The Neighborhood Hardware Store and the Fight for Independent Ownership
When you walk into your neighborhood hardware store, you're thinking about a leaky faucet, not one of the most fascinating ownership stories in American business. In this special narrative episode of Ethical Exits, Hannah is joined by Matthew Epperson of the Georgia Center for Employee Ownership, who brings her a real acquisition story she's never heard and unpacks it with her in real time.
It follows True Value Hardware from a scrappy cooperative of independent retailers through big-box competition, a private equity deal, bankruptcy, and an unexpected ending that raises big questions about the future of business ownership.
When Culture Isn’t the North Star in Mission Driven M&A
Most M&A conversations start with the numbers.
Purchase price. Multiple. Structure. Close timeline.
But once the announcement is made and the deal is closed, the spreadsheet stops being the main character.
In this episode of Ethical Exits, Hannah sits down with Nikki Eaves, Founder of Purpose + Impact Communications, to explore the messy human middle of M&A: communication, trust, change management, culture, and values.
Together, they unpack why so many deals quietly begin to fail after close, why “culture fit” may not be the right North Star, and why the people side of a transaction cannot be treated like a checklist item after the real deal work is done.
Valuing the Businesses Our Cities Can’t Afford to Lose
What happens to the businesses no one wants to buy?
In this episode, Maura Shenker of AllHold Capital, challenges the idea of a “wealth transfer” and offers a radically different approach to valuing and preserving the small businesses our cities can’t afford to lose.
