Birch Lake Insights: Tenth Anniversary Reflections on Founders, Entrepreneurship and Growth Businesses

By Jack Butler

Ten years ago this month, drawing on decades of distressed M&A and restructuring experience, we began the Birch Lake journey without even a computer, pencil, or paper clip. What we did have was a clear vision and a commitment to building a premier private capital and advisory firm with a team of passionate, proactive, and reliable people who share the same ambitions, integrity, cultural values, and pursuit of excellence in everything we do. Since then, we have raised hundreds of millions of dollars through direct and co-investments and learned how to succeed in highly complex situations. Along the way, we have seen how founders and entrepreneurs benefit from our track record of helping companies unlock growth and achieve their strategic goals. We are more than investors; we are strategic partners and fierce advocates, committed to exceeding expectations and helping business leaders and their companies achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Successful private capital and advisory transactions completed early in our journey validated that distressed M&A and restructuring experience translates seamlessly into helping growth companies overcome challenges around being under-resourced and under-capitalized while effectively managing value-accretive growth. We have also observed that, contrary to common perception, many of the most successful entrepreneurs are not young. In fact, a study conducted by the Census Bureau and two MIT professors found that middle-aged founders are disproportionately represented among the highest-growth companies and among businesses that successfully exit through acquisitions or public offerings.

In our experience, we have had the privilege of working successfully alongside a diverse group of founders and entrepreneurs across a wide range of ages, genders, ethnicities, religions, and orientations. One of our most important lessons is that although ideas and strategy matter, what truly differentiates exceptional founders is their relentless focus on tactics and execution. Ultimately, what you do — not just what you plan — is what drives company growth.

Building Value in 2026 and Beyond

The pace and magnitude of change facing businesses today is unprecedented. Recent World Economic Forum research highlights a reality many leaders already recognize – growth strategies must evolve to navigate a world defined by persistent uncertainty, technological disruption, shifting geopolitical dynamics and changing capital markets. For founders and business leaders, the challenge is no longer simply identifying actionable value accretive opportunities — it is building and leading organizations that can execute successfully in a volatile business environment where new realities demand continuous innovation and adaptation.

Last month, following two years of dialogues held as part of the World Economic Forum’s Future of Growth Initiative and views of more than 11,000 business leaders globally, the Forum published Growth in the New Economy: Towards a Blueprint summarizing moves and dilemmas that shape growth strategies in the new economy, as well as key drivers, barriers and opportunities for accelerating growth by 2030 and asked a select group of leaders what they see as the most pressing dilemmas today, and how governments and businesses are responding. This is compelling thought leadership worth reading.

In our Birch Lake Insights series, our team regularly presents thoughtful observations about how to navigate in the current environment to build meaningful value:

• Investing in an Era of Persistent Uncertainty. The question is no longer how quickly conditions normalize, but how to operate in a world where instability is the baseline. Liquidity management, counterparty risk and scenario analysis are beginning to crowd out return optimization. Capital allocation and strategic planning now demand agility and flexibility as core competencies, not secondary considerations. In that sense, the current environment is less a temporary crisis than a structural transition. The old playbook, built on globalization, low inflation and predictable policy, no longer applies. What replaces it is still taking shape.

• Avoiding a Bridge to Nowhere: Financing Growth Across the VC-PE Divide. Companies do not typically struggle because capital is unavailable. More often, they struggle because they accept capital misaligned with their stage, strategy, or long-term objectives. What they often require is transitional capital: flexible enough to support continued growth, structured enough to protect investors, and aligned enough to preserve long-term incentives. Avoiding a bridge to nowhere requires discipline, transparency, and thoughtful design. Capital structure is not a technical detail. It is a strategic decision that shapes the company’s future — and an intentional conversation around structure, not just valuation, may be the most important step in crossing the divide.

• While AI Is Changing How We Work, Culture Determines Whether It Works. These days, Artificial Intelligence is at the forefront of nearly every conversation. Whether you are in a boardroom, on a client call, or catching up with colleagues over coffee, it often feels like AI is the one topic everyone wants to discuss. AI does not create clarity, discipline, judgment, or trust. It magnifies whatever is already present inside an organization. In a healthy culture, that can be a powerful advantage. AI can reduce friction, accelerate research, streamline communication, and empower talented people to focus on the work that truly moves a business forward. In an unhealthy culture, however, the opposite occurs. It creates faster confusion, more content, more noise, and more polished output that may or may not reflect real thinking. The organizations that benefit most from AI will be those that do so most intentionally. In the years ahead, the real competitive advantage may not come from having access to the newest tool. It may come from building the kind of culture that knows exactly where technology adds value and where human judgment still must lead. AI does not diminish the importance of culture; it raises the stakes.

It’s All About Relationships: The People Factor

Wherever you are in your professional and personal journey, never forget your responsibility to lift others up and pay it forward. There is a village of people in my life who have made, and continue to make, enormously meaningful contributions to the stories already written and others that are still being written. None of this happens alone; it is the result of collective effort from people at every level, from the mailroom to the boardroom.

At its core, business is about people. The most successful individuals bring passion to both their work and their personal pursuits. They are proactive and innovative in their approach. They are reliable business colleagues who reduce burdens on their teammates. Just as important are people’s stories. When you learn their stories, you learn about people. It is how we can bridge differences; it is how we are able to pull people forward; it is how we are able to do deals; it is how we are able to promote careers; indeed, it is how you will be able to most effectively advance your own career. Taking the time to listen, learn and understand the experiences that shape others is fundamentally essential in business and life.

As we mark Birch Lake’s tenth anniversary this year, we celebrate our trusted partnerships with founders, entrepreneurs, growth companies and their investors – and the inspired outcomes we have achieved together. Whether we’re investing in a company’s future or guiding it through a complex decision, we approach every partnership with clarity, conviction and shared purpose. After all, it really is about the people.

Jack Butler is Birch Lake’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. He has led merchant banking engagements across food, consumer electronics, consumer packaged goods, legal tech, life sciences, logistics, and transportation, among other industries. He is recognized as a principal architect of recapitalization solutions for dozens of companies in diverse sectors, helping create more than $100 billion of stakeholder value. Jack has been inducted into the M&A Advisor Hall of Fame, the Secured Finance Network Hall of Fame, and the Turnaround, Restructuring, and Distressed Investing Industry Hall of Fame. Beyond his professional work, Jack has served in board and other leadership roles with civic and charitable organizations, officiated high school and college football for many years, and is a lifetime member of the American Football Coaches Association.