Know Your Broker: Tina Youngblood

All our brokers bring their career experiences into their role as brokers. One of our newest brokers, Tina Youngblood, has experienced firsthand what it takes to get a business ready to sell and then take it to market and sell it. She has M&A experience in large deals (>$400m) and in small deals (<$2m), but as she says, “The size of the deal doesn’t matter and the industry doesn’t matter. What matters is that the buyer understands the importance of protecting legacy and that the seller trusts the buyer to do just that with his or her life’s work.”

Tina’s understanding of protecting legacy comes from a software development company that she was asked to lead through a financial and cultural turnaround. During the turnaround, she got to know the employees very well – including their spouses, children and even their pets. They became the legacy that she wanted to protect. So when the time came to search for a buyer, she sought those who would embrace the family culture that her team had created and who would value the employees.

She found that buyer in an unlikely place (she thought at the time) – a private equity firm that was consolidating software development companies with the intent to hold them for the long term. Her prior experience with private equity was quite different, so this notion of a long-term investment horizon surprised her. “I think private equity firms had a reputation for buying, leveraging, and then quickly selling in 3-5 years, which didn’t allow for companies to think strategically in terms of growth opportunities. I truly believe that those firms are changing, and I see them now investing more long term, being strategic partners, not just financial investors, and working alongside sellers to achieve growth goals.”

She enjoys bringing her diverse management experience to the broker world, and her Ph.D. in Accounting along with her CPA designation has made her the “numbers doctor” in our office. While it’s been a minute since she taught accounting at Miami University, she says that the foundational knowledge is still there and helps her gain a deeper understanding of the sellers’ businesses that she gets to represent.

When she’s not at work (sometimes alongside our very own Chuck Campbell) you’re going to find her cooking, shaking up some cocktails, or hitting balls out on the golf course. She splits her time between Palm Springs and Kansas City, and has a cockalier (this is a cocker spaniel/Cavalier King Charles spaniel, for the uninitiated) named Oliver who she firmly believes is “the sweetest dog ever.”