COLUMBIA, S.C., March 9 — EverPine Holdings announces its launch as a new investment partnership dedicated to acquiring and stewarding durable, service-oriented businesses across the Southeastern United States. Founded by Thomas Rhodes, Austin Rhodes, and Walker Hobson, EverPine brings together deep regional roots, operator experience, and a permanent-capital mindset designed to support businesses, employees, and communities for the long-term.
EverPine was formed in response to a gap the founders observed firsthand. As interest in lower middle-market businesses across the Southeast has grown, ownership, leadership, and capital decisions have increasingly moved farther from the communities those businesses serve. Drawing on decades of experience building, operating, and investing in founder-led companies, the partners set out to design a different model, one rooted in local accountability, long-term ownership, and practical operating judgment.
“We grew up in towns where small and mid-sized businesses weren’t abstract ‘assets’, they were civic anchors, and they provided purpose in the community,” said Thomas Rhodes, co-founder of EverPine. “They trained people, supported families, and took care of their communities. We wanted to build an investment platform that respects that reality and is structured to preserve it.”
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the EverPine founders view their mission as a continuation of a longstanding American tradition: economic self-determination driven by locally owned businesses and accountable leadership. While global trade and outside capital have created meaningful opportunities, the partners have also seen, particularly across the Southeast, how communities can be weakened when ownership and decision-making become disconnected from those places.
“The founding ideals of our country still matter,” said Austin Rhodes, co-founder of EverPine. “When ownership and leadership are rooted in the same communities as employees and customers, incentives are clearer and decisions tend to be better. Businesses are healthier when responsibility isn’t abstract or outsourced but lived every day.”
EverPine partners with profitable, service-based businesses that have durable demand and leadership teams who care deeply about their people and their legacy. The firm brings permanent, patient capital and an operator-led approach, prioritizing continuity, thoughtful transitions, and steady improvement over short-term financial engineering.
“The incentives behind ownership shape everything that comes after,” said Walker Hobson, co-founder of EverPine. “Our structure allows us to make decisions with the long-term health of the business, its employees, and its community in mind.”
The EverPine founders have seen what happens when that connection erodes. Across the South, communities once anchored by strong local businesses have struggled as ownership, leadership, and investment moved elsewhere. EverPine was built on the conviction that ownership structures should strengthen, not weaken, the economic fabric of the regions where companies operate.
EverPine is actively engaging with business owners across the Southeast who are beginning to think about the next chapter for their companies.
EverPine welcomes thoughtful, no pressure conversations with founders who care deeply about their employees, customers, and communities and who want a partner built to steward what they’ve created for the long-term.
