This Acquirer Grew From 18 Clinics to 125 in Two Years. Here's What's Next
Brent Mack, CEO of Golden Bear Therapy Partners, explains the company's partnership approach, the back office support it offers PT business owners, and the kinds of practices that fit its growth plans.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Paul Martin's Crucial Conversations. Today we have with us Brent Mack. Brent is the CEO of Golden Bear Physical Therap Golden Bear Therapy Partners. Golden Bear is a private equity-backed company that was originally homebased in Modesto, California. They have now moved those corporate headquarters to Chicago, Illinois, and they have grown to over 125 clinics in six states. Brent, congratulations, and it's great to have you with us today. Yeah, appreciate it, Paul. And yeah, appreciate the backdrop and kind words.
So Brent, when newer acquires and you know, Golden Bear, I know you guys have been at it, you know, with Shore Capital for a couple years now and doing just a phenomenal job, but you're still considered one of the newer acquirers out there. And when new acquirers enter the market, our clients typically ask us, you know, three questions. And the first which I will ask you is how is Golden Bear's strategy for becoming a successful company in this industry? How do you see it different from the strategies that some of the larger legacy companies are following?
Yeah. You know, so go Golden Bear is new to you know, being a growing company, but it's been around for 40 years. So the history of Golden Bear started in Modesto, California 40 years ago. And about two years ago, March of 2019, partnered up with Shore Capital out of Chicago. Had about 18 clinics at that time in the central valley of California and over the last two and a half years has grown to 125 clinics as he's referenced in six states. And so although the platform is new in the private equity realm and new to doing partnerships, acquisitions and kind of growing outside of the original footprint, myself am not new to that environment.
I joined [clears throat] up with Golden Bear Therapy Partners in July of last year. Had about a 20 year history with a another PT platform which I helped grow from one clinic to o over 800 and I think have taken some learnings from my past and things that worked there we will apply here and things that I would have done differently in the past we'll do differently here and I think you know having some of that experience and seeing what has worked in the past with some of the market dynamics and things that have changed I think we are different and I think we're different because we're taking a true partnership approach Golden Bear Therapy Partners current name of the company today will be undergoing a name change here over the next 30 days to just become therapy partners group and I think what that means and stands for to me is we [clears throat] want to have individual premium brands in different markets across the country and then really come in and help support them.
I think we've got I don't think I know we've got best-in-class back office in this industry. You know, best-in-class in terms of sales and marketing, best-in-class in terms of talent acquisition, best-in-class in terms of training and development, best-in-class in terms of operations support compliance. I think as a growing private practice, whether you've got one clinics and you're going to two, whether you have five and you want to go to 10, whether you have 50 and you want to go to 100, there are certain things you know that work when you have 10 clinics that don't work when you have 20.
There are certain inflection points that come along the way. And I think we have the resources to help solve those. Wherever you're at in terms of that path of growth, if you know, if you got two or three clinics and you want to continue to grow, we have resources to help with that. But never take away from the brand that you built over the years to get there. If you've got 15 20 clinics, you need more backend support and there's some things that you're running into, you know, human resources wise, compliance wise.
Do you find yourself sitting on, you know, webinars and phone calls trying to dig through CO information and figure things out the last couple years? We have those resources that you can tap into. Are you looking for an exit strategy? Or you're [clears throat] looking to start doing some acquisitions and some, you know, more denovo growth in the area that you're in, but maybe don't have all that operational support. I think we can be that answer for [clears throat] many different groups out there. But we're not looking to just put dots on a map anywhere.
We're looking to be the premium brand in the industry. Really look for partners and and PTs that want to continue with the business and be part of a bigger team and be part of the best team in the industry. And that's really what that what we're going to build here. So, I think there are some differences. PT run, some people here that have been there, done that to a degree that have made some mistakes in the past and now had know how to step around those pile holes, but also some people that have had some success in the past and [clears throat] been in these environments before that I think we can add some value to some practices that are joining up.
