We are more than an M&A advisor – we guide founders through complexity and growth with the same precision, vision, and creativity that define the industries we serve.
The Innovator's
Investment Bank
TM
If You're Building the Future ...Let's Talk Today
ABOUT AUDACITY IB
With offices in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, Audacity IB provides M&A advisory, capital raising, and growth-to-exit strategic guidance for technically and operationally complex founder-owned businesses being reshaped by innovation.
Our focus spans advanced design/engineering and manufacturing, automation equipment and tools, robotics, medical device manufacturing, laser optics, sustainable food, advanced materials, in-space and orbital systems, DefenseTech, dual-use product manufacturing, and both hard and soft AI-driven industrial and other systems.
We work founder-to-founder - shoulder to shoulder, not across the table. Our founder, over the course of a career, has advised on more than 200 assignments, including 40+ completed M&A transactions generating over $4 billion in combined exit value - exclusively for middle-market founder-owned companies in our focus sectors.
We specialize in first-time founder exits with valuations from $30 million to $300 million. Beyond transactions, we work in the trenches - driving operational transformation before a sale and continuing to support success afterward with select Fortune 500 companies and emerging private equity buyers.
Whether preparing for a strategic sale, building for growth, or leading a transformation, we bring the financial, operational, strategic, capital-raising, and M&A expertise that turn innovation into exit success.
Trust in Audacity IB for creative, precision M&A, and growth-to-exit services across the world's most innovative sectors.
We are agile, ambidextrous, and unafraid to tackle complexities that others may avoid.
A multi-award-winning principal-led firm, Audacity IB has demonstrated the ability to punch above its weight, successfully competing with and earning recognition alongside much larger firms. Our depth and breadth of experience make us more agile and ambidextrous, able to dig in where many other bankers will not...or maybe cannot.
We serve as the founder's creative strategist, business marketer, negotiator, and protector.
We excel at driving and structuring complex "story" deals, and have crafted and executed highly-successful, sophisticated, competitive auction processes focused on delivering premium valuation outcomes.
At times, founders may engage us after they have been approached by a specific buyer. In these situations, we will work tirelessly and rapidly to build exit optionality, negotiation leverage, higher valuations, and best terms.
Audacity IB sells to discerning private equity firms, family offices, strategic buyers, and other sophisticated buyers, including through our proprietary relationships.
Unlike other firms, beyond investment banking, we provide integrated growth-to-exit consulting services - a proven, proprietary long-tail integrated approach to building and transforming businesses before they are sold in a first-time exit. CFO/CxO-equivalent-level intensity.
Audacity is about going further, working harder, digging deeper, and d𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀 to s𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 our clients 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁 - to protect and amplify those doing the hard work of building the future.
$4+
Billion Value Delivered
200+
Completed
Assignments
40+
Completed M&A Transactions
Testimonials - We relentlessly work to protect and drive exit value, and care about our clients' companies as much as they do.
Advanced Design, Manufacturing & Automation | Industrial & Emerging Tech
“Audacity IB executed with tireless commitment and energy in representing us during the selling process, and worked with us intensely daily for several months to ensure an optimal transaction outcome. Their ability to move with unmatched speed while digging incredibly deep into the details of the business sets them apart and ensured the best possible outcome.”
Founder & CEO
Advanced Design/Manufacturing Company
MedTech & Life Sciences | Complex Medical Devices & Lab Tools
“Audacity IB did an incredible job, not only in representing us throughout the selling process; but in working with us daily for many months prior to the sale, to help us build operations and accelerate growth well before the company was sold. Finding a quality, trustworthy M&A investment banker capable of also effectively serving in the trenches with a founder as a trusted long-term co-executive partner is very rare.”
Founder & CEO
Innovative MedTech/Life Sciences Company
Sustainable Food & AgTech
“Simply put, the deal team did unbelievable work for us from start to finish and we are very thankful that we selected Audacity IB to lead this fast-paced and highly complex transaction. We were very impressed with their aggressiveness, creativity, and ability to run a process and close a transaction in less than five months from start…while delivering an outcome and strategic partnership that significantly exceeded our expectations.”
Founder & CEO
Sustainable Food & Aquiculture Sourcing Company
Deep Private Equity Expertise | Highly Collaborative & Effective on Deal Teams
“This is a great example of a true collaborative legal and financial deal team effort. We were fortunate enough to work with Audacity IB, which was committed to getting the best overall outcome and worked tirelessly to run a full competitive auction. As a team, we moved through the deal process in an extremely efficient and effective manner in the best interest of our shared client.”
Head of Private Equity
A Leading M&A Transaction Law Firm
The Leadership Team
Let's Strategize
Founder, CEO & Managing Principal
Jeffrey Scott Shippy, MBA, CPA
Jeff brings 30 years of investment banking, financial advisory, and executive leadership experience across M&A, recapitalizations, restructurings, capital raising, valuation, and corporate development. He has advised 200+ companies, completed 40+ M&A transactions, and served as CFO/EVP for two founder-led businesses, working side-by-side with the founders to build and exit their businesses.
