Steve Carver

Steve Carver is a Partner at Union Bay Partners, a Seattle-based private investment group founded in 2011 (incorporated October 2011) that backs small to mid-sized companies in the Pacific Northwest. The firm is built around a small team of operators and dealmakers who invest "in growth opportunities across various stages and sectors where we have skills or expertise to help build and increase enterprise value." His partners at the firm are Brian Schultz (Microsoft Corporate Development; co-founder/COO of Ontela and co-founder of Plectix Biosystems; ex-Lehman Brothers) and Marc Brown (Managing Director in Microsoft Corporate Development, who led 70+ acquisitions including Skype, Yammer and the Nokia deal).

For most of his professional career Carver has worked in private-equity data and deal analysis. He served as Managing Director of Private Equity / Strategic Initiatives at PitchBook Data, the Seattle private-market intelligence company, where he helped banks, M&A intermediaries and private-equity firms access and analyze data on private-company transactions and fundraising. He was involved in PitchBook-related research projects such as the growtheconomy.org initiative and collaborated with Doug Tatum (founder of the Tatum executive-services firm) and the Edward Lowe Foundation, and sat on M&A market-update panels for the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors.

Earlier, in 2008, Carver joined Seattle-based Baldwin Resource Group, a consultancy where he specialized in helping private-equity firms analyze the risk involved in acquiring portfolio companies. Before moving into consulting and finance, he built a sales career: he joined Brown & Brown (one of the largest U.S. insurance brokerages) in 2003 and was the highest-grossing producer in his office in his first year, after earlier training in client-focused sales at Xerox. He also did consulting work in Tokyo with Hello Global.

Carver earned a BFA in acting and film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Outside of investing he is an avid photographer, a SCUBA Divemaster, and a frequent traveler, and is active in the arts and outdoor-recreation communities.

• Invests through Union Bay Partners, a small Seattle angel/private-investment group, alongside two Microsoft Corporate Development partners — meaning deals lean on operating and M&A expertise, not just capital.
• Stated approach: pursue "growth opportunities across various stages and sectors where we have skills or expertise to help build and increase enterprise value" — i.e., the team backs what it can roll up its sleeves on.
• Sector focus (per firm/aggregator data): light industrial, light manufacturing, marine, distribution and supply, and business & consumer services, plus opportunistic technology deals.
• Geography: concentrated on Pacific Northwest / Greater Seattle companies.
• Carver personally brings a private-equity data and deal-diligence lens (from PitchBook and Baldwin Resource Group), so expect emphasis on transaction metrics, risk analysis and a clear path to enterprise-value growth.