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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Accounting Roll-Ups

John Martin

Principal at Trinity Hunt Partners

Dallas, TX

JM
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Active Investment Committee member and deal-team principal behind Trinity Hunt's Dataprise, Supreme Optimization, and Berger Consulting platform investments — a direct line into current PE roll-up thesis and pipeline.

Background

John Martin is a Principal at Trinity Hunt Partners, a Dallas-based middle-market private equity firm with over $2.3 billion in assets under management focused on business and consumer services. He joined Trinity Hunt in 2018 after working in M&A at Piper Jaffray & Co.'s Diversified Industrials & Services Group, covering business services, transportation/logistics, specialty manufacturing, and building products. He holds a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University, and sits on the Fund's Investment Committee.

Notable deals

  • 2020
    Led/served on deal team for Trinity Hunt's majority investment in Dataprise, an IT managed services provider, and joined its board
  • 2023
    Deal team member on Trinity Hunt's majority investment in Supreme Optimization, a life-sciences digital marketing agency
  • 2026
    Deal team member on Trinity Hunt's platform investment establishing Berger Consulting Group as an economic consulting and dispute advisory platform, with a direct quote on the partnership

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Principal at Trinity Hunt Partners (Dallas), joined 2018 from Piper Jaffray's Diversified Industrials & Services M&A group
  • B.S. Accounting & Business Administration (cum laude), Washington and Lee University
  • Sits on Trinity Hunt's Fund Investment Committee; responsible for deal sourcing, execution, and portfolio growth

Current focus

  • Board seats at Dataprise (IT managed services), Exclusive Concepts, IMS ExpertServices, and Supreme Optimization
  • Just closed a new platform investment in Berger Consulting Group (economic consulting/dispute advisory, March 2026) — signals continued appetite for professional-services roll-ups
  • Other active investments include Agital and Herringbone Digital

What they care about

  • Partnering with founder-operators who retain meaningful equity and operational control (pattern across Dataprise, Supreme Optimization, Berger deals)
  • Building "platforms" in fragmented services niches (IT MSP, life-sciences marketing, economic/forensic consulting) via buy-and-build
  • Preserving company culture through the M&A process — repeatedly emphasized in deal quotes

Recent moves

  • March 2026: announced Berger Consulting Group investment, publicly quoted on the thesis
  • Ongoing board involvement across four+ portfolio companies suggests high current bandwidth

Potential sensitivities

  • Recently closed platform deal (Berger) likely means limited near-term bandwidth for new diligence calls
  • As an active board member, may be constrained on what he can share about specific portfolio company performance

Questions to ask

  • What criteria make a professional/business-services platform "roll-up ready" vs. too fragmented to consolidate profitably?
  • How is Trinity Hunt structuring add-on economics differently for Berger vs. earlier platforms like Dataprise?
  • Where does he see the next accounting/consulting-adjacent roll-up opportunity emerging?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick question on services roll-up strategy
Hi John, I've been following Trinity Hunt's build-out of platform investments in professional and business services — Dataprise, Supreme Optimization, and most recently Berger Consulting Group caught my eye given the parallels to consolidation plays we're evaluating in accounting and adjacent services. I'd value 20 minutes to hear how you think about platform selection and add-on sequencing in fragmented, expertise-driven service markets, and where you see the next wave of opportunity. Happy to work around your schedule. Would a short call sometime next week work? Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

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