It’s not our first climb.

Building great businesses is our passion. We’ve lived the climb, learned the lessons and kept the field notes. Now we use that experience to help founders achieve operational excellence, and make their life’s work work for what’s next.

8 exitsto private buyers, public companies and private equity

$4B+in enterprise value returned across our ventures

Thousandsof businesses seen from the inside through M&A technology diligence

Experienced operators, not career consultants

Together, we’ve experienced the moments founders and operators rarely encounter more than once in a career: scaling, acquiring, integrating, selling, buying back, navigating uncertainty and building again.

As founders and C-suite operators, we’ve led high-profile consumer-facing publications and marketing initiatives, used technology to transform how services are delivered across multiple industries and established new industry norms. Through Corsis, our tech-enabled M&A technology diligence business, we helped shape an entirely new market and saw thousands of businesses at the moments when their strengths, weaknesses and hidden risks became impossible to ignore.

The point isn’t the tally of our successes. It’s the pattern recognition: what enables businesses to scale, what holds them back, what creates confidence under scrutiny and what ultimately gives owners more choices.

Leadership

David Barnett

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

David is a serial business builder who has transformed companies from startup through scale and exit. As co-founder of Corsis, he worked across hundreds of buy- and sell-side transactions in public and private markets, with industry expertise spanning technology, professional services, marketing, healthcare and the non-profit sector. As a former mayor, he also brings considerable government experience. At Climb, he brings the SMB founder’s perspective: an instinct for where a business can go, what it takes to get there and what stands in the way.

Gregg Alwine

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Gregg has spent more than 30 years leading where the map was still being drawn. A self-made entrepreneur, founder, CEO, CIO and COO / operating partner, he has launched and transformed businesses across finance, marketing, publishing, healthcare and M&A, using technology to deliver services in entirely new ways. His depth in enterprise technology and operations gives him valuable perspective on the systems that make businesses stronger, more scalable and more valuable to investors.

Leah Esan

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Leah makes the advice real. Her career has centered on translating strategy into functioning systems, processes and operating discipline, from sales operations and business analysis to cross-functional technology implementations. At Climb, she anchors Pursuit Management, helping turn recommendations into measurable progress while building the tools and cadence businesses need to keep moving forward.

What you can count on

We’ve walked in your shoes.You get a seasoned guide with firsthand founder experience, never a junior associate.
We are embedded and constant.We stay committed and invested until the work is done.
We carry our weight.We work alongside you without needing to be managed. We take ownership, keep things moving and see it through to the handoff and high fives.
We measure in milestones, not minutes.You get a right-sized engagement with straightforward monthly pricing and no surprise invoices.
We see ourselves out.Engagements are designed around specific goals that define when our work is complete and your team is ready to take over.

How we show up

We’re focused on the climb, not the summit. And it’s personal: from big decisions to small details, we recognize the impact our work has on the lives of those around us.

Shared ground

We’ve built businesses, made difficult calls, taken risks, failed, adapted, scaled and exited. We bring more than empathy; we bring a fellowship of experience.

Straight talk

We operate with conviction and say what needs to be said, even when it’s not what you want to hear or works against our own interests.

All in

We’re personally invested and ready to roll up our sleeves, dig into the work and clear the path forward.

With you

We’re not here for a moment in your journey. We’re here to see it through, shoulder to shoulder, every step of the way.

With heart

We never lose sight of the people behind the business or the human impact of the guidance we provide.

We’re intentionally selective.

We choose clients and engagements where we know we can make a meaningful difference. If that sounds like a fit, let’s talk.

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