A Different Kind of
Private Equity Partner

16 South invests in founder-led, field service businesses — bringing operational expertise, patient capital, and genuine partnership to help owners grow.

Our story

Your Next Chapter
Starts Here

We partner with lower middle market entrepreneurs who have already built something solid and respected, but know they could do more with a little bit of help.

Our approach goes beyond providing capital. We offer guidance, mentorship, and execution support for operational and growth initiatives. We are a force multiplier to take the strategic complexity off your plate — the admin, the reporting, the tech — so you can get back to the parts of the business that provide you passion and purpose.

Business is personal to us — we want to win the right way, and strong relationships are foundational to our success.

The Standard You Deserve

Capital is Easy to Find. Character is Not.

Integrity

We do what we say. Every decision we make is anchored in transparency, honesty, and doing what is right for the business.

Grit

We are in it for the long haul. When challenges arise — and they will — we dig deeper and work alongside our partners.

Excellence

We don’t do anything halfway. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well — and that standard applies to everything we touch.

Humility

We believe in servant leadership — valuing collaboration over individual accolades and always putting the team’s success first.

Unwavering — Character is Not Situational

It's the foundation everything else is built on. We hold the same standard when it's costly, inconvenient, and when no one is watching.
Investment Focus

Business Models We Know

Primary focus

Field Services

Technician-led, distributed workforces serving B2B and/or B2C customers. We understand the operational rhythms, customer dynamics, and growth levers of field service businesses — from lead generation, call centers and dispatch, recruitment and training, to technology enablement and incentives.

We focus on improving operational workflows that result in platform value creation. This is the foundation to building a repeatable playbook within each of our investments.

Representative sectors of interest, but not limited to:

HVAC
Plumbing
Pool Cleaning and Repairs
Lawn Treatments
Landscape & Outdoor Services
Back-up Power and Generator Services
Pest Control
Restoration and Remediation
Garage Door Service and Repair
Opportunistic
Value-Added Distribution

Moving goods through supply chains combined with a service element — light assembly, kitting, or technical selling.

Opportunistic
Multi-Unit Consumer Services

Subscription-like or recurring services from automotive aftermarket to dental services, fitness, and similar recurring consumer categories. We favor businesses with strong unit economics and proven retention.

Partnership Criteria

What We Look for in a Business

Geography

Southeast U.S.

Primarily Florida to Virginia
Annual Revenue

$1M – $20M

Service > Install
Profitability (EBITDA)

$1M – $3M

Stabilized Earnings
Ownership

Founder- or Operator-Owned

Continuity of Leadership Preferred
Investment Size

$1M – $20M

Equity Investment
Transaction Type

Majority or Full

Buyouts & Recapitalizations
Our Team

Your Day-to-Day Partners

We provide a unique blend of operational and M&A expertise, and most importantly — getting stuff done.
Executive Council

Our Force Multiplier

Seasoned executives and functional experts who have built and scaled businesses like yours — they serve as an extension of our team to accelerate what we do together.
HR & Talent
Workforce strategy, benefits management, compensation planning, and incentive structures.
Operations
Driving efficiency in routing, dispatch, technician productivity, fleet and vendor management.
Sales & Marketing
Customer acquisition, lead generation, digital strategies, and brand development.
Technology
Transitioning manual workflows to digital — including work order management, ERP software, and modern field and customer-facing platforms.
Data & Analytics
Converting operational data into clear insights — so every decision on pricing, performance, and growth is grounded in facts, not instinct.
Finance & Accounting
Building the financial infrastructure that scales — monthly close processes, audit readiness, KPI dashboards, and disciplined cash management.
Why partner with 16 South

What Makes Us Different

More Than Capital
Collaborative growth investors grounded in integrity and servant leadership principles.
Executive Council
Successful current and former operators providing mentorship and hands-on execution experience when it matters most.
Prudent Leverage
We use leverage conservatively, ensuring the business has room to breathe and ample capital to invest in growth.
Built Around You
We start by understanding what success means to you — then we align our incentives and build from there.
What Our Partners Say
“16 South is more than just a partner. The team and the strategic advisory network truly understand our business, advising like a coach while standing with us in the trenches as players. They delivered on their promises and helped elevate our family’s operations.”
— Steve Lane, Founder of Pool Service Unlimited
Contact

Let's Start a Conversation

Whether you’re a founder exploring options, an intermediary with a deal, or a potential executive council member — we’d like to hear from you.

General Inquiries
johnny@16southcap.com
Headquarters
Charlotte, NC
Partner

Johnny Conklin

Johnny and Michael founded 16 South in May 2024 after years of friendship and two successful business private equity exits. During both of those exits, Michael was CEO of a growing service-based business and Johnny served as his M&A advisor. As a result, the two have built a strong partnership that spans both deal execution and operations, sharing common servant leadership values and believing the best career moments have been seeing the teams they have worked with experience collective success.

