December 15, 2025 • 19 mins
Benchmark International is an award-winning global Mergers and Acquisitions firm that specializes in representing owners of privately held, middle-market businesses looking for growth strategies, exit planning, or selling their company.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time now for our CEO spotlight here on The Ryan
Gorman Show and joining me in studio, I have Tyras O'Neil,
CEO of Benchmark International. You can learn more about all
the work they do at benchmarkintl dot com. Tyris, thanks
so much for taking a few minutes to come in
excited to talk to you and find out what Benchmark
(00:20):
International does. You got your name on the building where
the Lightning play and I think when we all saw
that change, we said to ourselves, who was Benchmark International?
So who are you?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely? Well, Ryan, first of all, thank you for having
me this morning. It's great to be here and great
to be spending time with you here in the studio.
And you're not the first person to be asking who
Benchmark International is, and that was kind of the point,
you know, we wanted to get our name out there.
We wanted to have that recognition and you're can to
be associated with a better organization than the Tampa Bay
(00:54):
Lightning and the Nick Sports Group. So they're amazing organizations
that we're proud to be partnered with them. But to
answer your question, Benchmark International is a mergers and acquisitions
firm and people have been asking me for years what
mergers and acquisitions means. And I think we'd need probably
six hours here to talk about it and truly really
dig into it deeply. But to put it simply, Benchmark
(01:16):
International is here to help business owners. We're here to
help business owners of privately held businesses, the medium sized
mom and pop shops that there's thousands of these businesses
out there. They're somewhat quiet, they're somewhat unassuming, but they're
the backbone of the American economy. They're the things that
they're the businesses that keep everything running the right way.
(01:40):
So we're working with business owners who are generally in
privately held businesses that are looking for some sort of
growth or exit strategy. Okay, So to give you a
quick example, Yeah, if somebody's been running a business for
twenty thirty, forty years and they're getting to a point
where they're looking to retire, this is the biggest asset
of their higher holding. This is their life's work. It's
(02:02):
their blood, sweat and tears. And when you own the business,
you can't just turn around and retire. Now, you need
to go through the proper legal structure. You need to
go through the right process to get the right value
for your business. You have a legacy employees, people who
are very critical to the business who you want to
take care of and make sure are left in good hands.
So it's a very detailed financial, tax, legal process, but
(02:22):
it's also something that's important to people from a culture
standpoint and a community standpoint, and we help people go
through that exit process to get the just desserts for
their blood, sweat and teers that they put in the business.
So in a very simplistic manner, we're helping people exit
their business to support the retirement or on the other
side of it, there's oftentimes where one of these businesses
(02:44):
is growing very quickly. Think of a industrial services, manufacturing,
food and beverage business, or expanding or anything. If they
want to keep expanding. It's one thing to take a
business to a certain level. It's another to take it
to a much larger organization. So this is where we're
helping business owners with outside capital to work with private
(03:04):
equity firms to go through some sort of growth planning
for expansion efforts. So if a business owner is looking
to expand their business and get some outside capital, we're
going to help them go through the process properly, find
the right match, get the right deal, and send themselves
up so they can quickly accelerate their business for growth
and get it to a level that is much larger
(03:26):
and much more secure than it is on its own.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And again kind of like when Facebook took over Instagram,
only you know, for smaller businesses, medium sized businesses, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Absolutely. I mean, mergers and acquisitions is in the headlines
every day. You know, if we're talking about media, you know, Disney, ESPN, Lugas, Rives,
all of them have gone through consolidations. You know, there's
a lot of news right now about Netflix and everybody
else going out and acquiring different businesses. That's great, that
hits the headlines. That's actually not who we're supporting. We're
(03:57):
supporting the people you go to church with. We're supporting
the pe people who you're going to go and see
a family gatherings. We're helping those businesses that are aren't
a somewhat more difficult market. Public businesses have a different profile,
a different process, a different level of transparency. The privately
(04:17):
held markets that we work in, it's very very challenging.
