Matters Graph (previously GRAPH Strategy USA) ads

Today, Bill Achtmeyer, founder of The Parthenon Group, joins Matters Graph as the inaugural Chairman of our Advisory Board. Bill founded Parthenon in 1991 with one other partner. Over the next two decades it became one of the two firms private equity called first when an investment case had to be examined. When it combined with EY, EY kept the name, and it still anchors EY’s strategy practice worldwide. Why us? In Bill’s words: “They do only buy-side work… They do not rubber-stamp the investment thesis of the deal team. They act, as all consultants should, as objective arbiters.” The timing matters. Private equity is holding a record backlog of roughly 32,000 unsold buyout-backed companies, according to Bain’s 2026 Global Private Equity Report, and the EBITDA growth a deal now needs to earn its return has more than doubled. Diligence that only gets a deal through investment committee isn’t enough. It has to carry the hold. Bill will work alongside co-founders Mark Stein and Jeff Merkle and our leadership team on the firm’s next stage of growth: a larger partner base, the senior bench, and our relationships with sponsors, lenders, and corporate acquirers. Bill has built and scaled the defining firm in this field twice. We couldn’t be more excited to have him with us for what comes next. Welcome, Bill.

Bill Achtmeyer built Bain’s M&A practice and founded The Parthenon Group. He has now joined Matters Graph as Chairman of our Advisory Board, because the market needs diligence that works only for the buyer. For more than 20 years, Bain and Parthenon were the two firms sponsors called first when an investment case had to be examined. Then private equity grew far faster than the firms built for buy-side work. Many providers took on sell-side work as well, and the habits of a report written to sell a business carried over into reports written for buyers. Among the strategy firms serving the largest U.S. sponsors and lenders, only two work entirely on the buy side: Bain & Company and Matters Graph. We do no sell-side work and use no expert networks. We test the thesis with the customers who would have to deliver the growth, typically 75 to 150 or more interviews per engagement. The exit backlog in the slides shows why that standard matters. Markets take most of the blame, but the return on an acquisition is set at the purchase. A buyout now needs roughly 12% annual EBITDA growth to hit its target return, up from about 5%, and lenders are underwriting on the same diligence. As Bill puts it: “Any buyer can win an auction by paying enough.”

Congratulations to 26North Partners on its agreement to acquire MEI Industrial Solutions from Olympus Partners, and to Douglas Dayton, P.E. and the MEI team. MEI Industrial Solutions oversees the movement, storage and precise placement and installation of large and heavy critical equipment inside data center, chip plant, battery and pharmaceutical, and aerospace and defense facilities. MEI’s crews handle the path from the manufacturer’s dock to final placement: rigging, machinery moving and setting, millwrighting, storage and staging, crating, and specialized logistics. Customers hire that work when equipment is too large, too costly, or too sensitive to move without a plan. Data center construction spending rose more than 73% in the 12 months through August, per U.S. Census Bureau data. Each of those buildings fills with transformers, switchgear, and cooling systems that someone has to set. Our team supported 26North across the full scope of buy-side commercial due diligence, across end markets. The work drew on our experience with goods and services selling into industrial, infrastructure and manufacturing, including data centers and other advanced facilities. Mark Stein led the work for Matters Graph. Our thanks to Derek Whang, Neha Jatar, CFA, Kyle Rosen, and the 26North team for the trust. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Today, Bill Achtmeyer, founder of The Parthenon Group, joins Matters Graph as the inaugural Chairman of our Advisory Board. Bill founded Parthenon in 1991 with one other partner. Over the next two decades it became one of the two firms private equity called first when an investment case had to be examined. When it combined with EY, EY kept the name, and it still anchors EY’s strategy practice worldwide. Why us? In Bill’s words: “They do only buy-side work… They do not rubber-stamp the investment thesis of the deal team. They act, as all consultants should, as objective arbiters.” The timing matters. Private equity is holding a record backlog of roughly 32,000 unsold buyout-backed companies, according to Bain’s 2026 Global Private Equity Report, and the EBITDA growth a deal now needs to earn its return has more than doubled. Diligence that only gets a deal through investment committee isn’t enough. It has to carry the hold. Bill will work alongside co-founders Mark Stein and Jeff Merkle and our leadership team on the firm’s next stage of growth: a larger partner base, the senior bench, and our relationships with sponsors, lenders, and corporate acquirers. Bill has built and scaled the defining firm in this field twice. We couldn’t be more excited to have him with us for what comes next. Welcome, Bill.

A 1% price increase, against a customer base that doesn't flinch, can move operating profit by 10%. No other lever in diligence works like that. You cannot add 1% more product quality and book a 10% profit gain. And yet price usually ends up filed alongside service and quality as one more key purchasing criterion, weighted the same as everything else on the list. Part of the reason is nerves. The amplifying effect that makes pricing powerful also makes it risky to be wrong about, so it gets handled opportunistically rather than systematically. In Best Practice Brief 041, Jeff Merkle argues it belongs in every diligence mandate, and lays out four practical builds to your customer interviews that get you there without adding meaningful time to a compressed window.

Price often gets treated as a late-stage sanity check in diligence, addressed only after the investment thesis is locked in — but the earlier pricing enters the conversation, the more leverage investors have to shape the deal rather than just validate it. In our latest insight, we look at why building price analysis into the front end of commercial due diligence surfaces momentum (and risk) that's easy to miss when it's left until the end.