Ausby Hardaway

Ausby Hardaway Jr. is a Partner at IBS Investment Bank, a South Florida–based private investment firm established in 2011 that structures institutional investment vehicles focused on placing debt and equity within the real estate and corporate sectors. Within the IBS family of companies he serves as acting Managing Partner of Pillar Capital, LLC, where he is charged with managing the organization's transaction (deal) flow — effectively an originations and pipeline role connecting capital with opportunities.

Alongside his IBS role, Hardaway is Managing Partner of Tiburon Ventures, LLC, a Coral Gables–based consulting firm specializing in emerging-market finance and business development. Tiburon draws on a broad network of industry and government relationships to source clients the funding they need — through private equity, debt, or hybrid structures — with a stated interest in energy-efficiency-related programs.

Hardaway completed his undergraduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park. He then spent roughly two years as an administrative assistant to a Maryland Congressman before attending Georgetown University Law Center. During law school he worked as an intern clerk for the Honorable Judge William J. Murphy, who sat on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, and later clerked in Judge Murphy's prominent Baltimore boutique law practice after the judge retired from the bench. This legal and public-service grounding informs his transaction-structuring and relationship-driven approach to finance.

Note on positioning: IBS Investment Bank describes itself primarily as a provider of direct investment and alternative financing to small and mid-sized companies and as a placement agent for debt/equity real-estate and corporate vehicles — closer to private credit and growth/expansion capital than to traditional early-stage venture. The "Seed Round" label in the source stub should therefore be read as the very earliest edge of the firm's mandate rather than a dedicated seed-VC strategy.

• Fills the gap left by commercial banks: IBS positions itself as an alternative to conventional bank financing for American businesses, making direct investments in small-to-middle-market companies (roughly $1M–$300M in annual sales).
• Debt, equity, and hybrid structures: The firm and Hardaway's affiliated entities fund clients "through private equity, debt, or hybrid solutions," including debt-to-equity conversion vehicles.
• Real assets and distressed opportunities: IBS targets real estate, non-performing loans, distressed assets, and select development opportunities, emphasizing "maximizing value through intensive post-acquisition management."
• Principal alignment: IBS stresses trust and alignment of interests, with principals holding direct equity stakes in the funds they manage; funds are principal-funded under SEC Rule 506(c) / Regulation D.
• Emerging markets & energy efficiency: Through Tiburon Ventures, Hardaway focuses on emerging-market finance and business development, with a specific interest in funding energy-efficiency-related programs.
• Relationship- and network-driven "yes": Deals are sourced and structured through extensive industry and government relationships rather than cold inbound — reflecting his role managing Pillar Capital's transaction flow.