Information is scarce, the market is harder, there's a lot
more unknowns.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, and you're probably dealing with and correct me if
I'm wrong. You're dealing with people who you know, selling
their business or trying to expand that's not really necessarily
what they're good at. They're good at running their business,
so I'm sure the whole thing can be pretty overwhelming
and like a daunting task to them.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It can be, and that's where we're here to really
help them and guide them. And one of the principles
of our business is trust, and trust runs through everything
that we do because at the end of the day,
this is a journey that we go on with our clients.
It's their legacy, and you know, at the end of
the day, they need to trust that we're providing our
expert guidance in terms of how to go through that
(05:01):
mergers and acquisitions process. They're experts at what they do.
I will never be as capable at that specific business
as our business owner that we're representing, nor do I
want to be. I don't need to be the guy
who is in the HVAC business or the industrial services
businesses running it. I need to be an expert in
mergers and acquisitions to help people understand how to go
through the process, navigate it correctly and get the best
(05:22):
results at the end of the day. So we form
very close partnership with our clients and work with them
over a long period of time and work with them
hand in hand to get the best results. We can't
be successful without our clients, and our clients can't be
successful without us. It's truly a partnership at the end
of the day. And I know we'll probably tie it
all back to the naming rights are strength away from
a little wife here, but that's a big part of
(05:43):
why we did it is trust and excellence runs through
our organization, how we approach our clients and how we
think about our day to day. And when you look
at culture and alignment you talk about the Tampa Bay
Lightning and the Venic Sports Group, the parallels there are
obvious and their world class organization that we wanted to be,
you know, tied together with in terms of how we're
growing the business and where we're at in terms of
(06:05):
the life cycle of Benchmark International. And again we talked
a little bit about the profile of what we do,
but not necessarily our wider spreads present. So again, wherever
you want to go I'm happy to talk about Benchmark
or hockey or whatever people are interested in.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, I would say naming the arena Benchmark International, was,
you know, a big move. I would say the next step,
probably in my opinion, would be these monitors behind me
here in the studio that have the Ryan Gorman Show
having you know, Benchmark. And once you get that naming
right there, then I mean, are you guys are set? No?
(06:40):
What I wanted to talk to you about it again?
We're joined by Tyrus O'Neill, CEO of Benchmark International. Here
on the CEO spotlight the fact that you're headquartered here
in Tampa, but you're a global company. What was it
about Tampa that made this area so attractive to set
up shop?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It's a great question. We are our global operation. We
have fifteen offices on three different continents or throughout the US,
or throughout Europe or throughout Africa, and have widespread operations. Tampa, though,
is our global headquarters. It's our heart of the business.
It's where we were founded originally and where we want
to always have our largest presence and be principally known.
(07:21):
The Tampa market is a great place for business and
going back to the arena a little bit and talking
about the evolution of Tampa over the last ten fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Downtown, it's a whole different world now.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's amazing. And I'll turn it around and say, why
wouldn't you want to be in Tampa. The growth of
the city, what people are investing back into it, what
has been done in Water Street, what mister Vinnick has
done in terms of the growth, the expansion and attracting
business owners and particularly financial services businesses to Tampa makes
it a wonderful place. The people here are amazing. We
(07:53):
recruit locally. We try to get homegrown talent. University of Tampa,
University of South Florida great schools for us to pull
from in terms of talent and recruitment. University of Florida
and all the other schools. I'm a Gator, so I
have to give you out a shout out. All the
different schools that we pull from are excellent talent. And
(08:14):
the city that the way it's been invested back into
the city, the economy, the way the city is growing.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And I'm sure you know if you've got if you've
got people who you want to bring on board who
are in other parts of the country. Tampa Bay area
is a pretty pretty hot and attractive area right now.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
That's exactly where I was going. You know, Tampa Bay
is no longer I forget where I first heard this term,
but I'll use it anyway. It's not a flyover city.
