Motivate Venture Capital

What We're Building

Rowan is an AI-powered succession and M&A advisory firm built for industrial SMBs — the $10M–$100M manufacturers, fabricators, contractors, and distributors that traditional investment banks ignore and business brokers underserve.

Most of these owners will never get a real investment banker in their corner. They get brokers chasing commissions, accountants protecting fees, and attorneys billing hours. Nobody is aligned with the founder. Rowan is the first firm to change that.

We raised a $3.3M seed round led by global trading firm DRW Yahoo Finance, with backing from Motivate Ventures, Mercury Fund, and angel investor Eddie Lou. We have active mandates across $250M+ in enterprise value. We are not building a brokerage. We are reimagining the entire succession value chain from the ground up with AI at its core.

The Rowan Difference

Traditional advisory gets involved at the finish line. We get involved up to five years before a sale. That's where the value is created — and it's what separates us from everyone else in this market.

Rowan's guidance has increased client business valuations by more than 30% on average.

We help owners clean up their financials, organize their data, document their operations, strengthen cash flow, and position their business to command the highest possible price when they're ready to go to market. By the time we run a process, the business is genuinely buyer-ready — and it shows in the outcomes. This is the model. You're the person who closes it.

The Role

Think of yourself as the MD. You own client relationships, lead deal execution, and help shape how Rowan's advisory practice scales. You'll work directly with the founders with real accountability for outcomes.

The difference from your current seat: our AI infrastructure handles what analysts and associates spend 70% of their time on — first-draft CIMs, buyer universe research, comps, data room preparation. You spend your time on the work that actually creates value: owner relationships, deal structure, and closing. You'll run 8–10 mandates a year. That's 3x the volume of a traditional boutique, with a comp structure built to match.

What You'll Do

• Run $10M–$100M industrial transactions end-to-end — mandate through close
• Own client relationships: analysis, positioning, buyer outreach, negotiation, close
• Build and eventually lead the Rowan banking team into the dominant LMM industrial firm
• Partner with our product team to sharpen AI tools that make deals faster and smarter
• Develop the buyer network — PE, family offices, strategics, independent sponsors
• Work directly with the founders on strategy and growth

What We're Looking For

• Minimum Director or VP level
• In-Person - Chicago-based or willing to relocate.
• 8–12 years of M&A advisory experience at a top investment bank or boutique advisory firm with demonstrated industrial coverage
• Experience in deal execution and negotiation
• Comfort operating lean without a large support infrastructure.
• Genuine conviction that AI is going to fundamentally change how M&A gets done

What We're Offering

• OTE ~$500k-$1M 1st Year
• $175K-$225K Base salary + 20-25% of deal fees + equity package
• Paid membership to a social club of your choice: Union Club, Chicago Club, etc.
• Executive leadership role
• Opportunity to be a part of a $100B business disrupting the M&A industry
• Mentorship from a CEO and COO with proven track records of successes
• Being at the forefront of AI working hand and hand with our AI-engineers

Why This, Why Now

4 million small businesses. Owners over 55.

80% will never successfully sell — not because the businesses aren't good, but because nobody in the ecosystem is actually on their side.

Rowan is fixing that.

We're building the category-defining M&A advisory firm for industrial America, and AI is the reason it's possible right now. No dominant firm exists in this space. No category leader. A $10 trillion wealth transfer in motion, a broken system trying to handle it, and a technology moment that lets us do what traditional advisory never could.

Our clients average 30%+ valuation increases. We get involved years before a sale, create the value, then capture it.

This is the moment. If you want to be the person who helped build the firm that changes this. LFG!!!