Eric Paquette
Vice President
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- Full Name
- Eric Paquette
- Title
- Principal (promoted from Vice President in January 2024)
- Firm
- ShoreView Industries (ShoreView Private Equity)
- Firm Type
- Lower middle-market private equity (control buyouts, recapitalizations, and build-ups — *not* angel/seed investing, despite the stub)
- Investment Stage
- Established, cash-flow-positive private companies; platform buyouts, recapitalizations, and add-on acquisitions
- Check Size
- ShoreView manages ~$1.8B of committed capital across multiple funds; targets platform businesses with revenues of roughly $20M–$300M (equity from the firm's institutional funds, not personal angel checks)
- Target Company Profile
- Family- and entrepreneur-owned lower middle-market companies seeking a liquidity event and/or growth capital
- Sector Focus
- Value-added distribution and niche manufacturing; engineered products, industrial services, business services, healthcare/life sciences, and niche consumer products
- Geographic Focus
- United States
- Location
- Minneapolis, Minnesota (Twin Cities native)
Background
Eric Paquette is a Principal at ShoreView Industries, a Minneapolis-based lower middle-market private equity firm founded in 2002. He joined the firm as an Associate in 2015 and has been promoted repeatedly since — to Senior Associate, to Vice President in August 2019, and to Principal in January 2024. In his current role he is active across the full deal lifecycle, from screening and due diligence on new investments to ongoing portfolio-company management and development.
Before ShoreView, Paquette worked as an investment banking analyst in the Medical Technology Group at Piper Jaffray (now Piper Sandler) in Minneapolis, where he performed financial modeling and analysis for M&A, leveraged buyouts, equity offerings, and private placements. Earlier in his career he worked in KPMG's Transaction Services group in Chicago, giving him a transaction-diligence and accounting foundation.
Paquette holds a B.B.A. and a Master's degree in Accounting, both from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A native of the Twin Cities area, he resides there with his family.
Note: The original stub data described Eric as a "Vice President / Angel Investor" making "Seed Round" investments. Research indicates this is inaccurate — Paquette is a Principal at an institutional private equity firm that invests fund capital in established lower middle-market companies, not an angel investor writing seed checks.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests through ShoreView's institutional funds in established, profitable lower middle-market companies, typically with revenues between ~$20M and $300M — not startups or seed-stage ventures.
- Deal types: control buyouts, recapitalizations, and build-up (add-on) acquisitions, often partnering with family- and entrepreneur-owned businesses.
- ShoreView's stated focus is value-added distribution and niche manufacturing; Eric's personal deal experience spans engineered products, distribution, industrial services, business services, healthcare/life sciences, and niche consumer products.
- The firm emphasizes "long-term, stable growth" partnerships with founders seeking liquidity while retaining a role in the business — the founder-friendly, patient-capital angle is central to what makes ShoreView say yes.
Notable Investments
- Edstrom Holdings, LLC — Maker of automated watering and environmental-monitoring systems for the lab-animal research and agricultural markets; under ShoreView ownership it made add-on acquisitions including Triple Red Ltd. (later operated under the Avidity Science brand).
- Hermetic Solutions Group (HSG) — Market leader in hermetic packaging, interconnects, connectors, laser-welding services, and getters serving aerospace, defense/space, optical networking, medical, and industrial OEMs.
- SWS Environmental Services, Inc. — One of the largest environmental services firms in the U.S., providing emergency environmental response, hazardous-waste disposal, and industrial maintenance from 20+ service centers across the Southern and Midwestern U.S.
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