It is a destination. It is a growing powerhouse, and
it's somewhere that is attracting a lot of talent and
a lot of world class out in a place where
people want to be. People are coming here from New York,
people are coming here from California. People are looking at
(08:54):
Tampa as the place to be in the place to
raise their family, and the place to excel their careers.
And we have been proud to be a part of
that growth, a benchmark international over the last you know,
ten to fifteen years of seeing the city evolve and
grow into a financial services powerhouse. But we're just getting started.
There's so much potential for this city and there's so
much opportunity out there. You know, what's been done at
(09:15):
Water Street, what's been done with the wharf, and what's
been done throughout Tampa Saint Pete and its rage going up.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I mean, it's just one thing after.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Another, absolutely it's you know, we haven't hit the ceiling
and not even close to hitting the ceiling, and the
runway is still there. And we look at the next
ten to fifteen twenty years, there's a lot of investment
that's going to go into the city and there's a
lot of opportunity, and we want to be there and
be a driving force so that and be a part
of it and make sure that we're helping out the
communities as that grows. Because we chose Tampa Bay for
(09:47):
all the reasons I just articulated, but we believe continued
the investment in the city is important because again maybe
a little cliche, the rising tide lifts all boats. Yeah,
you know, the more we can give back to the community,
the more we can support business owners, the more we
can make Tampa Financial Services Powerhouse better is for benchmarkt
the better it is for every resident of the Tampa
Bay area, and it's just better overall for the economy.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Here on our CEO spotlight, we're joined by Tyrs O'Neill,
CEO of Benchmark International. You can learn more at BENCHMARKNTL
dot com. So in your field of mergers and acquisitions,
you're getting I think a good sense of the economy
and in particular the main street economy. What are you
(10:32):
seeing right now with smaller to medium sized businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
We're very bullish as we're looking at winding down the
year and going in the twenty twenty six that's always
a hot topic. Yeah, there's a lot of macro indicators
that make us think twenty twenty six is going to
be a very very nice market and very good economy.
And when you're looking at interest rates in the way
they're trending, especially in the world that we live in
(10:57):
with mergers and acquisitions and dead and lending, in the
cost of capital and everything else, it's creating quite a
strong platform for a lot of activity. There's been some
hiccups in the private equi world over the last couple
of years given interest rates and the cost of lending
and debt and everything else. And if we have another
six hours, I can talk to you about dry powder
and all the different things that we look at. But
(11:20):
big picture, when I speak in a macro sense, the
amount of capital that's out there, the amount of transactions
that are happening, the runway that we're seeing, the data
that we collect, what you'll touch upon here in a minute.
You know the way interest rates are trending, in the
way that the business environment, the business climate is going,
twenty twenty six is going to be a very, very
impactful and positive year. And there's a lot of reasons
(11:43):
behind that, and I won't get into every single reason today,
but one of the things I'd like to articulate about
Benchmark International is sometimes I feel like we're a data
company who happens to do mergers and acquisitions. So we're
across the globe and we're working with thousands of business
owners in every single industry, and we're working with publicly
(12:04):
traded businesses, working with privately held businesses, working with private
equity firms, vcs, high networth individuals.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Got a lot of information coming in. It sounds like it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Not necessarily as our clients, but on the other side
of the table, as people who are very important to
the overall M and A process, And as we go
out there invest in technology, data systems and collect this information.