So, I think we've got a really unique thing. I think we've got a great team and I'm really excited about where things are going to go and we want to be a be a national brand. Yeah. And and Brent, thank you for some more of the background. As as many of you may know, Brent comes from a long history of physical therapy, operations, growth, development. And as you said, I liked what you said, Brent, you did a lot of things right. And in that company, you did a lot of some things wrong.
I won't say a lot, something's wrong. And so, you're going to correct some of those things now that you've you have that history going into Golden Bear. And yeah, as I said, so far so good. So, Brent, when you look at a company, and I know it sounded like a pretty wide range of companies could be the right fit for Golden Parotherapy Partners. You discuss smaller companies that want to grow, larger companies that want to grow, but are there some key characteristics of a company that you think would really thrive by joining Golden Bear Therapy Partners?
Absolutely. You know, it's a very overused word, but culture, and culture is hard to kind of put down on paper, but you can feel it. We don't have we have a business development team, like I mentioned earlier. We have what I believe to be the best-in-class back office in this industry. So, we've got people to help guide through the acquisition or partnership process. You [clears throat] know, just like most groups out there, but I think we have people that are really good at. However, you know, there's heavy involvement from myself, from the chief operating officer, from others who have joined the platform that people are going to work with day in and day out.
And I think that you know, as we look for practices, they got to be the right cultural fit. We want people to be additive to the to the platform and you know with it being therapy partners group we're going to keep local name brands that have built a great reputation for years but we want people to you know realize as being part of a bigger team how do they how do they fit into that how do we you know really support what has made them special over the years what has allowed them to grow because there's some uniqueness to two brands and geographies and I very much understand that but you having a great culture, wanting to be part of a bigger team and you know really wanting to come in and do something that hasn't been done before.
I think u you know there's 15 or 16 different private equity backed players in the industry now and there's three big public companies and everybody has the same the same investment thesis, right? We're going to come in, we're going to do we're going to do acquisitions, we're going to do partnerships, we're going to do denovo clinics, we're going to grow same store growth, we're going to have the best outcomes. If you look at everybody's website, you look at everybody's promotional material, it all says the same thing.
And it's one thing to put in a PowerPoint deck, it's one thing to have a, you know, a fancy promotional material, and it's another thing to do it. And I would say with the right cultural fit, we're going to do it here. And we're already doing it. And that's what I want to do. We all spend a lot of time at work. [clears throat] it becomes a big part of our lives and it's a big decision to sell your practice or to join up with a with a bigger team and I want to make sure that I we uphold when somebody comes aboard this platform 6 months 12 months 18 months 24 months down the line they feel it's the best decision they've ever made and not only for them for the rest of their employees and teammates that [clears throat] have joined up as well.
So, you know, cultural fit is number one and, you know, just what problem are we trying to solve and are we a good fit to do that? Again, are we a are you a smaller organization that's looking to grow, we can help with that. If you're kind of a medium-sized company, you've reached some inflection points and, you know, you need to add some, you know, back office staff or human resources, revenue cycle, whatever problems that you might be having, I think we can be a resource to help with that.
If you're looking for an exit strategy, if you're looking to do more acquisitions and more growth, I think it's not a one-sizefits-all approach here. But I think we have, you know, a lot of flexibility to help in many areas and be stronger together. Brent, so kind of the nuts and the bolts of an acquisition process. You know talking about your structures, your process how is your approach of acquiring a company different from some of the larger companies in terms of the process? Yeah, you know I think it's you know very much meet and get to know you at first, right?
So this is you know sometimes you get decks of information and there's I think numbers are a reflection of behaviors in this industry. There's certain KPIs and numbers that we look at just like any industry that give you an indication of maybe the health of the business. But the numbers don't tell the story. They tell a story. But you know so we do look at numbers just like everybody else does. I think that allows us to have an educated first conversation with folks. And so you we have a business development team that can guide people through the through the entire process.
