About Us | Trendline

Meet Dan, Carter, & Jim

We are unique in the private equity world, having been day-to-day operators for over a decade. Our approach is supportive and patient, and we understand each situation is unique. We are good at what we do, and our results prove it!

Daniel A. Casciano, IV

Dan has spent the last 13 years acquiring and operating lower middle market businesses. In 2006, he co-founded Timberline Capital Partners, which acquired Astro Machine Works, Inc. in 2006 and Elite Sportswear, L.P. in 2007.

For Astro, he provided strategic oversight as an active member of the Board of Directors.

For Elite, out of necessity, Dan stepped in as CEO in 2008 to oversee its turnaround and spearhead its growth. In early 2015, Elite was sold to the Riverside Company. Dan continued as CEO of Elite for three additional years, leading the expansion of the executive team and five strategic add-on acquisitions.

Prior to Timberline, Dan spent 13 years as an interim CFO/CEO, turnaround consultant and investment banker, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, for two regional firms. Dan began his business career in 1984 at Meridian Bancorp, rising to Vice President of Business Unit Planning and Profitability, where he oversaw multiple internal acquisitions.

He has a B.S. in Accounting from the Pennsylvania State University.

Carter W. Cheskey

Carter has spent the last 13 years acquiring and operating lower middle market businesses. In 2006, he co-founded Timberline Capital Partners, which acquired Astro Machine Works, Inc. in 2006 and Elite Sportswear, L.P. in 2007.

For Astro, he has acted as de facto-CFO and served as a member of the Board of Directors. He was instrumental in establishing an open-book management operating model and recently managed the company through a successful leveraged ESOP transaction.

For Elite, he served on the Board of Directors and would oversee various strategic initiatives, most notably the development and launch of an all-star cheer apparel business unit.

Prior to Timberline, Carter spent 13 years as an investment banker, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and business valuations, for two regional firms. Carter began his business career in 1993 at Meridian Capital Markets, initially as a Financial Analyst for the firm’s Institutional Fixed Income division before being promoted to Corporate Finance, where he assisted clients with capital strategies.

He has a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an MBA from Kutztown University.

James F. McCormick, CFA

Prior to joining Trendline Capital in 2022, Jim was a Managing Director of Investment Banking at Boenning & Scattergood, Inc., where for nearly 20 years he worked extensively with middle-market companies on numerous transactions, advising owners and executive teams on sell-side and buy-side mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and analyzing strategic alternatives and opportunities. At Boenning & Scattergood, Jim worked with privately-held, family-owned, and owner-operated businesses across a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, transportation, food and beverage, business services, apparel, building products, healthcare, and banking and financial services.

Before Boenning & Scattergood, Jim worked in the investment banking advisory groups of Griffin Financial, LLC, Berwind Financial, L.P., and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. In addition, Jim's background includes serving as a commercial loan officer for a regional bank and a vice president of finance for a private equity-backed company.

Jim received a B.S. in Finance and International Business and a minor in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Why Trendline?

We are Empathetic Partners

We’ve walked a mile in your shoes. We have the unique perspective of having been day-to-day operators for over a decade. We know the daily challenges and crises that owner operators face. We’ve hired (and fired) employees. We’ve dealt with HR and regulatory issues. We’ve had to stretch suppliers to make payroll. We know it’s not as easy as it looks (unlike the typical newly minted MBA). Accordingly, we approach every investment with a long-term focus, are patient enough to let decisions take effect, and don’t overreact when things don’t go as planned.

We Know the Lower Middle Market…

…and it’s different. We have spent nearly all of our careers working with or in lower middle market and small privately held companies. We understand the unique challenges, opportunities, and dynamics often present in privately owned, family businesses. Our hands-on experience in this segment enables us to be effective and empathetic through ownership transitions and periods of significant change.

We are Focused

We know what we know, and we know what we don’t know. At Trendline, we only do a few things, but we think we do them well. We seek good companies in traditional industries. We stay close to home in secondary geographic markets, where we can be more responsive, more effective, and partner with people where we have common values. And under the theory that bigger is not always better, we intend to restrict our portfolio to five or six companies, so we can know our management partners better, dedicate more resources to them, make decisions faster, and ultimately be able to add more value.

We have the Track Record

At Trendline, we walk the walk. While achieving attractive returns is not our sole objective (we also value creating lasting relationships with our management partners and building great organizations), it is the report card from which our investors grade our performance. More importantly, by aligning management’s financial interests with ours, it is a good proxy for what could be. Through our realized investments, we were able to generate more than $100 million in sales growth, tens of million of dollars of EBITDA growth, hire more than 500 employees, and achieve returns significantly higher than industry targets.