A traditional search fund built a home care business from $60M to $350M in 5.5 years

The Setup Jenna Whigham came out of healthcare investment banking (2008-2013), an MIT Sloan MBA, and Anheuser-Busch operating roles where she ran a craft brewery as a standalone P&L. Her brother Dennis came from Wayfair. They launched a traditional sibling-co-founder search fund in 2018. After one passed deal (FSI, a healthcare maintenance software company that another searcher subsequently scaled), they closed Abound Health in October 2020. The Deal Abound Health, a North Carolina home care business serving 1,200-1,300 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). 1,500-1,800 caregivers. $55-60M revenue, $10M EBITDA at acquisition. Purchase price approximately $85-88M plus a $15M earnout (total around $100M, 8.8x multiple). Housatonic Partners took 51% equity with 4 of 7 board seats; the search fund investors held the remainder. The Growth Story 5.5 years post-close: $350-375M revenue, $75M EBITDA, ~7,000 caregivers, 6,000-6,500 clients, geographic footprint across NC, PA, NJ, MI. Growth composition: 75% M&A driven (14 acquisitions completed under their ownership; previous owner had done 7), 25-30% organic. Service line expansion: started in adult IDD care (the core); added pediatric nursing care in 2024; added personal care for elderly in 2026. The Software Moat Abound Health owns a proprietary EHR (electronic health records) platform serving the home care space. The platform itself has 100+ external customers across 11 states. The strategic role of the software is what makes the rollup model work: - The software company enters a target state first, establishing billing and payroll integration with state Medicaid systems. - Service acquisitions follow, sometimes targeting existing software customers (relationships already exist), sometimes targeting non-customers in the same geography. - Acquisition integration is dramatically faster because the software is already configured for state-specific regulatory requirements. This is the structural reason Abound's M&A pace is unusual for a sub-$500M home care business. The Payer Reality 95% Medicaid funded. Fee-for-service rate structure means the company is a price-taker. The Medicaid waiver program for IDD provides effectively lifetime customer relationships (clients retain services across decades), which creates exceptional revenue durability but also concentration risk if state rates are cut. Workforce Dynamics 25% caregiver turnover (low for the category). 25-30% of caregivers are family members of clients (a structural advantage in retention and quality). Daily 15-minute huddles with core values reinforcement. Leadership team members serve shifts as direct support professionals; Jenna personally worked weekly with a cerebral palsy client. The mission-driven culture is not theater: it shows up in retention metrics that material outperform the category.