Today we’d like to introduce you to Tammie Miller.
Tammie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started my career in investment banking right out of College at the University of Chicago. I went to work for Lehman Brothers and didn’t have any idea what investment banking was. When I stepped off the plan in New York City, it was the first time I had been out of the Midwest (other than my interview to get the job) and I had one small suitcase which contained clothes my mother had made for me, and my cat. I soon learned that Wall St. was not the place for homemade clothes and adjusted to my new life as a New Yorker.
I left the New York offices of Lehman to join the Chicago team. I missed Chicago and was eager to get back. I finished my stint as an analyst and went back to business school at the University of Chicago. After business school, I joined Alex. Brown & Sons in Chicago and stayed until it was purchased by Bankers Trust. As often happens with mergers, Bankers Trust wanted its newly acquired bankers to be out east and at this point, I had committed to being in the Midwest.
I looked around for opportunities and found the Blue Cross Blue Shield system of Wisconsin. They were a newly public company and were trying to find ways to create value outside of just increasing the number of insured members. Together, we went on an acquisition spree buying health care-related technology and service companies. We combined a number of those to create a subsidiary that changed how the Blue Cross plan was valued in the marketplace. When Blue Cross of Wisconsin was bought by Wellpoint, I knew that I had to find another way to work on mergers and acquisitions in Chicago.
I decided to join a very small investment bank called Grace Matthews. Grace Matthews, a new, nichey firm was a fun place to work. Two of the partners worked on chemical transactions and two partners, Tim Oleszczuk and myself worked on non-chemical transactions, mostly with family and founder-held businesses. We had a great run and lots of success. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the chemical side of the firm began to service very large transactions. Tim and I saw that our part of the practice was being overshadowed and from a marketing standpoint, it was getting lost.
In December of 2015, we decide to break away and start TKO Miller, LLC. (Tim’s initials are TKO – we used those because no one would have been able to spell Oleszczuk and my last name is Miller). TKO Miller was started with the intent on providing big bank services to family owned, middle market businesses. We all know that if your company is large enough, someone from a New York investment bank will get on a private jet and come out to see you. If you are a middle market business, which to us is revenue above $10 million, you deserve the same treatment and talents that the larger businesses receive.
We know that selling a family owned business is an emotional and difficult decision and we spend an enormous amount of time working with entrepreneurs and business owners to educate them about the process of mergers and acquisitions. After all, an acquisition of your business is difficult and invasive and not every business owner is ready for the process.
It has been a very rewarding year and a half. We completed 5 transactions our first year and are on pace to exceed that number in our second year of operation. We have added a third partner, Joe Froehlich, and have a total of 9 employees. It is inspiring g to work with business owners as they plan for the financial futures.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting a new business is hard! In our first couple months, we had to deal with things that are very foreign to people that have worked in established offices. Phones, leases for office space and a website were all very early challenges.
After we got through the initial wave of difficulties associated with starting a business, we started to focus on marketing. Building a brand in the investment banking work is a challenging process, especially since we are essentially all finance-minded people.
We saw that in our universe of family and founder owned businesses, we were dealing with a group of super smart, but super proud individuals who were reluctant to ask questions as we described the process of selling a company. In response, we decided to essentially publish a list of frequently asked questions on our website called the “Sellers Corner” which we hoped would be a safe place for business owners to learn about investment banking on their own time. We also set out to publish a lot of content, some very technical and some very simple that tries to take the mystery out of what we do. There is so much in the media about selling companies and corporate takeovers that is flat out wrong, that we felt we owed it to people to explain how things really happen.
As a result of these activities, our website changed substantially. Our website doesn’t look like all the other investment banking sites and while that is a little scary, we think it’s the best way to service and attract clients.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with TKO Miller, LLC – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
TKO Miller, LLC is an independent, advisory focused, middle-market investment bank. With over 100 years of collective transaction experience, TKO Miller provides merger & acquisition and financial advisory services for privately-held and private-equity owned businesses, with a special focus on family-and founder-held businesses.
Our services include company sales, recapitalizations, asset divestitures, and management buyouts. TKO Miller has a generalist focus but has served clients in a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, business services, consumer products, and industrial products and services.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the future, we hope to continue to attract great clients and grow both in the number of transactions completed and the number of people that work with us.
Contact Info:
- Address: 788 N Jefferson, Suite 850
Milwuakee, WI 53202 - Website: www.tkomiller.com
- Phone: 414-375-2660
- Email: contact@tkomiller.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tkomillerinvestmentbank/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TKOMillerLLC
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/10631835/
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