About
We help business owners build Economic Value and the Options that go along with it.
I ask every owner I work with to put their vision on one page. It seemed fair to publish mine.
Core Focus
Why RockStack exists
Our purpose is the pursuit of Economic Value and building Business Owner Optionality.
In life and in business, I’ve always been more interested in the race rather than the finish line. I believe that personal satisfaction comes from the successful pursuit of worthy goals.
RockStack Advisors helps our business owner clients who are in pursuit of transferable economic value. If they are considering an equity event in the next few years, we focus on all of the de-risking activities that allow them to optimize their exit (terms, legacy, net proceeds) and post exit life (purpose, connection, growth).
If there is more runway, building economic value gives that business owner options. If they are not carrying the weight of every decision, every key relationship, every core process on their shoulders, they have the breathing room to enjoy the pursuit of advanced growth options.
At RockStack Advisors, we enjoy that pursuit.
Core Values
Four things that do not bend
Closing Gaps
Every engagement is about the distance between the company you built and the life you want around it. Between the business you own and the wealth it will produce. It may take minor changes. It may take a transformation.
We name the gaps, then close them with you, one Rock at a time.
Built, Not Brokered
Value has to be built before it can be captured. No auction process, no banker, and no story manufactures value that is not there.
We work with our clients to create real economic value and provide the owner with options. We do this first. The return follows.
Right People
Our value is judged by our actions and those of our partners. How much more we give in value than we take in payment. When we share the relationships we have cultivated, our referrals are based on trust and comparative advantages.
We leverage the best resources to support our clients.
Agency
Our client is the business owner. We work with your team. We work with your advisors. We may work with your family. But the person we represent is you. Only you.
We work toward your success and what we discuss stays between us.
These are four values that we work hard to deliver during every engagement and every interaction. We also have some expectations of the clients we choose to work with and the partners that we refer.
Four mutual expectations of those with whom we choose to work
Positive Attitude
Mistakes happen. Everyone will on occasion misstep, trip up, fall down. But we don’t stay down and we don’t get down about it. We learn from it and move forward with gratitude for the lesson. Don’t complain, do.
Be positive.
Growth Imperative
We work with people that are going from here to there. We are not at rest we are in action. In pursuit. If we are standing still, we are going backward. We have a trajectory. We have alignment. We have drive.
We are always getting better.
Care-frontational
We all have blind spots and biases. We work with people that have the humility to be honest about it. People that are not threatened when their thinking is challenged. People that courageously tell the truth in a way that is compassionate to the receiver.
Relationships
You move in the direction of the people with whom you associate. Our time together should be filled with laughter, intense debate, passionate discussion, high trust, and respect. We should look forward to working together. Life’s too short.
Target Market
Who this is for
Timeline: Business owners with at least 2 years, preferably longer, before an anticipated exit.
Size: Businesses with between $5 million and $100 million in Revenue (at least $1 million in EBITDA)
Geography: We are most active in the Tampa Bay and Central Florida region, though the work travels.
Owner Situation:
- Owners that recognize their wealth and value gaps and want to spend the time and effort to close them
- Owners who want to enjoy owning their business so that selling is an option, not an requirement
- Owners who want to prepare personally and financially for a significant exit.
10-Year Target
Our fingerprints on One Billion Dollars of economic value.
Not our value. Yours. Every client’s business is revalued every year, which means this is a number we can count rather than a slogan.
One billion dollars of economic value built by owners we worked with. Measured, not claimed.
Three Uniques
How is RockStack Different
An builder, not a broker.
This market is full of brokers holding a CEPA. We’re not motivated by timing unless you are. We’re not running your deal. We are helping you build the thing a deal will eventually price.
Operator first.
I have the credentials. I have the network. I have real experience on both sides of the deal table. But what I really am is an operator that has built economic value and sold high, and a coach that has helped other business owners to the same.
Delivery Options.
Only a small percentage of CEPA do the value growth work that RockStack offers. Even fewer offer delivery options, direct advising, or in a group of other owners doing the same work. In both cases, I act as a coach and an advisor.
Proven Process
The work has a shape
- The RockStack Readiness Assessment.
- RockStack Business Valuation.
- An execution system that can carry the load.
- Ninety-day sprints on two tracks.
- An annual re-assessment that proves it moved.
Guarantee
Start without the risk
Finish the RockStack Assessment. If you do not believe the read was worth the fee, you do not pay it. The report is yours either way.
About the founder
Rick Morgenweck
My Bachelor’s degree is in accounting, and I spent the first eleven years of my career as a cost accounting manager and controller inside large manufacturers. That is where you learn where value hides in a business, and where it leaks. At AFC Cable Systems I crossed over from measuring the operation to running it, and I never went back.
At Molex, inside Koch, I was Director of Operations and then carried the P&L for a $175 million automotive segment. Manufacturing in Dongguan and Guadalajara. Engineering teams in Japan, Berlin, and Ireland. That is where I learned Market-Based Management from the inside rather than from a book. I also ran plants in St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park, and completed my MBA at Rollins while I was doing it.
At ATL, the work behind the initial $80 million offer, and the additional $30 million was not abstract. Part of it was the factory in Dongguan and another in Costa Rica, but a bigger part was the structure we put in place. The professional management team. The long-term customer contracts. The rock solid supply chain. A proprietary engineering approach and project selection process. From that platform we added another product line specifically targeting a higher multiple. It was this work that earned the $111 million valuation. That is the same work we do with owner now, for the same reason.
Career at a glance
- COO and owner, medical device manufacturer
- Director of Operations, then segment P&L, Molex, a Koch company
- Controller and cost accounting manager, AFC Cable Systems
- Corporate acquisition teams, evaluating targets for strategic buyers
- CEO stabilization, a $60 million private company in distress
- BS Accounting. MBA, Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College
- CEPA, Exit Planning Institute
- Vistage Chair, two Tampa Bay groups, four years
- Vistage member before that
Four years chairing two Vistage groups is several hundred CEO decisions watched at close range, in a room where people tell the truth. It sharpens how you read what builds economic value and what’s a distraction.
Book a first conversation. Thirty minutes, no pitch. We answer your questions and learn about you and your business. If it makes sense, we can talk about next steps and book an assessment meeting.
Take the Readiness Check. Twelve questions, about 5 minutes and get a rough idea of where you are. It’s not the RockStack Assessment, but it’s low investment and may surprise you.
Attend an Event with RockStack. Join other business owners and senior leaders as a guest of RockStack at events around the region. Some are purpose focused, some are educational, some are just for fun.