Richmond’s newest investment banking firm is open for business, but you wouldn’t know it walking by its headquarters in Shockoe Slip.
Dickinson Williams & Co. opened officially June 6. And although it hasn’t installed a sign outside of the building or launched a website, the month-old firm has landed its first client and is working leads on deals from Florida to Nebraska.
Dickinson Williams, as its name implies, was founded by duo John Dickinson and Harold Williams.
Their small investment banking operation was hatched out of Cobblestone, the shuttered arm of Richmond-based Harris Williams & Co. that specialized in investment banking services for smaller companies.
Harris Williams, which focuses on brokering deals for middle market companies of up to $1 billion in size, decided to close down Cobblestone on June 1.
Whereas Harris Williams saw such smaller deals as a less strategic part of its business model, Dickinson and Williams, Cobblestone’s two former local managing directors, saw an opportunity.
“As Harris Williams has grown over time, there just wasn’t as good a fit of having a lower market group within the firm,” Dickinson said. “Harold and I kind of sensed that.”
From its office at 1209 E. Cary St., the new firm is carving out its niche where Cobblestone left off. It will focus on M&A and capital raising deals for firms of up to $100 million in value.
The two devised the plan for their own firm as Cobblestone’s shutdown loomed. But their jumping ship was far from any form of mutiny.
“We sat down with our friends and partners [at Harris Williams] and said, ‘Would you have any concerns with us starting our own firm?’” Dickinson said. “They basically said, ‘How can we help?’”
In fact, the split was so amicable that close to 75 percent of Dickinson Williams’s leads thus far have been sent over from Harris Williams.
Their former employer even went so far as to release a prepared statement for this article to reiterate that it has given Dickinson Williams its blessing.
“John and Harold are great friends and talented bankers. Their new firm serves an important niche within the lower-middle market, and we are very supportive of their success,” Harris Williams co-founder Hiter Harris said in the statement. “We have referred several opportunities to them already, and look forward to seeing their business grow as we continue to expand the Harris Williams & Co. platform and our middle market leadership.”
Dickinson, Williams and Harris go way back.
Williams, 50, is a Richmond native who went to grade school with Harris.
Dickinson, also 50, went to college with Harris at Hampden-Sydney. The Fredericksburg native was one of the first 10 employees at Harris Williams when it was founded. He also helped launch Cobblestone in 1998.
Harris Williams also let the duo bring an employee along with them to help keep the new shop in order.
It didn’t take much to get the firm up and running. It needed office space, which it found on the third floor of 1209 E. Cary St. It then had to acquire the various licenses needed in the industry, including a broker-dealer license.
Dickinson and Williams financed everything themselves.
“We don’t need a ton of capital to do what we’re doing,” Williams said.
Using the contacts they’ve built over the years, they were able to launch right into going after new clients.
DW works deals involving closely held and family owned businesses that are looking to raise capital, grow through acquisition or sell a stake to another party. They also work with private equity firms looking to raise capital or to buy or sell portfolio companies.
“It’s an interesting time,” Dickinson said. “The M&A market has become very strong again.”
Dickinson and Williams want to keep things small starting out. They’ll look to do five or six deals a year, as deals can take six months to complete.
“We’re not here to build the next 20- to 30- to 50-man shop,” Williams said. “That becomes very difficult to manage. We are being very thoughtful in terms of how we want to grow.”
To get the word out – as they did when decided on what to call their new venture – Dickinson and Williams rely on their reputations and their names.
“We did talk about some other names, but what we thought we brought to the market was the relationships we’ve built. That brought us back to our own personal brand,” Dickinson said.
That’s another reason why keeping things quiet hasn’t impeded their launch.
“I don’t think we’re going to take an ad out in the Wall Street Journal,” Williams said. “We market through our deals. We manage the deal process well. That is a way we convey quality, and that turns around and allows us to be referred.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].
Richmond’s newest investment banking firm is open for business, but you wouldn’t know it walking by its headquarters in Shockoe Slip.
Dickinson Williams & Co. opened officially June 6. And although it hasn’t installed a sign outside of the building or launched a website, the month-old firm has landed its first client and is working leads on deals from Florida to Nebraska.
Dickinson Williams, as its name implies, was founded by duo John Dickinson and Harold Williams.
Their small investment banking operation was hatched out of Cobblestone, the shuttered arm of Richmond-based Harris Williams & Co. that specialized in investment banking services for smaller companies.
Harris Williams, which focuses on brokering deals for middle market companies of up to $1 billion in size, decided to close down Cobblestone on June 1.
Whereas Harris Williams saw such smaller deals as a less strategic part of its business model, Dickinson and Williams, Cobblestone’s two former local managing directors, saw an opportunity.
“As Harris Williams has grown over time, there just wasn’t as good a fit of having a lower market group within the firm,” Dickinson said. “Harold and I kind of sensed that.”
From its office at 1209 E. Cary St., the new firm is carving out its niche where Cobblestone left off. It will focus on M&A and capital raising deals for firms of up to $100 million in value.
The two devised the plan for their own firm as Cobblestone’s shutdown loomed. But their jumping ship was far from any form of mutiny.
“We sat down with our friends and partners [at Harris Williams] and said, ‘Would you have any concerns with us starting our own firm?’” Dickinson said. “They basically said, ‘How can we help?’”
In fact, the split was so amicable that close to 75 percent of Dickinson Williams’s leads thus far have been sent over from Harris Williams.
Their former employer even went so far as to release a prepared statement for this article to reiterate that it has given Dickinson Williams its blessing.
“John and Harold are great friends and talented bankers. Their new firm serves an important niche within the lower-middle market, and we are very supportive of their success,” Harris Williams co-founder Hiter Harris said in the statement. “We have referred several opportunities to them already, and look forward to seeing their business grow as we continue to expand the Harris Williams & Co. platform and our middle market leadership.”
Dickinson, Williams and Harris go way back.
Williams, 50, is a Richmond native who went to grade school with Harris.
Dickinson, also 50, went to college with Harris at Hampden-Sydney. The Fredericksburg native was one of the first 10 employees at Harris Williams when it was founded. He also helped launch Cobblestone in 1998.
Harris Williams also let the duo bring an employee along with them to help keep the new shop in order.
It didn’t take much to get the firm up and running. It needed office space, which it found on the third floor of 1209 E. Cary St. It then had to acquire the various licenses needed in the industry, including a broker-dealer license.
Dickinson and Williams financed everything themselves.
“We don’t need a ton of capital to do what we’re doing,” Williams said.
Using the contacts they’ve built over the years, they were able to launch right into going after new clients.
DW works deals involving closely held and family owned businesses that are looking to raise capital, grow through acquisition or sell a stake to another party. They also work with private equity firms looking to raise capital or to buy or sell portfolio companies.
“It’s an interesting time,” Dickinson said. “The M&A market has become very strong again.”
Dickinson and Williams want to keep things small starting out. They’ll look to do five or six deals a year, as deals can take six months to complete.
“We’re not here to build the next 20- to 30- to 50-man shop,” Williams said. “That becomes very difficult to manage. We are being very thoughtful in terms of how we want to grow.”
To get the word out – as they did when decided on what to call their new venture – Dickinson and Williams rely on their reputations and their names.
“We did talk about some other names, but what we thought we brought to the market was the relationships we’ve built. That brought us back to our own personal brand,” Dickinson said.
That’s another reason why keeping things quiet hasn’t impeded their launch.
“I don’t think we’re going to take an ad out in the Wall Street Journal,” Williams said. “We market through our deals. We manage the deal process well. That is a way we convey quality, and that turns around and allows us to be referred.”
Michael Schwartz is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].