James Zivin
Principal
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- Full Name
- James Zivin
- Title
- Principal
- Firm
- Mill Road Capital Management LLC
- Firm Type
- Private investment firm / registered investment adviser focused on publicly traded micro-cap companies (this is the firm's actual mandate; the "Angel Investors" label in the source stub appears to be an aggregator misclassification — see Background)
- Investment Stage
- Micro-cap public equity, structured primary capital, and take-private transactions (not conventional venture "seed"; again, the "Seed Round" stub tag conflicts with the firm's stated strategy)
- Target Company Profile
- Small, publicly traded companies in the U.S. and Canada that are "misunderstood and mispriced by the public markets"
- Sector Focus
- Sector-agnostic — portfolio spans retail, consumer products, manufacturing, and business services
- Geographic Focus
- United States and Canada
- Location
- Greenwich, Connecticut (firm HQ: 334 Pemberwick Road, 2nd Floor); Zivin has also been listed as based in the New York, NY area
Background
James Zivin is a Principal at Mill Road Capital Management LLC, a Greenwich, Connecticut–based private investment firm founded in 2004. According to Bloomberg's professional profile, he holds the title of Principal at the firm. Publicly available career data indicate he earned a BS from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (2003–2007), where he was also involved with the Student Federal Credit Union, and that he began his career at UBS Investment Bank before joining Mill Road Capital.
Mill Road Capital is not a traditional angel or seed-stage venture investor. It is a registered investment adviser (reported at roughly $754M AUM) that runs private-equity-structured funds (Mill Road Capital I, II, and III) and specializes in bringing private-equity-style governance to small, publicly traded companies. The firm's senior team includes professionals with backgrounds at Blackstone and KKR and has executed this strategy together for close to two decades. The "Angel Investors / Seed Round" descriptors attached to Zivin in some contact databases (e.g., Angels Partners) do not match the firm's documented micro-cap public-equity mandate and should be treated with caution.
It is worth noting that Zivin does not currently appear on Mill Road Capital's published "Investment Professionals" roster (which lists Thomas E. Lynch, Deven H. Petito, Eric T. Yanagi, Sarah A. Heberle, Greg Gittes, and Scott Isenburg). This may reflect a non-listed role, a role within a different team, or a change in status; his Principal title is sourced from Bloomberg and contact-aggregator records rather than the firm's current team page.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Invests in and partners with publicly traded micro-cap companies in the U.S. and Canada, applying private-equity governance to small public companies.
- Firm seeks "high quality companies that are misunderstood and mispriced by the public markets."
- Flexible capital: builds large public-equity blocks to unlock value, provides structured primary capital to support growth or deleveraging, and executes take-private transactions.
- Sector-agnostic, with existing exposure to retail, consumer products, manufacturing, and business services.
- Emphasis on long-term value creation by partnering with management teams; the firm describes extended due diligence with investment size scaling to conviction.
- Note: no publicly disclosed personal/individual check size for Zivin himself; check sizing is at the fund level and not publicly specified.
Notable Investments
- Skullcandy — headphone/audio consumer brand; Mill Road took the company private.
- Noodles & Company — fast-casual restaurant chain.
- Rubio's — coastal/Mexican fast-casual restaurant chain.
- RG Barry — footwear and accessories (Dearfoams brand); taken private.
- Galaxy Nutritional Foods — plant-based/dairy-alternative food products.
- Mother's Market & Kitchen — natural foods grocery retailer.
- Lignetics — wood pellet fuel manufacturer.
- PRT Growing Services — forestry/container seedling services.
- Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee — specialty coffee decaffeination company.
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