People are very skilled at, you know, how to how to close deals, how to structure deals, the different options, and kind of walk people through that whole process. Once we get to the point that says, "Okay, this is this is a deal that we both feel good about, and let's do the right diligence. Let's get to a an LOI and let's pick a close date and walk all the way through that." I think that [clears throat] you know again we're probably a little more hands-on through that process.
When somebody decides to you know sell their company, partner up partner up with with Therapy Partners Group, it's a it's a big decision. You know, there's gentlemen that people that I've known for 10 15 years and a guy joined up with the practice here in the next month has a 30-year history and 30 years ago he was out, you know, sitting in parking lots of orthopedic practices and acting like he was just hanging out waiting for physicians to walk out of the door leaving work that day in the hopes that he could run across him in the parking lot and get that one patient 30 years ago.
Well, that's up to me to uphold that. I know that just doesn't happen. And so, I think the uniqueness of having physical therapy run company, understanding what it takes to get there over the years and never just blending that all into a huge platform, really celebrating the uniqueness of the different brands, making sure it's a great cultural fit, and then making sure that we can we can grow together. And so I think we, you know, we look at numbers, personality, culture, have a, you know, really get to know you phase, but then it's really important to talk about what life looks like after the fact.
You know, what do you want to do? What are your goals? And you know, I'm not big on corporate jargon. I don't like to talk in such a high level that it's never actionable. And I believe in being very upfront and honest with people. And a lot of times in the past when you do that, it works out. Or you figure out early on, hey, maybe this just isn't the right fit for you here, but you got a great fit somewhere else. But we want people all rowing the same direction.
We want everybody on the same team and it's going to be the winning team. And you know, that's what again we're trying to do. Build an all-star team here. We can guide you through the business development and sale process. We've got subject matter experts there, but I think it's really that cultural fit. What do you want to do after the fact? What's [clears throat] the company doing today? You know, financially and where do we think that we can take it to? And you know, again, numbers are a reflection of behaviors.
If we take a great we take great care of patients every single day, if we take great care of teammates and employees every day, we're going to have a have a great company. The financials take care of themselves. So, you know, long- winded answer and we can get more into that, you know, with anybody that's interested, but we have something unique here. We have something that I think is bestin-class in the industry and it's something that you're going to see us back up over the next several years.
You know, you've talked a lot about culture and as you said, it's you know, kind of a buzzword and it's a pretty b you know, range of cultures. How do you think someone who has been a partner with Golden Bear Therapy Partners, how do you think they would describe your culture, say a year or two into the relationship? You know, so, you know, we we've moved currently from 18 clinics in Central Valley, California to six states and about 125 clinics. And so you know with that growth in that period of time you know there becomes you know some challenges and I've been here since July of last year and really focused on pulling the company together and really functioning as one although we still operate under several different regional brand names that are that are super strong.
And so I think I think people would describe the culture as hey I'm able to, you know, continue to celebrate my uniqueness at the local level, but I think over the last year we've really started to pull things together culturally and hey, how does this all make sense? How does my brand in Tucson, Arizona? How's my brand in Spokane, Washington? How does my brand in Las Vegas fit in with the parent company? And so, you know, some very, I think, best-in-class training programs for clinic directors.
We have a equity program for for clinic directors that join up that can participate within the parent company equity within the parent company stock a lot of regional growth plans that are built with our growth and development team best-in-class recruiting. So I think you know that we're we've really built again that best-in-class back office. And so if somebody has had trouble in the past with recruiting, I think we've been able to solve those problems for people. If people have needed some ideas on how to grow operationally or maybe how to look at things a little bit differently, I think we've been able to solve that.
If people have been wanting to get undergo an EMR transition, we've got trainers and people have been able to come in and plug in with that. So I like to say we're a, you know, small mom and pop shop with the support of a large organization and keeping [clears throat] that familyfriendly feel every single day. Every patient that walks through the door, let's light them up. Let's make it the best the best, you know, experience of their day. Even though the treatment might be a little different.