Jeff has worked exclusively in investment banking for more than 20 years, including as an M&A banker at Houlihan Lokey in Los Angeles and as Investment Banking Director at Stout in Los Angeles focused on diversified industrial, manufacturing, MedTech/life sciences, emerging technology, and private equity transactions. He joined Stout at the foundation level and helped scale the office from two professionals to more than 35, propelling Stout Los Angeles to earn Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” within five years of formation.
Earlier in his career, Jeff gained broad expertise beyond banking – at Epic Ventures, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate, focused on life sciences and technology; at Accenture in Palo Alto advising innovation clients including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and Salesforce; and as a CPA serving founder-owned industrial and manufacturing businesses at BDO USA, the nation's 5th largest CPA firm.
Jeff launched Audacity Consulting Partners to provide integrated strategy, operations, and financial transformation services fused with M&A advisory for founder-led companies. In 2023, he founded Audacity Capital Partners, the firm’s FINRA-registered broker-dealer for M&A and private placement transactions. Under his leadership, Audacity IB has earned coveted national M&A awards for its transaction services, execution excellence, and industry expertise.
Jeff is an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business, Thunderbird School of Global Management, and Northern Illinois University. He holds an MBA in Finance and International Management and a BS in Business Administration, Accountancy. FINRA Registrations: Series 7, 24, 63, and 79.
While Audacity IB is not a CPA firm, Jeff has an extensive professional foundation in public accounting, corporate finance, and valuation matters. Jeff is a licensed CPA, having passed the Uniform CPA Examination upon first attempt. He also previously earned and held designations as Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV, AICPA) and Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA, Business Valuation), underscoring his deep expertise in complex business valuation, transaction advisory, and exit value matters.
Outside of business, Jeff is a founder, producer, singer, and keyboardist of a music rock band aptly named "The L.A. Bankers", formed with one of his former investment banking colleagues. The band plays at select events and on the Hermosa Beach Strand. He also regularly lectures on being creative in the context of M&A advisory and has presented at Stanford University, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Loyola Marymount University, and other platforms.
Let's Grab Coffee!
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Denyse Holloway
Denyse brings 30 years of experience as a business founder and serving in past corporate roles. At Audacity IB, Denyse is responsible for building and strengthening strategic relationships across the private equity, legal, and advisory communities. She plays a central role in amplifying the firm's presence in the market and reinforcing its reputation as a trusted partner to founder-led companies and their advisors.
Before joining Audacity IB, Denyse was Founder and COO of a fitness and health services company. Over a period of 20 years, her company served thousands of clients locally in California, and nationally online. In addition, she provided business consulting services for other operators across the industry, helping to create new programs, marketing campaigns, and operational systems. Her contributions led to certain of her business clients developing into leading fitness businesses, including one that is now a world-renowned global fitness franchise.
Prior to founding her business, Denyse served as Operations Manager for Edmunds.com, one of the nation’s first online automotive information services companies. In this role, she led strategic projects and interfaced with software engineering, editorial, and management to drive diversified strategic operations and growth initiatives.
Before her time at Edmunds.com, Denyse served as Associate Director of Marketing for the real estate division of Prudential Financial, with responsibility for creating, developing, and executing diversified targeted marketing campaigns for a team of more than 2,500 real estate agents across the greater Los Angeles region.
Denyse began her career in Corporate & Foundation Relations at Loyola Marymount University, where she was responsible for fundraising and liaising with the Board of Trustees and Office of the President.
Denyse holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In her spare time, Denyse serves the community as a certified life coach and volunteers her time with philanthropic organizations.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Request Access to Our Future Publications
At Audacity IB, we believe thought leadership should do more than comment on the obvious. It should cut through noise, surface signal, and give founders the clarity they need when navigating the multi-dimensional complexities of building their businesses and planning for maximum business value in light of ever-changing innovation and market dynamics. We are launching a curated stream of insight focused on your industry and today's business-exit environment.
Our upcoming publications will include perspective pertinent to advanced design/engineering and manufacturing, automation equipment, robotics, medical device manufacturing, laser optics, advanced materials, in-space and orbital systems, DefenseTech, dual-use product manufacturing, both hard and soft AI-driven industrial, and other innovation sectors that are helping to reshape the future.
Contact Denyse Holloway at 1-818-497-3296 or dholloway@audacityib.com to request access to our select distribution of future publications.
CONTACT US
Los Angeles Office
10866 Wilshire Blvd, 4th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Silicon Valley Office
2100 Geng Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
© 2025 Audacity IB. All rights reserved. Securities are offered through Audacity Capital Partners LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Audacity IB is a trade name for Audacity Capital Partners LLC and Audacity Consulting Partners LLC. “Audacity IB” or the “firm” refer to these two affiliated companies. Audacity IB is not a CPA firm. The firm's Silicon Valley office is operated by Audacity Consulting Partners LLC. It is acknowledged that the content of this website is for general information purposes only and is not intended to constitute an offer to sell or buy any securities or other assets or promise to undertake or solicit business and may not be relied upon in connection with any offer or sale of securities or other assets. The above reference to 200+ assignments, including 40+ completed M&A transactions delivering $4+ billion in combined value refers to engagements completed by our team at Audacity IB and at prior firms. Business Continuity Plan | FINRA Broker Check