
James Andersen
Managing Partner and Founder
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- Full Name
- James G. Andersen (also goes by "Jim")
- Title
- Co-Founder, Founding Partner & Managing Partner; member of the Investment Committee
- Firm
- Clearview Capital, L.P.
- Firm Type
- Private equity / private investment firm (lower-middle-market buyouts and recapitalizations) — *not an angel investor; see note below*
- Investment Stage
- Control buyouts, recapitalizations, and platform/add-on acquisitions of established, profitable operating companies (not seed-stage venture)
- Check Size
- Platform companies with roughly $5–25M EBITDA; typical equity investments of ~$50–250M enterprise value; invests from Clearview Capital Fund V, an $850M fund closed in 2022
- Target Company Profile
- Established, cash-flow-positive lower-middle-market North American companies with operating profits of roughly $4–20M, strong management teams, and clear operational-improvement and add-on-acquisition upside
- Sector Focus
- Business services, healthcare services, manufacturing, consumer, and specialized distribution
- Geographic Focus
- North America (United States and Canada)
- Location
- Stamford, Connecticut
Background
James G. Andersen co-founded Clearview Capital in 1999 and serves as a Founding/Managing Partner and a member of the firm's Investment Committee. Clearview is a Stamford, Connecticut–based private investment firm specializing in the acquisition and recapitalization of profitable lower-middle-market companies across North America. Since inception the firm has completed 45 platform investments and more than 100 add-on acquisitions, and reports an average of 2.5x EBITDA growth across its exited platform companies.
Before founding Clearview, Andersen was a Managing Director at Capital Partners, a lower-middle-market private equity firm, where he led the firm's portfolio-management efforts, co-managed due diligence, and drove improvements in portfolio performance. Earlier in his career he was a management consultant at Mars & Co, advising Fortune 100 companies in consumer products, industrial, and technology sectors on strategic and operational issues. Before entering consulting, he worked as a senior field engineer and field test coordinator for Schlumberger, stationed in the Middle East.
Andersen holds a BSE in Civil Engineering, *cum laude*, from Princeton University, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Within Clearview he has had direct oversight responsibility for a number of active portfolio companies, including Loss Prevention Services (business services), The Barcode Group, MBI Industrial Medicine (healthcare), People Results (business services), and Derby Building Products (manufacturing).
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests in established, profitable operating companies, not startups — control buyouts and recapitalizations of lower-middle-market businesses, typically alongside founders and existing management.
- Target profile: companies with roughly $4–20M of operating profit / $5–25M EBITDA, with equity/enterprise values commonly in the $50–250M range.
- Core sectors: business services, healthcare services, manufacturing, consumer, and specialized distribution.
- Value-creation playbook centers on operational improvement plus a "buy-and-build" add-on acquisition strategy — the firm has closed 100+ add-ons to grow its platform companies (UpSwell, for example, "nearly tripled in size" under Clearview ownership via add-ons and technology investment).
- Strong emphasis on management partnership and alignment — Clearview highlights that 25+ portfolio-company executives have reinvested in subsequent Clearview funds, and Andersen has publicly stressed the value of having a committed institutional fund to support management teams.
- Deploys capital from a committed institutional fund (Fund V, $850M), giving certainty of capital rather than deal-by-deal angel-style checks.
Notable Investments
- UpSwell (formerly Mudlick Mail) — Marietta, GA data-driven direct-mail and digital marketing provider for local consumer-service businesses; Fund III platform that nearly tripled in size under Clearview before its sale (exit closed March 2026).
- Advantage Behavioral Health — Laurel Springs, NJ mental-health treatment provider operating in nine states (500,000+ patient visits/year); Fund V's fourth platform, recapitalized April 2025.
- Loss Prevention Services (LPS) — Natchez, MS provider of asset-recovery intermediary services (forwarding, skip tracing, license-plate recognition); Fund V's third platform, recapitalized January 2025.
- Derby Building Products — innovator, manufacturer, and distributor of polymer building products (manufacturing); an Andersen-overseen holding.
- MBI Industrial Medicine — healthcare services platform overseen by Andersen.
- The Barcode Group and People Results — business/sales-and-marketing services holdings overseen by Andersen.
- Controlled Products — portfolio company exited in October 2021.
- OVS / Clearwater — OVS platform acquired Clearwater in March 2022 as an add-on.
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