Matt Ridenour

25+ years building and leading high-growth companies

Matt Ridenour is a chief executive, board director, and investor with over 25 years of experience building and leading high-growth companies. He currently serves as a Partner at Ascendant Advisory Group, a boutique investment banking and advisory firm working with middle-market companies on strategy, capital structure, governance, and M&A.

His most notable operating role came as Chairman and CEO of ZEV Technologies, a premium aftermarket parts manufacturer for firearms. He first invested in the company as an angel investor, then joined as CEO to professionalize operations, rebuild the leadership team, and raise three rounds of institutional capital — growing the company from $3 million to more than $40 million in revenue, an average annual growth rate of roughly 40% over six years.

Earlier in his career, Matt built a track record as both an operating CEO and an early-stage investor: running portfolio companies for a family office, co-founding an interim-executive and investment firm featured in the Wall Street Journal, leading turnarounds, and founding a top-performing $60mm venture capital firm. He began his career at Bain & Company and, before attending Harvard Business School, served as a cabinet-level official for the City of Indianapolis on a nationally recognized government efficiency initiative.

Experience

• 2021 – Present
  Partner

  Ascendant Advisory Group

  M&A Advisory
• 2014 – 2021
  Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

  ZEV Technologies, Inc.

  High End Firearms
• 2010 – 2014
  Operating Partner

  The People Fund

  Diversified Family Office Holdings
• 2004 – 2010
  Managing Director & Co-Founder

  Momentum Venture Management

  Interim Executive Investment Firm
• 2003 – 2004
  Chief Executive Officer

  PowerFile

  Sequoia Funded Network Attached Storage
• 1999 – 2003
  Founder & Managing Director (also CEO, UNX, Inc.)

  Gazelle TechVentures

  Venture Capital Firm
• 1996 – 1999
  Principal

  Blue Capital

  Leveraged Buyout Firm
• 1995 – 1996
  Consultant

  Bain & Company

  Strategy Consulting Firm
• 1992 – 1993
  Cabinet-Level Official

  City of Indianapolis

Academic background

• MBA, Harvard Business School
  1993–1995 · Baker Scholar, Top 5%
• BA, Economics, Dartmouth College
  1986–1989
• Former Lecturer, UCLA Anderson School of Management
  Business Plan Development · Entrepreneurial Finance

How I help owners and CEOs

I work with owners and CEOs in four connected ways: growing the business to scale, deploying the operating systems and technology that make growth durable, preparing well ahead of a sale so that value is maximized and aligned with personal goals, and leading the M&A process itself once it is time to transact.

Across twenty-five years I have invested in and led companies of this size, served on more than twenty boards, and chaired half of them. For the past five years my work has been taking companies to market as an M&A professional and getting sellers the strongest possible outcome. Having also spent years on the buy side, I know where value is won and lost in a transaction. Owners come to me at different points — some years ahead of a sale, some ready to go to market now — and I can take a business the whole way or step in wherever I am most useful.