Meet Seth.

Seth Workman has a unique or non-traditional background that brought him to the doorsteps of private equity.   Born and raised in Cincinnati, at the age of 14 he began his first business mowing the neighbors’ lawns and helping with snow and leaf removal.  His dad provided the start-up capital by purchasing his first mower.   He had 4 clients.  He paid back his father by mowing his own lawn, taking $15 off the purchase price until the mower was owned in full.  This ran through high school until he was introduced to the restaurant business.  Towards the end of high school and through college, Seth paid for his education by working myriad jobs in the restaurant industry.  Upon graduation from the University of Cincinnati, he was presented with an opportunity to run a restaurant in New York City.   After several years running a bistro in lower Manhattan, he wanted to expand his restaurant knowledge and went to Chicago to work for McDonalds Corp.  While this proved to be excellent experience, he realized this would not be his life’s work.   With a young family on the horizon, he decided to follow in his fathers’ footsteps and return to NYC to begin a financial sales career with JP Morgan Chase.   After his first son was born in NYC, he and his family retreated back to Ohio to lay roots in his home state.  Upon his return to Ohio, Seth spent nearly a decade helping CrossCountry Mortgage grow their wholesale residential mortgage business. 

One day while at the mortgage company, he received an unexpected call from his brother-in-law inviting him into the family business.   With a restaurant and financial services background, it seemed fitting that he would join their commercial kitchen equipment distribution company.   After overseeing several divisions in their company, Seth realized he was ready to go out on his own.   He began learning more about the M&A world. Because of the specialized knowledge and skills required in this field, Seth pursued and earned a Certified Exit Planning Advisor certification through the Exit Planning Institute. In addition to the CEPA designation, Seth has held licenses in Insurance, Securities, and Mortgage Banking.

 He became a certified CEPA to better understand what business owners strive to achieve prior to a full sale or divestment.  Then he reached out to friends in the private equity space and realized they all wanted to increase deal flow, offering lucrative incentives for finding the right company.   That’s where he saw the need for a matchmaking service; one that would introduce transition-ready business owners to capital partners that would provide the support and financial resources. 

HighDive Partners, LLC was born.  

Seth resides in NE Ohio with his wife, two sons, and their dog, Juno.