As we passed the three-year anniversary of the formation of Rudolph Capital, I wanted to send a heartfelt thank you to my investors, deal sources and management team that have gotten our firm off to a fantastic start. Our first transaction, DeIorio Foods, has performed exceptionally well through some very tumultuous times. Employing over 250 people in the greater Utica area and making sure they were safe throughout the covid pandemic while continuing to service and grow our customer base has been a great source of pride. We have invested in physical equipment and people to make sure we continue to be positioned for success for another 100 years. We have also gotten very close to closing a couple of other transactions, but disappointingly they slipped away for one reason or another. They are good companies run by very solid owners (that I still consider friends) and I hope to re-engage when the timing is better. We invest significant time, capital and other resources to close transactions, and there is no guarantee of success. This is what is required (and is what I would require if the shoe were on the other foot) when asking a founder-owner to sell a business that is a "life-work" and may have been in the family for many, many years.

We are looking at 2023 as a time of expansion as the number of potential transactions we review grows and we hope to have news of a new acquisition in the near future.