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Investment Banker·PPM Roll-Ups·Behavioral Health

Eric Yetter

Managing Director, Healthcare Team Leader at FOCUS Investment Banking

Nashville, TN

EY
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Runs FOCUS's healthcare team and has directly sourced/sold ENT, dental, and physician-practice platforms to PE-backed DSOs — a live pipeline for rollup deal flow.

Background

Eric Yetter is Managing Director and Healthcare Team Leader at FOCUS Investment Banking, where he leads sell-side M&A advisory for physician practices, dental groups, behavioral health companies, and ASCs. He founded Physicians First in 2016 as a boutique bank focused exclusively on physician-owner M&A, building it into one of the most active advisors in that niche before merging it into FOCUS in 2021. Before banking, he was a healthcare operator with experience in ambulatory surgery centers and physician services; he holds JD and BS degrees from Vanderbilt University.

Notable deals

  • 2024
    Advised Mid-Michigan ENT (East Lansing, MI) as exclusive sell-side banker in its partnership with Align ENT + Allergy
  • 2024
    Served as exclusive advisor to Sitwell Dental (Upstate NY, 4 locations) in its sale to SALT Dental Partners
  • 2016
    Founded Physicians First, a boutique physician-practice M&A advisory that became one of the most active shops in PE-to-medical-practice deals before merging into FOCUS

Call-prep brief

Eric Yetter — FOCUS Investment Banking

Background: Managing Director and Healthcare Team Leader at FOCUS Investment Banking (Nashville, TN). Founded Physicians First in 2016, a boutique bank dedicated to physician-practice M&A, which merged into FOCUS in 2021 with Yetter leading the combined healthcare team. Vanderbilt JD/BS; prior operating experience at a physician-services/ASC company before banking.

Current focus: Sell-side advisory for founder-owned and smaller PE-backed healthcare businesses — ENT, dental, behavioral health, pain management, ophthalmology, dermatology. Publishes frequent valuation-multiple and market-update content on specific specialties (cardiology, ophthalmology, dental, dermatology), suggesting he's actively cultivating deal flow across those verticals in 2026.

What he cares about: Running a tight, senior-led "quarterback" sell-side process; protecting physician-owner clients through diligence; matching practices with the right PE/DSO partner rather than just maximizing headline price.

Recent moves: Closed ENT (Mid-Michigan ENT → Align ENT + Allergy) and dental (Sitwell Dental → SALT Dental Partners) partnerships in 2024; continues publishing specialty-specific M&A multiple benchmarks through mid-2026.

Sensitivities: As a former practice-side operator turned banker, he may be protective of physician-owner relationships and skeptical of buyers seen as purely financial/extractive — frame outreach around clinical/operational fit, not just capital.

Questions to ask:

  1. Which physician specialties does he see as most "ripe" for platform build vs. tuck-in right now, and why?
  2. What's his current mandate pipeline — any founder-owned groups actively exploring a partner search?
  3. How does he evaluate DSO/platform buyers on cultural fit for physician sellers, and what has made past partnerships (e.g., SALT, Align) work?

Outreach draft

Subject
Physician practice rollup strategy — quick call?
Hi Eric, I came across your work leading the healthcare team at FOCUS and your track record building Physicians First into one of the most active physician-practice M&A shops before the merger. We're a private equity team actively evaluating platform and tuck-in opportunities across physician practice rollups (ENT, dental, and adjacent specialties), and your recent work on the Mid-Michigan ENT and Sitwell Dental deals caught our attention. Would you have 20 minutes in the next couple of weeks to compare notes on where you're seeing the best-positioned practices right now, and how we might work together on sourcing or process? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources