Who We Are
San Diego is an incredible place to live. But as you know, it’s not the epicenter for Private Equity, Family Offices or Investors in the PE world. SDBAIN brings together these groups to collaborate and work together. We want to move beyond mere networking and create a direct connection between PE and San Diego business owners. Many flourishing businesses in San Diego don’t know that there is a community of private equity investors that can help them grow and/or exit.
We’d like to create a home for collaboration, looking at deals, and helping local businesses learn about Private Equity.
Who we think
would be a good fit:
Private Equity Funds
Independent Sponsors
Search firms (PE)
Family Offices (not in Real Estate but
in funding operating companies)Debt providers (non banks)
Our inaugural meetup in January of 2023 hosted about 25 professionals who shared tequila, ideas, and made genuine connections with others in the community.
We are currently focused on building a network that has active business investments in San Diego, or an operating office here. If you are from other areas, let us know and we’ll include you if we expand the network.
Founders
Alan Ezeir
Alan Ezeir
Alan Ezeir has established a track record of success in domain names, online commerce, telecommunications, and several other fast-paced entrepreneurial/start-up environments. After over 26 years of startups, Alan has taken the next step in his career by diving into the acquisition world. Circle Square Capital has been formed to acquire businesses that have $2-$10M in EBITDA, with the objective to take the baton from the previous founder and grow them to the next level. Previously, Alan was President and Founder of Domain Cost Club (division of GDI), the first and only registrar in the world to offer all domains at cost with zero markup. DCC’s at-cost pricing applies to all domain transactions including new domain registrations, renewals, and transfers. He successfully sold this division in September of 2016.
Alan was also President and Founder of Global Domains International (GDI), the official Registry for the dotWS Top Level Domain. GDI was founded in November 1999 and launched the dotWS Registry four months later in March 2000. dotWS domains have been established in more than 220 countries and owned by millions of customers.With the sale of DCC, he also sold GDI in September 2016.
Before founding GDI, Alan founded Planet Earth Communications where he managed all accounting, financial, contractual, and operational functions. Prior to PEC, Alan was the head of USVT, a switchless telecommunications reseller in Northern California. USVT developed a broad distribution base throughout California and increased monthly revenues by a record six-fold under Alan’s leadership. In 1991, Alan founded Intelligent Communications Management (ICM), a business responsible for helping small to large scale companies determine the most proficient telecommunications carriers to suit their requirements. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from UCLA.
As a hobby turned business, Alan also established a local fitness center in 2004 in La Jolla, the city where he began his career. He has 2 grown children in the New York and San Francisco areas
Alan is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) since 2002 and the founding alumni President of the Southern California Entrepreneurial Academy Alumni Association (SCEAA): an organization that works closely with the development of entrepreneurs in Southern California. SCEAA facilitates mentor relationships by pairing emerging entrepreneurs with established, successful ones.
Alan is involved with a number of philanthropic causes throughout San Diego. He was a founding member in the redevelopment of the New Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego and contributes to numerous charities including the Sundt Memorial Foundation and Augie’s Qwest. Alan has been honored to speak at some of the United States’ finest universities including the UCSD Rady School of Management. Alan was also invited to present to the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University on the topic of being an entrepreneur in today’s economic environment.
Over the past several years, Alan has made investments in several industries including high tech and green technology (collectively over 15 investments). He was one of the founding investors of ecoATM which was subsequently acquired by CoinStar for $350M.
A passion for Tequila, Alan became a known collector with over 250 tequilas. He does taste testings and education in the world of tequila and has traveled to the region to learn more about Agave spirits. One day this passion may become a multi-tiered educational platform for the spirit and or a club.
In his first few years in Private Equity he has made 2 acquisitions. Pawz.com a lifestyle brand around the pet industry and NanoHearingAids.com a direct to consumer leader in the hearing aid space.
Alan is the General Partner in Impact Recovery Homes that buys a single family home every week around the country to assist in sober living. Actively involved in hard money lending, cold storage real estate and mobile home parks.
Dana Robinson
Dana Robinson
Dana Robinson is a Managing Partner with Verde Equity Partners, a San Diego based private equity firm currently focusing on property adjacent services and business to business services.
Dana is a recovering corporate/trademark lawyer with over 20 years of practice (managing partner, Techlaw LLP, managing partner, US IP Attorneys). He was adjunct professor and director of intellectual property clinics at both California Western School of Law (2018-2022) and University of San Diego School of Law (2012-2018). Dana’s contribution to the profession includes publishing Trademark Prosecution, a Casebook and Practice Guide (Lawcarta, 2021).
Parallel to Dana’s legal career, his focus was entrepreneurship and real estate. His ventures span multiple industries, including three international businesses with operations in China. Dana’s operational experiences include startups and control buyouts, and multiple experiences combining operations of acquisitions and subsequent exits.
Unlike many private equity professionals, Dana has been boots-on-the-ground, and gets his hands dirty in the operational side of the businesses he invests in. He spent two years in operations as a member of the executive team at Goettl, where Dana handled the integration of the Austin acquisition, and a season in change management in the company’s Los Angeles operation. Goettl’s 10x growth over a three year period led to a recapitalization in December 2021 to Cortec at a historic valuation.
Dana was Co-Founder of an audiobook company that was sold to private equity group Shamrock, and recapped to KKR in 2020. Since that time, he and his co-founder have launched Zoundy, an early stage audiobook SAAS platform, and EverCourse, an AV learning production and distribution company.
Dana’s investment banking experience includes three years at San Diego’s Shoreline Partners, where Dana held a Series 79 FINRA license, and was involved in numerous sell-side deals.
Dana’s corporate governance includes roles as a professional neutral director, and board seats with for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
He lives in a small village in coastal San Diego, with his wife of 33 years, who has been his strongest supporter and business partner.