CT Acquisitions Review

CT Acquisitions, operating under the name CT Strategic Partners, is an M&A sourcing firm based in Sheridan, Wyoming, that connects owners of established small and mid-sized businesses with vetted buyers.

The firm positions itself as an alternative to traditional business brokers: it does not publicly list companies for sale, does not charge sellers a fee, and works from a network it describes as more than 100 private equity firms, family offices, search funds, and strategic acquirers.

This review covers what the firm does, how its model compares to a standard business broker, and what the current lower middle market data suggests about timing a sale in 2026.

The company is not a listing service in the traditional broker sense.

 Rather than marketing a business publicly through an online listing or a broad buyer outreach campaign, CT Strategic Partners works as a sourcing and matchmaking layer between business owners and a curated group of institutional buyers.

A seller has one conversation with the firm. If a fit exists within the buyer network, the firm makes one or two direct introductions rather than running a wide auction.

That structure matters for confidentiality. Business owners considering a sale often worry that word will leak to employees, customers, or competitors before a deal closes.

CT's model avoids public listings and financial data blasts entirely, sharing information only with the seller's approval.

For an HVAC company owner in a small metro area, or a regional pest control operator, this discretion can be the difference between exploring options quietly and having the sale conversation become the subject of local industry gossip.

The firm covers a wide range of trade and service sectors.

Its published list runs to more than 50 categories, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, pest control, landscaping, tree service, restoration, waste hauling, MSP and IT services, veterinary practices, insurance agencies, CPA firms, and auto repair shops.

This breadth mirrors a broader trend in private equity: fragmented, recurring-revenue service businesses have become one of the most active consolidation targets in the market.

Most business brokers charge sellers a success fee, typically 8 to 12 percent of the transaction value for smaller deals, sometimes with a retainer on top.

CT Strategic Partners instead collects its fee from the buyer at close. The seller pays nothing at any stage of the process, whether or not a deal happens.

This buyer-pays arrangement is not unique to CT, but it is uncommon among firms working with businesses under $50 million in revenue.

It shifts the incentive structure: the firm's compensation depends on getting a deal to close, not on generating listing volume, which is one reason the company emphasizes that owners can have an exploratory conversation without any obligation to move forward.

Timing matters in any sale conversation, and the data on lower middle market M&A in 2026 tells a mixed but generally constructive story.

 PitchBook reported that private equity sponsors closed roughly 5,100 deals worth close to $482 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the strongest start to a year since 2021.

Add-on acquisitions, where a PE-backed platform buys a smaller company to fold into an existing operation, made up an estimated 68 to 80 percent of middle-market deal activity depending on the dataset, according to figures compiled by CapitalPad and Align BA.

That matters directly for trade business owners: buy-and-build strategies are exactly the kind of consolidation play that acquires HVAC, plumbing, and pest control companies at a steady clip.

Capital availability is not the constraint it was two years ago. U.S. private equity dry powder sits near $1.1 trillion, an all-time high that has roughly doubled over five years, per Vistage's research citing PitchBook data.

 Debt discipline has also shifted. Capstone Partners found that average net debt-to-EBITDA across the middle market fell from 6.2x in 2024 to 3.4x in 2025, meaning buyers are funding deals with more equity and less leverage than they were coming out of the low-rate era.

There is a catch. PwC's midyear 2026 outlook found deal volume was roughly flat to down year over year even as total deal value rose sharply, evidence that capital is concentrating in fewer, larger, higher-conviction transactions rather than spreading broadly across smaller deals.

 KeyBanc's research puts 2025 U.S. middle market deal count at 1,289, essentially flat against 2024's 1,279, and still only about half of the 2,469 deals completed at the 2021 peak.

Translation: buyers are engaged, but they are pickier, and diligence has gotten longer and more granular than it was three or four years ago.

None of this necessarily works against a well-prepared seller. It does mean sloppy financials, owner-dependent operations, or thin documentation will get flagged faster than they might have in 2021.

 Viking M&A's Jay Offerdahl summed up the buyer mindset for 2026 succinctly: buyers are paying a premium for premium businesses, but they are not making hasty decisions.

CT's buyer network reportedly spans four categories, and each behaves differently in a negotiation.

• Private equity firms typically want operational control and a growth thesis, often paired with rollover equity for the seller.
• Family offices tend to hold longer time horizons and sometimes prioritize legacy and team retention over the fastest possible exit.
• Search funds are usually run by a single individual or small team looking to acquire and personally operate one business.
• Strategic acquirers are operating companies in the same or an adjacent industry, buying for synergy rather than pure financial return.

Rollover equity comes up frequently in CT's own materials, and it reflects a real pattern in current deal structures.

Instead of taking 100 percent cash at close, a seller keeps a minority stake in the newly combined company, betting that a platform-backed version of the business will be worth more in three to five years than the standalone version is worth today.

It is a bet, not a guarantee, and it ties part of the payout to how well the buyer executes afterward.

CT works primarily with companies generating $1 million to $50 million in annual revenue, describing flexibility for the right fit outside that band.

That places most of its target sellers squarely in the lower middle market as PitchBook and other research firms define it, generally $10 million to $250 million in enterprise value.

Vistage's research on this segment is worth noting for context: companies in the $25 million to $100 million value range have produced a pooled 39 percent gross internal rate of return for private equity investors since 2009, the strongest of any deal-size category tracked.

 That performance history is part of why PE firms keep coming back to smaller, founder-run companies rather than exclusively chasing larger targets.

A few questions apply regardless of which firm a business owner talks to.

Ask exactly how compensation works and get it in writing. A buyer-pays model removes upfront cost, but a seller should still understand what percentage the advisor collects and from whom.

Ask how many buyer conversations typically happen before an introduction is considered a fit, since a firm that makes one tailored introduction operates very differently from one that runs a broad campaign.

And ask what happens if no deal materializes: whether there is a tail period, an exclusivity clause, or any obligation that outlives the initial conversation.

CT Strategic Partners states plainly that there is no exclusivity contract and no tail fee, and that a seller who talks to the firm and decides not to move forward owes nothing.

That is a lower-risk starting point than a signed listing agreement, though it is still worth independent verification through direct questions before any documents get signed.

CT Acquisitions offers a no-cost, confidential alternative to traditional business brokerage for founder-owned companies generating $1 million to $50 million in revenue, backed by a buyer network built for a 60 to 120 day close. 

Whether that model outperforms a traditional broker for a specific business depends on the buyer network's actual depth and fit, which is worth testing through a direct conversation rather than taking on faith.