You know, a therapist in Orange County might treat a L4 L5 herniated disc a little bit differently than somebody in Seattle, but the patient experience should be the same across the board. So, we want to make sure the culture is the same, the patient experience is the same, that people have all the opportunities in the world to grow within the company, and not just within the brand. And, you know, I think that we've got again something that, is very unique that's just getting better every day.
And it sounds like you know the discussion that we had of moving to and going through somewhat of a name change really points to that culture of kind of continuing to have local community businesses that are growing but with their you know their name branding remaining the same but with the support of Golden Bear around that. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. And that that's really the reason behind the name change. The company has grown bigger than u the original investment thesis was to be and with it just being a California brand to begin with.
Gold Mirror therapy partners makes sense as we've expanded to six states seem to be a seventh and I really see this being a national platform and keeping the individual brand names. Therapy partners group makes more sense. It's really what we do. We partner up with practices to help them grow. And but maintain again that local mom and pop feel and local mom and pop brand. And so yeah, I think it I think it just more accurately reflects who we are and where we're going. So yeah, that's the that's the reason for the change.
And you touched on now being in six states and looking to at some point in time be a have a national presence. How do you as the CEO and your leadership team, how do you guys look at geography, where you will go, where you may not want to go, what you do once you get into a new state. Walk me through kind of your geography strategy. Certainly not giving up too much, but yes, you know, we have a we have a plan. So, we you know, we have a we have what we call regional growth plans.
So when we enter a market, we don't want to just put dots on a map everywhere. Even if it's a great culture fit and a great practice, I don't think it's success, I don't think it's a recipe for success to have one clinic in Kansas and two in Iowa and three in Alaska and two in New Jersey. And so we want to go into new markets you know with a market leader and I think most markets that we would enter would be with a partnership or an acquisition and then grow off of that.
So if we're [clears throat] looking at new areas, we probably looking at something of size. We are going to open up in some areas just organically. I think there's people out there that are maybe looking for a change and maybe don't have their own practice yet, but have some relationships, have some fire in their belly and the right cultural fit and can open up in some new markets for us. And again, we have that support system to be able to do that. But I think overall, you know, we're looking for companies that have five plus clinics if we're going to go into a new area with the path to help them grow.
And you know, it's not completely unique structurally wise here, but there's multiple ways that we can we can set deals up as well. You know, these can be cash deals. We have the opportunity for people to have stock within the parent company. And being in a private equity environment like we are and almost three years into the whole period here we're shore there'll be you know an exit or recap opportunity for folks that join the platform and maybe a second and third bite at the Apple downline that would when people join up with us.
So there's different structural, you know, ways to set things up here, but it's kind of nice to be able to take some chips off the table with your current company, be able to add in some additional resources to grow, be part of driving that growth, and then participate in the success of the parent company, so you can get excited about not only what's going on in your area, but also other areas of the company and all of us learn from one another. And so, I think I think some differences there.
And again, I'm real confident about where things are going. I mean, it's because we have a great team and we continue to really add some premium brands and smart people right along with me that that work well together that support each other and you know, we should go to work every day and have fun. And I think, you know, the end the finish line is not just when you sell your business or you partner up with somebody. And just like the inline here isn't when shore capital exits and somebody else comes in.
This is going to be built to last and again trying to do something not in the business of trying, but we're going to do something that hasn't been done before in this industry with a collection of premium brands that we can that we can really help grow small mom and pop shop feel support of a large organization which is really good people involved. Yeah. And you know for so many years people had such a you know an opinion when it came to you know call it corporate rehab and anything that's private equity-backed you know certainly could be considered corporate rehab but it's so refreshing to hear from you know the strategy of maintaining that local presence maintaining those maintaining the name so many companies have a real big issue of changing ing their name.
And you don't have to go through that anymore. And so you have that local feel to it. And you know, I think what else business owners have to take a step back and look at is what incredible opportunities this offers to private practices, small, medium, and large. To have an opportunity to join a group like Golden Bear and truly get, you know, what they would they what they deserve for all their years of hard work in their practices. So, yeah, I think, you know, very positive on all fronts.
