coordinate financial review, and support negotiation and integration planning. [1][6]
Owners comparing advisory firms can also review Auxo’s M&A advisor vs. business broker vs. investment bank comparison, advisor-selection guide, and sell-side advisor evaluation framework.
What should a business owner evaluate before hiring Salt Creek Advisory?
An owner evaluating Salt Creek can compare the firm’s stated coverage with the company’s sector, size, and transaction requirements. Salt Creek states that it serves privately held companies with approximately $2 million to $75 million in revenue and identifies five practice areas, with additional stated focus on HVAC and accounting firms.
The firm states that both principals work on every engagement, that sell-side assignments use a competitive process, and that standard M&A engagements have no retainer or upfront fee. The engagement agreement should clarify the success-fee percentage, fee base, minimums, expenses, tail rights, and termination provisions because those terms are not fully published in the fee materials.
Because the homepage and preschool practice page provide aggregate experience rather than three named Salt Creek closings, an owner should request comparable closed-deal examples, references, buyer-qualification procedures, and an explanation of regulatory structure before engagement. [1][3][4][8]
Please provide at least three comparable Salt Creek Advisory closings, including industry, approximate revenue or EBITDA, announcement or closing date, buyer type, and Salt Creek's role.
What exact percentage or tiered schedule applies to the success fee, what is the fee base, and are earnouts, rollover equity, seller notes, assumed debt, or deferred consideration included
Are there minimum fees, reimbursable expenses, exclusivity provisions, tail periods, termination fees, or post-termination buyer protections
What size transactions and clients does Salt Creek Advisory focus on?
Salt Creek’s official sectors page identifies five practice areas: early childhood education and preschools, business services, industrials, MSP and IT services, and dog daycare and pet care. Its homepage also states that the firm has a growing focus on HVAC and accounting firms. [1][3]
The Salt Creek homepage reports 50+ M&A transactions worked but does not identify individual transaction names, closing dates, transaction values, buyer identities, or deal-by-deal roles.
Connor Pitts’s biography separately states that he worked through more than 40 early-childhood-education transactions during three years at Cadence Education before Salt Creek Advisory. That statement describes prior experience and is not presented as a named list of Salt Creek Advisory closings.
The preschool practice page does not provide three named Salt Creek Advisory closings. [1][5][8]
The firm’s stated transaction focus covers sell-side and buy-side M&A. Sell-side work uses a process in which qualified buyers receive the same information in a competitive process. Buy-side work may include target identification, outreach, negotiation, and selected platform and add-on advisory. [1][6]
What does Salt Creek Advisory publicly disclose about fees, process and engagement terms?
The homepage reports an aggregate figure of 50+ M&A transactions worked but does not identify individual transaction names, closing dates, transaction values, buyer identities, or deal-by-deal roles.
The preschool practice page does not provide three named Salt Creek Advisory closings and distinguishes Connor Pitts’s prior experience inside Cadence Education from Salt Creek’s own closing history.
The homepage does not publish a firm-level regulatory identifier.
The official fee guide describes a success-fee-only model but does not publish a universal success-fee percentage, minimum fee, tail period, termination schedule, or complete expense schedule. The buy-side advisory article also does not publish a universal buy-side fee schedule. [1][4][8][9]
Salt Creek identifies itself as an M&A advisory firm and states that it is not a law firm or accounting firm.
The Salt Creek homepage does not publish a firm-level regulator, registration number, CRD number, SEC number, FINRA status, or comparable regulatory identifier. [1][7]
Salt Creek states that Jack and Connor Pitts personally work every engagement from the first conversation through closing, without handing the process to a junior team.
For sell-side assignments, the firm describes a competitive process in which qualified buyers receive the same information.
The firm states that standard M&A engagements use a success fee with no retainer or upfront fees and that it is paid when the transaction closes. [1][5]
Questions to ask before hiring Salt Creek Advisory
Please provide at least three comparable Salt Creek Advisory closings, including industry, approximate revenue or EBITDA, announcement or closing date, buyer type, and Salt Creek's role.
What exact percentage or tiered schedule applies to the success fee, what is the fee base, and are earnouts, rollover equity, seller notes, assumed debt, or deferred consideration included?
Are there minimum fees, reimbursable expenses, exclusivity provisions, tail periods, termination fees, or post-termination buyer protections?
Who performs any securities-related work, under what registration or exemption, and does the answer change for a stock sale?
Which buyers would be approached for a particular company, and how are buyers qualified for financing capacity, strategic fit, reputation, and closing certainty?
How many active mandates are Jack and Connor carrying, and who performs day-to-day work?
For buy-side assignments, what compensation is payable if no acquisition closes and how are later add-ons scoped and priced?
Sources & research notes
- Official website / firm overview
- Official website / firm overview
- Industry / market focus
- Transaction size / criteria
- Transaction / portfolio evidence
- Services / capabilities
- Structure / regulatory context
- Public disclosure information
- Public disclosure information
How this profile was researched
Auxo profiles are prepared from publicly available primary and authoritative sources and reviewed for entity identity, factual support and disclosure consistency. When a fact cannot be supported by the reviewed public record, the profile identifies it as something to confirm directly rather than inferring it.
Independent research profile
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