© Garrison Snell / ETA Street montage
30-year-old Garrison Snell runs Snell Ventures, a holding company that owns five businesses generating over $37 million in annual revenue. Unlike private equity firms looking for a quick exit, Snell’s mission is simple but radical: buy family-owned businesses, keep them forever, and use the profits to improve the lives of employees and their communities.
But Snell’s journey didn’t start in business school or finance. It started in the music industry. He was a drummer who realized early on he wasn't good enough to make it as a professional musician. He then pivoted to the business side.
While a student at Belmont University, Snell founded a marketing agency for independent artists. At age 24, he sold that agency, netting approximately $500,000.
While most 24-year-olds might buy a sports car or travel the world, Snell faced an existential crisis. "I woke up with some money in my bank account and not a reason to get up and go to work," he said in an appearance on the Acquiring Minds podcast. "I traded that mission for money."
Realizing that money alone wasn't fulfilling, Snell decided to use his capital to build something durable. He wanted to create maximum good for maximum people.
He concluded that the best vehicle for this was acquiring small, locally rooted businesses that served as the backbone of their communities.
Real Estate Detour and the Restaurant Lesson
Snell didn’t jump straight into manufacturing. Like many new investors, he started with real estate, buying 11 rental units in Chattanooga to house low-income families. While profitable (generating a ~15% return), he found it unengaging. "I like the competition... and the value proposition to customers and sales," he says.
He next went on to buy a beloved local restaurant in Nashville for what he qualifies as a "screaming deal," i.e., an incredibly good bargain. However, he quickly learned that restaurants are operationally intense and difficult to scale within a passive holding company model. He eventually sold 90% of the restaurant to a local operator, retaining a small stake.
These experiences clarified his criteria: he needed businesses with operational leverage, defensive moats, and longevity.
"Two-for-One" Deal: Entering Manufacturing
In June 2020, Snell made his defining move. He found two separate manufacturing businesses—New Deal Trailer Parts and Quad Industries—owned by two different families, but financed them with a single SBA loan.
The Details:
New Deal Trailer Parts: A manufacturer of suspension mounts for utility trailers, in business since 1955. Snell bought it for $900,000. At the time, it had $1.4M in sales and $300k in earnings. By 2021, sales grew to $7.8M with $2M in earnings.
Quad Industries: A manufacturer of babbitt bearings (used in heavy industrial machinery), operating since 1909. Snell paid $1 million (including real estate), valuing the business operations at just $450,000 and roughly 1.5x earnings.
This "two-for-one" acquisition established the foundation of Snell Ventures. He targeted "boring" businesses that made essential, low-cost components for critical machinery; a strategy often described as being a "small piece of a big thing."
Investment Philosophy: Buffett Meets Porter
Snell is a self-taught investor who models his approach on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. He has listened to every Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting since 1990. His investment criteria are strict:
Safety of Principal: Don't lose money.
Adequate Return: Target a 20% yield on invested capital (paying ~4-5x EBITDA).
Understanding: Buy businesses with a clear, defensible economic moat.
To assess that moat, Snell uses Michael Porter’s Five Forces as a due diligence framework. For every deal, he asks:
Supplier Power: Can suppliers squeeze us?
Buyer Power: Can customers dictate terms?
Competitive Rivalry: Is it a race to the bottom?
Threat of Substitution: Is this technology obsolete?
Threat of New Entry: How hard is it for someone else to do this?
For Quad Industries, the "babbitt bearing" technology dates back to 1880. It’s a niche, messy process that few competitors want to enter, creating a natural oligopoly. "Nobody's getting into this business... It's a hot casting process…It's kind of intense," Snell comments
Managing for Good (and the Hard Lessons)
Snell’s holding company includes five businesses (plus a minority stake in the restaurant), generating over $37 million in revenue and $9.2 million in EBITDA by the end of 2024.
However, scaling hasn't been without pain. Snell recently faced a near-mutiny at one of his plants. After implementing changes meant to be positive (like better healthcare and direct deposit), employees felt unheard and distrustful, leading to a walkout. He immediately drove to the plant, spent five hours listening to employees, and took full ownership of the failure.
Snell admits he “did a really bad job of delivering on the smoothing of the transition," and that experience reinforced his belief that you cannot manage culture from a spreadsheet; you have to show up.
Holding Forever
Snell Ventures is not a standard private equity firm. There are no outside investors to satisfy, no fund lifecycle, and no exit strategy. Snell intends to hold these companies for the rest of his life, reinvesting earnings to grow the businesses and support the communities they operate in. "I view this as a permanent stewardship commitment to these people, their families in that town," he says.