Yeah, you know, this is a very relationship driven business. And I know that I I'm a PT, my dad's a PT, my sister is a PT. It's [clears throat] all I've ever known. And you know, regardless of I've heard for 20 years, it's a fragmented industry and it's always going to be because there's always room for the small mom and pop shops with great relationships to do a great job out there. But I don't think anybody has got it right on a big scale before and we're going to get it right on a big scale here.
Relationships matter. This is a small industry. And you know a lot of people know each other and reputations matter and I think you know we're going to maintain you know the nimleness to do what works at the individual clinic and brand level but again be able to provide support of a large organization with some subject matter expertise on the back end. And so I'm really excited about where things are going and you know it's very important to me you know if you're deciding to sell your practice and again sell you know I don't really like that term as much but it is kind of kind of what's happening but you're partnering up here.
You're able to roll shares into the parent company. You're able to participate into future equity programs and you know that's all fine and good but you also have your employees that they bought into you. They didn't buy in they don't know me. They don't know if they're partners group and we have to make sure that those people that are the ones delivering the care every single day think that this is this is a really good thing for them down the line. They didn't never make that decision.
At one point their check and their payroll maybe says a different company on it. They didn't choose that. And so it's [clears throat] up to me, it's up to us to uphold, you know, everything that I'm talking about here at a high level that they think this is the best thing, you know, for them. They they don't lose kind of that small feel why they joined you and they will trust the practice owner or their clinic director or whoever it might be. But I think we have unique programs here to, you know, help people become the best clinician they want to be through Golden Bear University.
Different leadership programs that we have to get people on tracks to be clinic directors, to be regional directors, and just a lot of really good and smart people to learn from. And again, if you got an environment that people want to come into every day and work with others that are very like-minded and we're winning, that becomes an environment that's fun to go to work every day. And that's what we're doing here. Yeah. Exciting stuff. Exciting stuff. So Brent, kind of final words here. What what advice would you have for a business that is preparing for this market?
What's the most important thing they should be looking at and doing? You know, you're going to have options. I'm sure if you're listening to this right now, you probably talked to multiple people like me and maybe me over the years, and everybody's going to tell you a version of the same thing. I think you got to think about what does life look like after the fact. What do you really want to do? What are your goals? Because I'm again, I'm a PT. I'm not a slick sales guy, but I will tell you the truth.
And and I will back up what I'm saying. And I think we have you know, I think you should do your diligence. There shouldn't be any rush. You're going to have plenty options out there if you if you build a great practice and you got to find what's the right fit for you and again what does life look like a day after 6 months 12 months 24 months and does that match up with your goals. And you know we are not someone that ever gives you the hard sell.
If if it's the right fit and it's the right time terrific. If it's if it's the right fit but the wrong time that's fine too. We'll keep talking. You know, if it's the wrong fit and the wrong time, that's fine, too. We partner, you'll have plenty of other options to go other places, but trying to really build something special here that we all feel good about and and have a growing company. And again, doing something that is different and hasn't been done in this industry before.
So, I would just, you know, do your diligence, take your time, get to know the people, and you know, make sure that they can back up what they're what they're telling you. Absolutely. Yeah, Brent, really helpful. So Brent, I want to thank you. You've given us some great information today and I'm really glad you've been able to also once again kind of get in front of a lot of people and talk about Golden Bear Therapy Partners and what you guys are up to and what you're all about and this is really enlightened us to that.
So I really appreciate your time today. Yeah, really appreciate that, Paul. Nobody's ever told me I've enlightened anybody before. So, that's first for me, but I really do appreciate the time and getting in front of an audience. I love being back in physical therapy and again, no buzzwords, but would love to talk and meet with anybody who who's interested and u really appreciate the the time today. Yeah, thank you, Brent. And for all of you out there, if any of you have any questions about the discussion that I had today with Brent Mack, click below and let's talk. Thank you.
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