The amount of information that we've collected over the years,
working on again thousands of transactions and thousands of different
businesses and different industries has created this data engine that
(12:34):
we utilize to make us very successful what we do
with our go to market strategy and really separates us
from a lot of people in the industry. And that data,
again is what we look at when we think about
trends the market, what's happening in M and A, what's
happening within the mid market, because again the mid market,
which is not publicly available information and somewhat difficult to
(12:56):
understand and lacks transparency in some ways, there's no better
source of information the benchmark International and the fact that
we're looking at all this seeing the trends, the activity,
what people are saying, what deals are happening behind the scenes,
and having access to a lot of confidential information and
confidential processes in the private market. When I say we're
bullish about twenty twenty six, you should be bullish about
(13:18):
twenty twenty six because we have a lot of visibility
into the things that are happening within again the economy
and the businesses that fall within the range of that
mid market.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Let me ask you this because you know, having CEO
of a company like yours here with me, I think
it's really interesting. We spend a lot of time these
days on the show talking about AI and you just
mentioned technology and data and all of that. How is
that changing your company your industry? Is it already having
(13:49):
a significant impact?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Significant is an interesting word to think about. AI is
going to have an impact. It's going to have an
impact to our industry. It's going to have an impact
to our business. It's going to have an impact to
our market. It's kind of an impact to the world. Again,
if you would have asked me ten fifteen years ago
if we were one the naming right partner of the
Lightning and then two if technology data SaaS spend and
(14:14):
information systems where our number two spend on our P
and L outside of people, I probably would have thought
you were crazy. But again, data is king, and it
funnels through and feeds the rest of the business in
terms of how we grow, scale and attack our process.
Getting back to your question, we're very AI positive. Do
I think we need to integrate it overnight and change
(14:35):
our entire business model and have AI doing everything for us? No,
of course not. Do I think we should ignore it
and act like it's something that doesn't exist. Absolutely not.
I would say we're very innovative, we're very tech forward,
We're very exploratory. I think there's a lot of things
with AI that can help us create some efficiency scale
and to make the business stronger. I think it's a tool.
(14:58):
I think there's a misconception that AI it is going
to replace people every night. Yeah, it's going to be
a tool to make employees more efficient and more effective
at their role than to replace them. And we're actively
incorporating those, investigating and pushing on them. But very cautiously.
We're at a great place within our business life cycle
that we can still be very entrepreneurial. We can be
very quick to move, we can be very agile. You know,
(15:19):
we're not the large old bank that's tied up with
bureaucracy that can't make the changes. But we're also still
somewhat conservative that we're not just going to jump into
something haphazardly that isn't really thought through and well thought out.
So sorry, maybe a long winded way of answering your question.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I'm just curious. Do you find that's what you see
from a lot of the businesses you deal with as well,
that same kind of approach to it, where you know,
maybe they're not all in yet, but they're not ignoring
it either.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Varies from business to business. We've seen some people who
are really really excited with it and playing with it,
and I think sometimes people have more of a personal
enjoyment to get out of it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But we whole interview all these questions, I generate it,
so all my answers have been AI generated.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We might as well just match up our models together.
But no, we have definitely seen it incorporated into different
people's business models and their operations. I would say it's
still a little early in the life cycle of AI
to see it being very prevalent or everyone has it
within their business model and their operating systems. But it's
going to be an interesting part of M and A
and due diligence and acquisitions and understanding the risk that
(16:25):
is associated with it and how buyers and sellers have
to negotiate that and figure out the implications of it
moving forward. And that's where we are at the forefront
and making sure that our clients are protected in a
process and that everybody understand the rules of the game
that they're playing.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We're joined by Tyros o'nial, CEO of Benchmark International here
and our CEO, Spotlight, So let's bring it full circle here.
Do you have a preference in the nickname for the arena,
because that was certainly a big topic of conversation when
Benchmark International took over. It was will people say, hey,
I'm going to catch a lightning game Benchmark International Arena
(17:02):
or will they shorten it somehow? What are your thoughts
on that.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I've gotten that. That's probably the number one question I've
gotten an announcement. In fact, it was number two. Are
you the wrestler because of Titus O'Neill? Is that the
second question? I'm gonna answer both of these, So I
will answer both of them. So the first question about
the nickname, I'll answer it in the same way it
was the first question I got when we did the
naming the rights announcement and I was speaking with the media,
(17:27):
and I'll give you the same answer. There is absolutely
a nickname that I love and want everyone to stick to.
