Michael Margolies

Michael Margolies (born July 4, 1958, in Far Rockaway, Queens) built an unconventional path to Wall Street. He attended Far Rockaway High School and did not go to college; early jobs included driving a delivery truck and selling health-club memberships, eventually becoming an area director at Jack LaLanne, where he grew the chain from 8 to 53 locations before its acquisition by Bally's. He then moved into finance as a stock-exchange clerk in the mid-1980s.

His institutional career spanned roughly two decades: Senior Vice President and Limited Partner at Oppenheimer & Co. (c. 1986–1992) managing discretionary long/short equity accounts, followed by Managing Partner at M.A. Berman & Co. (1992–1995), where he oversaw approximately $600 million in long/short equity portfolios and ran research and risk management. In 1995 he founded Avalon Research Group, an independent equity-research firm that grew to serve roughly 200 institutional managers and more than 100 hedge and mutual funds; he sold it to Metal Bulletin (reported at ~$21 million) in July 2004. He subsequently served briefly as a Managing Director in Ladenburg Thalmann's PIPE practice.

In 2009–2010, Margolies founded Littlebanc Advisors, a bespoke Boca Raton merchant bank and private-equity platform. Littlebanc deliberately uses no institutional money — it invests Margolies' own capital alongside a small circle of family offices — and takes on only a handful of agency assignments per year. He describes a preference for "old world, enduring types of business," and his holdings have spanned logistics, firearms, and deathcare alongside fintech, telecom, and medical companies. He has held board and director roles across portfolio companies including HiConversion, SkyPostal, IntellPro, Adams Arms, Utah Inc., and Fractioned.

• Invests family and personal capital, not institutional funds — "we invest our own money and funds from a few other family offices," enabling patient, non-benchmarked holding periods.
• Favors "old world, enduring types of business" — durable, cash-generative companies over speculative tech, though the portfolio also includes fintech, healthtech, and digital assets.
• Operates as a merchant bank: sources, structures, and finances deals, taking on only "two or three assignments per year" on the agency side.
• Typical instruments are private placements, PIPEs, and structured financings for growth-stage companies rather than traditional priced venture rounds.
• Sector breadth is wide but recurring: logistics, defense/firearms, deathcare, payments/fintech, medical supply, and broadband infrastructure.
• Roots in independent equity research ("unbiased research, helping money managers make informed decisions") inform a diligence-heavy, fundamentals-first approach.