Tom Ryan

Acquisition Entrepreneur

Looking for one PEO or HR services business worth running for the next decade.

I'm searching for a founder-owned regional PEO, ASO, or specialty HR services company to acquire and operate for the long term. My priority is continuity for your team and your clients.

Investment thesis Contact

6 yrs

Mercer — HR & Benefits

Yale SOM

MBA 2026

A note to business owners

I've spent my career helping companies scale through HR process and system improvements, and I love this business for two reasons. The first is practical: outsourced HR is where small business owners get the most time back. The second is personal: there's real meaning in making sure employees get paid on time, stay safe on the job, and rest easy knowing their families are covered. That's work worth doing well.

You spent years building an excellent business. My promise is simple: I'll grow it with care, delight the customers who trust you, and empower the same team that helped mold it along the way. I aim to blend old-fashioned customer service and sales strategy with cutting-edge technology, automation, and AI.

Let's partner.

Target company parameters - overview

One great business to own and operate for the long haul

Revenue

$2M–$10M

EBITDA

$500K–$2M

Preferred US regions

Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic

Years in business

10+ years

The right business matters more than fitting a precise box. If yours is close, I'd like to hear about it.

Investment thesis

Acquire and scale a PEO or HR-outsourcing business built for the trades

I'm looking to acquire one outsourced HR or PEO business and operate it for the long term, with a particular interest in companies serving contractors and other trades. At Mercer, I spent years bringing sophisticated HR and workforce solutions to large enterprises. The same caliber of work is exactly what smaller trades businesses need and rarely have access to, and closing that gap solves a real pain point for client firms. That pain point is what makes the model inherently attractive, and the three tailwinds below make me excited to operate and grow a PEO for the long term.

Thesis Highlights

Revenue scales with client success

PEPM billing means our revenue grows automatically as a client hires. By taking administrative work off our clients' plates and lowering their costs through pooled bargaining power, we free up the time and money they need to grow. That creates a flywheel with well-aligned incentives: a contractor who scales from 18 to 26 workers pays the PEO over 40% more, while our cost-to-serve stays nearly flat.

Embedded in the operations stack

A well-run PEO becomes part of the fabric of how a client runs: payroll, benefits, workers' comp, and HR workflow all routed through a single partner. That integration is what makes the relationship durable: clients grow faster, stay longer, and the cost of leaving rises every year they're on the platform.

Significant industry growth potential

The US PEO industry is growing at roughly 9% annually through 2033, with over 85% of 10-99 employee firms still unserved. The runway is long, and the white space is exactly where my target clients sit.

Value creation leveraging technology

Initiatives to optimize and grow an acquired PEO

AI-assisted local SEO at scale

Hundreds of locally optimized pages built at a fraction of agency cost, generating an inbound lead channel that doesn't exist in this segment today.

Workforce training and placement programs

Pilot training and placement programs to upskill trades workers, embedding newly trained technicians directly into client contractor crews. Addresses the skilled labor shortage across building services, construction, and the trades, where projects are growing in scale and complexity, from the data center construction supercycle to the broader infrastructure and commercial pipeline.

AI claims triage layer

Automated severity scoring, fraud flagging, and medical provider steering on every claim as it comes in, compressing cycle time and holding down loss costs.

Background

Six years inside the employer services ecosystem at Mercer

Mercer is a Marsh McLennan subsidiary operating across 130 countries in benefits design, actuarial consulting, HR technology, and workforce strategy for organizations of every size, from small employers to the Fortune 500.

What Mercer builds bespoke for its largest clients — plan design, carrier negotiation, compliance infrastructure, risk management — a well-run PEO packages into one product for small employers who can't build it themselves. Same underlying services, different delivery model. Six years inside that world made the PEO opportunity obvious.

It also taught me how to sell. I carried a portfolio of more than 100 enterprise relationships and learned how to win clients and keep them.

2024–26

Yale School of Management — MBA

Entrepreneurship and AI concentration. Built a proprietary PEO acquisition thesis.
Summer 2025

ProGuard (Coleville Partners) — MBA Associate

Search-acquired warranty platform with a structurally similar model: pool premiums, retain everyday claims, transfer catastrophic risk to reinsurers. Claims frequency control and aggregate stop-loss mechanics transfer directly.
2019–25

Mercer — Consultant to Account Executive

HR technology implementation and enterprise B2B account management. $10M+ portfolio, 100+ client relationships.
2015–19

Yale University — Division I Basketball

Two-time Ivy League Champion. Team Grit Award recipient. Hall of Fame inductee, Steady Buckets NYC (youth basketball nonprofit).

Financing

Personal capital

My own money is in the equity stack. Skin in the game means my incentives are aligned with the long-term health of the business.

Committed investor network

Former operators and entrepreneurial capital partners who know this space. Not institutional LPs waiting on committee — they move quickly and they understand the model.

Access to traditional or SBA 7(a) debt

Standard acquisition vehicles with established lender relationships in the ETA space.

What this means for you

Capital is confirmed before any offer. Diligence is focused and time-bounded. No handoffs to committees, no financing surprises.

Let's have a conversation.

No pressure, no formality. Just a conversation about what you've built.

If you own a PEO, ASO, or HR services business and have been thinking about what comes next, I'd like to hear from you. You don't need a decision made or a number in mind.

All conversations are confidential. If the timing isn't right today, I'll reach back out when it is.