Cary Muesch

Cary Musech founded Tonka Bay Equity Partners in 1998 and built it into an established lower middle-market private equity firm based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Over more than 25 years the firm has raised over $560 million of committed capital across four funds — including a $125 million fund and, most recently, a $150 million SBIC-licensed fund — from institutional investors, pension plans, foundations, endowments, banks, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. Tonka Bay has invested in roughly 27+ portfolio companies to date.

Before founding Tonka Bay, Musech gained operating experience as a member of the senior management team of a privately held, private-equity-owned manufacturing company. Earlier in his career he worked in the leveraged and structured finance groups of major banks (associated in reporting with U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo) and began his professional career at Ernst & Young, giving him a combined operating, finance, and accounting foundation.

Musech is a graduate of Saint John's University (Collegeville, MN), where he remains an active alumnus, and completed the Carlson School of Management MBA program at the University of Minnesota. He has served on the boards of numerous private companies as well as public and non-profit organizations, and has been recognized in the regional entrepreneurship community (including by the CSB+SJU Center for Entrepreneurship).

On Tonka Bay's current team, Musech is listed as an Advisory Partner and Founder — contributing to the firm's network of executives and advising on growth strategy and management mentorship rather than day-to-day deal operations. The firm's general partner group also includes Peter Kooman, Steve Soderling, Molly Simmons, and Shane Slominski.

• Control-oriented private equity, not venture/angel: Tonka Bay acquires and recapitalizes established, profitable companies through buyouts, recapitalizations, mergers/acquisitions, and growth capital — the opposite of seed-stage angel checks.
• Three sector lanes: (1) highly engineered manufacturing, (2) value-added distribution, and (3) business services.
• Lower middle-market sizing: targets private companies generally in the $20–$50M revenue range — typically founder- or family-owned businesses.
• What makes them say yes: proven cash flow, a defensible niche, and a management team the firm can partner with and mentor; Tonka Bay positions itself around "building bigger, better businesses" and supporting add-on/buy-and-build growth.
• Buy-and-build: actively supports platform companies making follow-on acquisitions (e.g., Professional Credit completing multiple add-ons after partnering with Tonka Bay).
• Stated tone from leadership: on closing its latest fund, Musech said, *"We are very pleased with the response from our investors, especially in this challenging environment."*