Driving Value for Complex Technical, Founder-Owned Businesses
Strategic Financial Advisory + M&A Investment Banking
Audacity IB is an award-winning strategic financial advisory services firm with integrated M&A and capital raise capabilities designed exclusively for technically complex businesses.
We work alongside founders from late-stage growth through first-time exits of up to $300 million, bringing the same precision, vision, and creativity that define the industries we serve.
ABOUT AUDACITY IB
Strategic Financial Advisory Services and M&A Investment Banking
Audacity is a unique strategic financial advisory and investment banking firm designed exclusively for first-time exit founders and entrepreneurs of privately-held companies in technically complex industries. Banking is part of our DNA, but we’re much broader than a traditional M&A investment bank.
Deep Technical Industries Focus
We specialize in technically complex sectors where our founders are typically technical experts by background, including scientists, engineers, physicians and other domain specialists who built businesses around deep expertise and innovation. Our sectors include Advanced Manufacturing, MedTech, Robotics & Automation, Engineered Products, and AI-Enabled Products.
Proven Growth-to-Exit Expertise
Unlike other banks, we take hands-on operating support ownership inside founder-owned businesses and actually help co-build and exit them at depth. We provide integrated strategic financial advisory, capital raising, and exit M&A advisory services exclusively for founder-led businesses, advising them from scaling their businesses to driving and leading a successful first-time exit.
Curated Client Portfolio (1-5 Year Exits)
We work with a select portfolio of clients and intentionally limit the number of companies we work with at any given time. We’re highly selective and take a long-term value-creation approach, often partnering with founders for years. In select situations, we may also invest alongside our clients through equity ownership.
One Principal-Led Firm Model
As a single-principal practice, all M&A and capital raise engagements are personally led and executed by our Principal, and supported by the right professionals and specialists team for specific financial advisory engagement situations.
Multi-Dimensional Leadership
Traditional investment banks often engage near the finish line with limited growth and operational capability or involvement, and traditional strategic/financial advisors may lead in one functional area (finance, operations, or growth) but do not necessarily thrive in navigating multi-dimensional growth-to-exit complexity across a company's full life cycle. We do.
Integrated Platform from Growth to Exit
Unlike many independent advisory firms, we operate through our own affiliated FINRA-registered broker-dealer, Audacity Capital Partners LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC) for investment banking and securities transactions.
For our clients, this means continuity from growth to exit execution. The same principal who has worked alongside the company and understands its business and helped shape its strategy can continue leading the transaction through execution.
We don’t just sell companies — we help design, build, and grow them as well. We roll up our sleeves, drive clarity, help accelerate growth, and protect founders when the stakes are the highest.
We are 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, growth leader, business marketer, negotiator, and protector.
We also 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 financial, growth, capital raise, operational, and exit services — a proven, proprietary long-tail integrated approach to building and transforming businesses across all stages of growth, before they are sold in a first-time exit. Founder-equivalent-level intensity.
"Audacity" is about the discipline to do what is right — 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.
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Finance, Growth
& Operations
Assignments
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Completed M&A Transactions
($100M Avg. Trx Value)
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Billion Exit Value Delivered
to Founders
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Testimonials - We drive and protect exit value, and care about our clients' companies as much as our founders 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
Emerging AI/Technology
“We engaged Audacity IB after our seed round, looking for more than just banking advice. They impressed us with their growth/operating partner capabilities and technical rigor — the ability to rapidly synthesize advanced technologies and market opportunities, deliver complex financial analyses, and advise us on strategic alternatives. They stepped in as a true financial leadership partner, not only clarifying our options but also validating future exit potential through a market check and preparing us for critical next-round investor conversations. On top of that, they were amazing to work with! I highly recommend Audacity IB to any rapidly growing, disruptive technology company.”
Founder & CEO (Techstars '24)
AI-Driven B2B SaaS 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
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Stanford University,
Graduate School of Business
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Thunderbird,
School of Global Management
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Northern Illinois University,
School of Business, Accountancy
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FINRA Licenses: Series 7, 24, 63, and 79
Jeffrey Scott Shippy, MBA, CPA
Founder, CEO & Principal
Jeff Shippy brings more than 30 years of experience across investment banking, strategic advisory, and executive leadership. He has advised 200+ companies, completed 40+ M&A transactions, and served in senior operating roles including as CFO and EVP for innovative companies — working alongside founders as a trusted partner to build, finance, and successfully exit their businesses.
Jeff has spent more than 25 years in investment banking, including with Houlihan Lokey and as an Investment Banking Director at Stout in Los Angeles. His experience spans technically complex businesses across Advanced Manufacturing, MedTech, Life Sciences, Healthcare, Technology, and related sectors, with extensive expertise in complex transactions, including private equity transactions. He also has experience in special situations, including business restructuring.
Earlier in his career, Jeff was a licensed CPA with BDO Seidman and a strategy and operating consultant with Accenture in Silicon Valley. He has also served in direct investing and operating roles, giving him perspective across all sides of a transaction — as banker, operating advisor, investor, and executive.
