Chapin Newhard

Chapin Newhard helps founder-led business owners navigate one of the most consequential moments of their lives: the decision to sell, transition, or strategically exit the company they built. As Managing Partner at 48North Partners, he brings together entrepreneurial empathy, private equity experience, and hands-on transactional expertise to help owners maximize value and step confidently into what comes next.

Raised in Colorado by a family of entrepreneurs, both grandfathers built businesses and his father started a company before Chapin was born that he still runs today. Chapin grew up understanding that founders carry not just the financial weight of their companies, but the emotional weight too. That lived perspective shapes everything about how he advises.

Before founding 48North Partners, Chapin sharpened his skills on the buy side at Pine Tree Equity Partners, a Miami-based private equity firm focused on family-owned and founder-led service businesses. There he developed a thorough understanding of how institutional investors evaluate, structure, and execute acquisitions, working directly alongside management teams across a diverse range of industries. He knows how buyers think, what drives their decision-making, and how to structure a narrative that resonates. That knowledge helps owners enter any transaction from a position of strength and clarity.

A proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapin earned his degree with distinction. That foundation of rigorous, structured thinking informs every recommendation he makes.

At 48North Partners, Chapin and his team provide M&A advisory services specifically tailored to founders and privately held business owners. Importantly, 48North is completely fee-free to sellers. They are never paid a penny by business owners, only by the buyer when a deal successfully closes. That alignment means every conversation is no strings attached.

Chapin is known for telling clients what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear. His work centers on the questions that matter most: What does life look like after the sale? What kind of buyer will honor the legacy of what was built? What terms truly matter when everything is on the line? For business owners exploring what the next chapter might look like, he offers something increasingly rare in mergers and acquisitions: a trusted advisor who truly understands what it took to build what you have, and who will work relentlessly to protect it.