Don Pierce
Partner
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- Full Name
- Don Pierce (Donald Pierce)
- Title
- Partner
- Firm
- Shore Capital Partners
- Firm Type
- Private equity (microcap / lower-middle-market control buyouts) — *note: the "Angel Investors" label in the stub data appears inaccurate; Shore is an institutional PE firm managing 14B+ in AUM*
- Investment Stage
- Control buyouts / growth equity of established microcap companies (generally $1–10M EBITDA) — *not seed-stage as the stub indicated*
- Check Size
- Not publicly disclosed; targets platform companies in the microcap range (~$1–10M EBITDA)
- Target Company Profile
- Founder- and physician-led microcap healthcare and medical device companies with roughly $1–10M of EBITDA, positioned for buy-and-build growth
- Sector Focus
- Healthcare, specifically medical devices (Shore also invests across healthcare services, food & beverage, business services, industrials, and real estate)
- Geographic Focus
- United States (with select international transaction experience, e.g., dialysis assets in Europe)
- Location
- Chicago, Illinois
Background
Don Pierce is a Partner at Shore Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on microcap investing. He leads the firm's medical device strategy, with primary responsibility for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities and recruiting operating executives in the medical devices field. Shore, founded in 2009, has grown to over $14 billion in assets under management across multiple healthcare and industry-focused funds.
Pierce earned a B.B.A., cum laude, in Finance with a concentration in International Business from the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. He has described developing an early interest in medicine after observing surgery in high school. His career began in healthcare-focused investment banking, followed by a role at RoundTable Healthcare Partners, an operating-oriented private equity firm focused exclusively on healthcare.
From roughly 2009 to 2013, Pierce worked in Strategy & Business Development at Baxter International, the global medical products company, where he executed several transactions — most notably work related to Gambro AB, a global leader in dialysis products based in Lund, Sweden. He joined Shore Capital Partners in 2013 and has been a Partner there for approximately a decade.
At Shore, Pierce has served as Chairman of the Board for several medical device platforms and is one of the senior partners on the firm's healthcare team. He was named alongside Founding Partner Ryan Kelley and Partner Chris Mioton as a leader of Shore's Healthcare Fund VI. Outside of investing, he serves on the board of the Notre Dame Club of Chicago and is active with Our Lady of the Angels and the Big Shoulders Fund.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests in microcap healthcare and medical device companies, typically businesses with ~$1–10M of EBITDA, through control buyouts and buy-and-build platform strategies.
- Focuses on the full product lifecycle — from concept through commercialization — and cautions founders that regulated device development runs long: *"It's always going to cost more and take longer than you think."*
- Prioritizes entrepreneurial physicians who design products for the broader market rather than just for themselves, favoring solutions with wide clinical applicability.
- Gravitates toward themes like minimally invasive surgery that reduce patient trauma and infection risk.
- Emphasizes partnering with and recruiting strong operating executives to drive growth initiatives inside portfolio companies.
Notable Investments
- Innovia Medical — Medical device platform; Shore-backed platform where Pierce held lead/Chairman responsibility; sold in April 2023 (realized exit).
- IZI Medical Products — Maker of devices for image-guided procedures; Shore partnered in 2016 and sold to Halma plc in October 2022 (realized exit).
- Argentum Medical — Antimicrobial wound-care/silver technology company; acquired by Shore in August 2017 and sold to BioDerm (a Mountaingate Capital company) in January 2023 (realized exit).
- AA Medical — Medical device platform cited as a current/lead responsibility.
- C2DX — Medical device company cited as a current/lead responsibility.
- Mojo Medical, Everis, Thermal Shipping Solutions — Listed among his active portfolio responsibilities on Shore's team page.
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