At 16 South, Johnny leads the firm’s sourcing and investment activity and works closely with partners and management teams on growth strategy and exit planning.

Prior to founding 16 South, Johnny served as a Partner at Atlantic Street Capital (“ASC”), a middle-market private equity firm, from April 2021 through January 2024, where he focused on sourcing, underwriting, and executing control investments in founder-owned and lower middle-market service businesses.

Earlier in his career, he spent a decade at BlackArch Partners, a boutique middle-market M&A advisory firm, where he was a Managing Director and a member of the firm’s Executive Leadership Committee. During his tenure at BlackArch, Johnny built and led the firm’s Services practice, advising clients across B2C and B2B field services, value-added distribution, and select technology-enabled and software sectors.

Johnny’s collective experience spans the full investment lifecycle (origination to exit), with a consistent emphasis on disciplined underwriting, profitable growth, operational scalability, and most importantly – alignment with founders, operators and management teams. Over the course of his career, he has advised on more than 50 completed transactions, generating over $5 billion of aggregate proceeds, and has deployed more than $100 million of equity capital.

Johnny grew up in the South and currently resides in Charlotte, NC. He is married with three children, and loves all things exercise and sports, especially golf. He is also an enthusiastic supporter of Georgia Tech athletics and dabbles in playing the guitar.

johnny@16southcap.comLinkedIn
Partner

Michael Gillen

Michael and Johnny founded 16 South in May 2024 after years of friendship and two successful business private equity exits. During both of those exits, Michael was CEO of a growing service-based business and Johnny served as his M&A advisor. As a result, the two have built a strong partnership that spans both deal execution and operations, sharing common servant leadership values and believing the best career moments have been seeing the teams they have worked with experience collective success.

Michael is a seasoned private equity executive and proven business builder with a long track record of scaling platform companies, driving EBITDA growth, and delivering exceptional investor returns. He brings deep operational expertise across consumer products, business services, and industrial manufacturing, with leadership experience spanning Fortune 50 and Fortune 100 corporations as well as more than 30 private equity–backed businesses.

At 16 South, Michael leads the operational mentorship and the building of the strategic and tactical playbook in each of our investments. Secondarily he also spends time assessing future investment opportunities and working with add-on acquisition management teams and owners.

Prior to joining 16 South, Michael served as Chief Executive Officer of National Carwash Solutions (“NCS”) from September 2014 through October 2022. During his tenure, he led the transformation of NCS from a traditional car wash provider into a fully integrated, value-chain service provider with a ~500-person technical field service team across North America. This evolution was driven by implementing standardized operating processes, expansion of service density, KPI-driven performance management, disciplined pricing execution, rigorous cost and margin controls, and a highly systematic M&A and post-integration strategy. Under his leadership, EBITDA grew from approximately $6 million to more than $150 million.

Michael’s leadership culminated in two highly successful private equity exits of NCS, generating returns of greater than 13x and 4x MOIC, respectively. Throughout both exit processes, Michael partnered closely with Johnny, establishing a strong professional and personal relationship built over more than a decade of collaboration.

In addition to NCS, Michael has served as a private equity operating partner and deal partner, and has held senior executive leadership roles at Sunbeam, PepsiCo, and Bausch & Lomb, among others. He is a P&L leader with a demonstrated ability to succeed in capital-constrained environments, build high-caliber management teams, and execute complex strategic initiatives.

Michael has served as a Board Director and acts as a CEO coach, advising management teams on growth strategy, operational execution, and M&A. His experience spans both B2B and B2C businesses, and he is highly adept at revitalizing organizations and advancing them to the next level of performance and revenue.

michael@16southcap.comLinkedIn
Principal

Sid Li

Sid has over a decade of private investing experience in middle-market services companies.

Prior to joining 16 South, Sid held investment roles at several middle-market private equity investment firms, including Atlantic Street Capital, McNally Capital, and Comvest Partners since 2014. Across these organizations, he has invested in multiple platform and add-on acquisitions and partnered closely with management teams to execute growth and value creation initiatives.

Sid has deep experience in the residential services, business services, and healthcare services sectors, and has successfully exited multiple platform investments generating returns of 4.0x MOIC or greater. His investment approach emphasizes disciplined underwriting, operational partnership, and thoughtful capital structuring throughout the investment lifecycle.

Sid began his career in investment banking at Jefferies and Morgan Joseph TriArtisan, advising companies on balance sheet restructurings and operational reorganizations in complex turnaround and special situations.

Sid is an avid motorsports and basketball fan following Formula 1, NBA, and college basketball. He lives in West Palm Beach with his wife and two little Pomeranians.

sid@16southcap.comLinkedIn