In 2000, Jeff founded Audacity IB as a single-principal advisory practice and, in 2023, he launched Audacity IB’s registered broker-dealer, Audacity Capital Partners LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC) for securities-related M&A and capital raise transactions for founder-owned businesses. Under his leadership, Audacity IB has earned national recognition for multiple founder transactions, advisory excellence, and technical 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 Accountancy, is a licensed CPA, and maintains FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, and 79 registrations.
Audacity IB's Services
Audacity is a principal-led strategic financial advisory and investment banking firm serving founders, entrepreneurs, and privately held companies in technically complex industries.
AUDACITY ADVISORY℠
Strategic Financial Advisory Services
Audacity Advisory℠ provides strategic financial advisory services to founders, entrepreneurs, and privately held companies throughout the lifecycle of their businesses. We work alongside founders and management teams on matters including financial and operating strategy, forecasting and financial modeling, strategic planning, corporate development, transaction readiness, valuation and value creation initiatives, and other strategic financial advisory projects.
Our relationships are often long-term. We may begin working with a company years before a potential transaction, helping management strengthen the business, evaluate strategic alternatives, prepare for future growth, and build toward an eventual liquidity event.
Every Audacity Advisory℠ engagement is personally led by Audacity's Principal, with Audacity Advisors℠ and other specialists involved when appropriate for the needs of the engagement.
AUDACITY IB℠
M&A Investment Banking & Capital Raise
Audacity IB℠ provides award-winning investment banking services to founders, entrepreneurs, and privately held companies, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and capital-raising transactions for technical industries. We have deep expertise in technically complex, hard product businesses across Advanced Industrial Manufacturing, MedTech, Robotics and Automation, Engineered Products, and related sectors.
Every Audacity IB℠ engagement is personally led and executed by the Audacity Principal - from initial transaction strategy and positioning through negotiations and closing.
Our investment banking work may represent the culmination of a long-term Audacity Advisory℠ relationship or begin as a standalone transaction engagement. Audacity IB℠ combines the transaction capabilities of an investment bank with the direct senior-level involvement of a principal-led practice.
AUDACITY ADVISORS℠
A Trusted Senior Team. Built Over Years of Working Together
Audacity Advisors℠ are experienced professionals, including with whom we have worked directly over many years and who work with Audacity on select engagements. Depending on the needs of a strategic advisory engagement, Audacity may bring together our team professionals with relevant financial, operational, industry, transaction, accounting, or other specialized expertise. Audacity Advisors℠ complement - not replace - the principal-led nature of our model. Strategic advisory engagements remains led by Audacity's Principal, with additional professionals participating where their experience can contribute to the needs of the client and engagement.
AUDACITY AI℠
Strategic Financial Advisory & Investment Banking for AI-Enabled Businesses
Audacity AI℠ is our specialty strategic financial advisory and investment banking service line focused on supporting founder-owned and operated companies in artificial intelligence and AI-enabled businesses. We work with founders and management teams of companies developing and applying artificial intelligence to create differentiated manufactured AI-enabled products and business models.
Through Audacity AI℠, we provide strategic financial advisory services throughout a company’s growth and development, as well as capital-raising and M&A investment banking services when founders and shareholders are ready to pursue a transaction. We also provide proprietary AI tools in executing our strategic financial advisory and investment banking engagements.
Audacity AI℠ combines our principal-led approach with experience advising technically complex businesses, providing founders with senior-level strategic and transaction support from growth through exit.
THE AUDACITY MODEL℠
One Firm. One Principal-Led Model
Whether a company engages Audacity Advisory℠ for strategic financial advisory services or Audacity IB℠ for an M&A or capital-raising transaction, the fundamental model remains the same: direct involvement and leadership from Audacity's Principal.
Banking is part of our DNA, but we’re much broader than an M&A investment bank. We take on hands-on operating and financial roles inside founder-owned businesses and actually co-build the company. Sometimes we ultimately execute the exit, and sometimes we work with another advisor.
We work with a select handful of companies and think of them almost as a future exit portfolio. Like a private equity firm, we’re highly selective and take a long-term value-creation approach, often working with founders for years.
We’re a single-principal practice, with engagements personally lead by our Principal, and supported by the right professionals and specialists team for a specific situation.
Our logo reflects both where Audacity comes from and how we work. Inspired by the zodiac sign of Taurus, with the bull’s horns raised and charging forward, the mark carries the strength and determination of the bull in a more abstract form. Its forward-moving lines represent acceleration, growth and our focus on increasing business value, while the sharp metallic edges pay homage to the technically complex, hard-manufactured industries and founders we serve.
CONTACT US
Los Angeles Office
10866 Wilshire Blvd, 4th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Silicon Valley Office
2100 Geng Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
© 2026 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”, "Audacity", "Audacity Advisory", 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 Principal at Audacity IB and at prior firms. Business Continuity Plan | FINRA Broker Check