About

A new firm built the old school way.

We named it Handshake because that's still how we believe deals should feel.

Most owners selling a business hire a broker who's never run one, a lawyer who's never run a deal, and a CPA who's never run a negotiation. The owner ends up carrying the weight alone. We built a firm that carries it with them.

&
Logan Johnson, co-founder of Handshake & Co.
Logan Johnson
Co-founder · Operator

Logan started as a mechanical engineer at Toyota and spent two years operating inside a private equity firm before going out on his own. He's spent the last decade-plus founding companies and operating businesses across financial services and the trades.

The PE chapter was the most useful education he could have asked for — not because it gave him a playbook to copy, but because it showed him exactly when institutional money helps an owner and when it eats them alive.

The lesson

Sometimes the right buyer is a PE firm. Sometimes the right buyer is your GM, your family, or the operator down the road. The work is knowing which one your business actually wants — and being willing to tell you when the obvious money is the wrong money.

Zackary Wallace, co-founder of Handshake & Co.
Zackary Wallace
Co-founder · Builder

Zack has bought, built, and started five different companies across the Midwest. He has operated through every stage — from zero customers to millions in revenue, and from no systems in place to well-oiled operations.

He's started from zero in three different industries and knows what it takes to build something out of nothing. That experience shows up in how he reads a business, what he respects about an owner, where he sees the opportunities, and what he refuses to overlook in diligence.

The pairing

Logan is the engineer turned operator with an obsessive eye for detail. Zack is the builder who can see the opportunity and find ways to unlock value. Every deal we take on gets seen from both sides at once — by two people who've actually run businesses, not just talked about them.

What we believe

A few things we hold to.

i.
A handshake is still worth something. So is the word that comes before it.
ii.
The owner is the client. Not the buyer. Not the lender.
iii.
Clean books can be the difference between a 3x and a 9x.
iv.
The right exit is the one you can live with five years later.
v.
If the timing is wrong, we'll say so.

Want to talk?

The first coffee is just a conversation.