About The Industrialist

The Industrialist™ is a publication about how companies are actually built — the decisions, constraints, and operating behaviors that shape value creation in private markets.

It focuses on strategy as it is practiced, not presented — particularly in buy-and-build environments where complexity compounds and execution matters more than intent.

I write from two vantage points:

• As a former president of a PE-backed industrial platform, and previously as an executive within a strategic consolidator, operating through integrations, growth, and multi-site complexity

• As a doctoral researcher studying buy-and-build strategy, including target selection, adjacency, sequencing, and integration capacity

Most writing on buying and building companies falls into one of two camps: overly academic or overly promotional.
The Industrialist sits deliberately between them — operator-grounded, research-informed, disciplined, and honest.

What You’ll Find Here

The work is organized as a structured body of writing rather than a stream of posts. Each section examines buy-and-build from a different altitude, but they are designed to work together.

• Buy & Build Strategy — how platforms create value across sequences, not transactions

• Target Selection & Diligence — fit, distance, uncertainty, and early commitment

• Integration & Execution — absorption, cadence, capability loading, and learning under strain

• Leadership & Operating — bandwidth, decision rights, cadence, and organizational design

• Thesis Notebook — academic research translated for practitioners without oversimplification

This is not a playbook or a set of best practices.
The goal is to sharpen judgment, not provide answers.

About the Author

I’m Dave Carr — an operator and researcher with experience leading and integrating PE-backed and strategically consolidated businesses.

I write to clarify my own thinking, pressure-test operating doctrine, and contribute to a clearer understanding of how buy-and-build strategies actually function under real constraints.

Welcome to The Industrialist.