Author · Speaker · SIMM Capital · SCG Global

Mat
Simmons

I've been raising capital since 2006. Not from a lecture hall — from the operating side, deal by deal, through two downturns. Everything I teach, I built first.

The HoldCo Mastermind Book me to speak

Author of Become Scaleable — get the free digital copy

  • On stageKeynotes and workshops
  • In the roomInvestor conversations
  • On siteWalking live projects
  • PittsburghWhere all of it runs
$400M+
Assets under management
$750M+
Deal volume since 2006
2006
Raising capital since
PGH
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The program

The HoldCo
Mastermind

We partner with a small number of businesses, help them scale, and build toward a real exit — a sale to private equity, an acquisition by us, or an investment from us. We get paid out of the growth we create, so we only win if you do.

See how it works
The stage

Speaking

Conferences, masterminds, and private events. I speak about what actually moves capital, with numbers on the screen instead of slogans.

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The HoldCo Mastermind

Most programs
end with a certificate.
This one ends
with a buyer.

Most owners are building a business nobody can buy. The work that makes a company sellable is different from the work that makes it bigger, and almost nobody does it until the year they want out.

The HoldCo Mastermind is a partnership. We work with a small number of companies to scale them properly and build toward an exit — whether that's a sale to private equity, an acquisition by us, or capital from us to keep going. We're paid out of the growth, so our incentive and yours aren't just aligned in principle — they're the same number.

Apply to the HoldCo Mastermind

Three ways this ends

  1. 01

    You sell to private equity

    We scale the business and get it institutionally sellable — clean books, a team that runs without you, and a story a buyer can underwrite.

  2. 02

    We acquire it

    If it fits what we're building, we buy. You've already spent a year working with the people on the other side of the table, which is a better way to sell a company.

  3. 03

    We invest alongside you

    Not everyone wants out. If you'd rather keep going, we put capital in and stay in it with you.

We're an advisor and a potential buyer in the same relationship. That's a real conflict and we'd rather name it than have you discover it. Our fee is tied to growth, not to which exit you choose — every path above stays on the table, and which one you take is your call, not ours.

The history

Twenty years
of raises

I didn't come up through Wall Street. I came up through operating businesses that had to make payroll, and I learned to raise money because I needed it.

  1. Before

    A motorcycle dealership floor

    My first real education came from a mentor on a sales floor, not a classroom. He taught me that every business runs on four variables — cash, people, inventory, and customers. Twenty years later I've never found a fifth.

  2. 2006

    The first raise

    Started in real estate and raised outside money for the first time. I learned fast that a good deal and a fundable deal are not the same thing.

  3. 2009

    Manufacturing, retail, and one bankruptcy

    I ran real operating businesses across manufacturing and retail. I exited some of them well. One went through bankruptcy. That one taught me more about capital structure than every deal that worked, and it's the reason I'm careful about the things most people gloss over.

  4. 2014

    SIMM Capital

    Founded the firm and moved from raising deal by deal to running real structure — institutional discipline applied to private real estate and private equity. Over $400 million under management today, and more than $750 million in deal volume since that first raise in 2006.

  5. Now

    Teaching the system

    Published Become Scaleable, built the HoldCo Mastermind, and took it to the stage — now partnering with owners on the scale-up and the exit, from both sides of the table.

Read the full story

Speaking

Bring me
to your stage

Twenty years of live raises, a book, and a firm behind the material. Confirm these three topics or swap them for the talks you actually deliver — this grid takes any three.

Keynote

Raising capital without a track record

How a first-time operator becomes fundable — what investors are actually underwriting when there's no history to point at.

Keynote

Operator to allocator

The transition from running a business to running other people's money, and the habits that have to change on the way.

Workshop

Build your capital stack

A working session where the room leaves with a written raise plan instead of a page of notes.

Check availability Download the speaker kit
Become Scaleable by Mathew Simmons — a growth playbook

A growth playbook · out now

Become
Scaleable

Your business needs you.
That's the problem.

If everything important still routes through you, you don't own a business — you own a job with unusually bad hours. This is the operating discipline I've used across manufacturing, retail, and real estate to break that dependency: the unglamorous parts nobody posts about, which are the parts that actually move a company.

Get the free digital copy Buy the paid edition

The firms

Where the system
gets used on
real money

Two firms, two disciplines. Real estate runs through SIMM Capital. Operating businesses run through SCG Global. Both are the reason I'm qualified to teach any of this.

Real estate & private equity

SIMM Capital

My private real estate and private equity firm, headquartered in Pittsburgh. Multifamily, land development, and structured positions across the capital stack.

  • $400M+Assets under management
  • $750M+Deal volume since 2006
Visit SIMM Capital

Business private equity

SCG Global

Our business private equity firm — the operating-company side of the platform. This is where the discipline in Become Scaleable comes from, and where the book is published.

  • $350M+Capital raised
  • 2025Founded
Visit SCG Global

Investment opportunities are offered only through the relevant firm, by means of that offering's own documents, and only to verified accredited investors. Nothing on this website is an offer to sell a security.

From operators I've worked with

Proof

Swap in real, attributable quotes before launch — full name, company, and permission on file.

[Placeholder — quote from a HoldCo Mastermind partner company.]

Name · Company · City

[Placeholder — quote from an event organizer who booked you to speak.]

Name · Event · City

[Placeholder — quote from a HoldCo Mastermind partner company.]

Name · Company · City

Learn it,
or book me
to teach it.

If you own a business you'd eventually like to sell — or grow with real capital behind it — start with the HoldCo Mastermind. If you run an event and want the room to leave with a plan, let's talk dates.

HoldCo Mastermind Speaking inquiry