It is the Benchmark International Arena enough, And yes, I
do have a very similar name the Titus O'Neil, who's
actually become a good friend. I'm sure he's a pillar
in the Tampa community and we actually do a lot
of the same charitable events. We're in the community together.
(17:49):
He's a platform for a lot of good. He's a
force of good for some amazing organizations. I do have
a bone in the pick that if you google my name,
his picture shows up. But outside of that, love working
with him, love the community. The more involved we can get,
the better, And this is what it was. This was
a platform for us to get out there and to
(18:11):
have people become more familiar with Benchmark International and for
business owners to understand and get educated on what their
options are, because again, information is scarce out there, and
even understanding your options is somewhat limited, and people don't
know where to start when they're thinking about exit or
growth strategies. And I'd encourage any business owner who's thinking
(18:31):
about either exiting or growing their business to look at
Benchmark International speak with us. But this has created us
a platform to get that conversation started and a platform
for us to be in the community being a force
of good and being able to work with people and
make sure again that if we're lifting up the economy,
we're lifting up business owners, we're lifting up people, then
we win. Everybody wins.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Tyris O'Neill, CEO of Benchmark International, with us here on
our CEO spotlight Again you can learn more at Benchmark
I n t L dot com. Tyrus, really great to
talk to you. Thanks so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Thank you appreciate the time and I would love to
do it again. And h it's a great conversation. Thank you.
Time now for our CEO spotlight here on The Ryan
Gorman Show and joining me in studio, I have Tyras O'Neil,
CEO of Benchmark International. You can learn more about all
the work they do at benchmarkintl dot com. Tyris, thanks
so much for taking a few minutes to come in
excited to talk to you and find out what Benchmark
(00:20):
International does. You got your name on the building where
the Lightning play and I think when we all saw
that change, we said to ourselves, who was Benchmark International?
So who are you?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Absolutely? Well, Ryan, first of all, thank you for having
me this morning. It's great to be here and great
to be spending time with you here in the studio.
And you're not the first person to be asking who
Benchmark International is, and that was kind of the point,
you know, we wanted to get our name out there.
We wanted to have that recognition and you're can to
be associated with a better organization than the Tampa Bay
(00:54):
Lightning and the Nick Sports Group. So they're amazing organizations
that we're proud to be partnered with them. But to
answer your question, Benchmark International is a mergers and acquisitions
firm and people have been asking me for years what
mergers and acquisitions means. And I think we'd need probably
six hours here to talk about it and truly really
dig into it deeply. But to put it simply, Benchmark
(01:16):
International is here to help business owners. We're here to
help business owners of privately held businesses, the medium sized
mom and pop shops that there's thousands of these businesses
out there. They're somewhat quiet, they're somewhat unassuming, but they're
the backbone of the American economy. They're the things that
they're the businesses that keep everything running the right way.
(01:40):
So we're working with business owners who are generally in
privately held businesses that are looking for some sort of
growth or exit strategy. Okay, So to give you a
quick example, Yeah, if somebody's been running a business for
twenty thirty, forty years and they're getting to a point
where they're looking to retire, this is the biggest asset
of their higher holding. This is their life's work. It's
(02:02):
their blood, sweat and tears. And when you own the business,
you can't just turn around and retire. Now, you need
to go through the proper legal structure. You need to
go through the right process to get the right value
for your business. You have a legacy employees, people who
are very critical to the business who you want to
take care of and make sure are left in good hands.
So it's a very detailed financial, tax, legal process, but
(02:22):
it's also something that's important to people from a culture
standpoint and a community standpoint, and we help people go
through that exit process to get the just desserts for
their blood, sweat and teers that they put in the business.
So in a very simplistic manner, we're helping people exit
their business to support the retirement or on the other
side of it, there's oftentimes where one of these businesses
(02:44):
is growing very quickly. Think of a industrial services, manufacturing,
food and beverage business, or expanding or anything. If they
want to keep expanding. It's one thing to take a
business to a certain level. It's another to take it
to a much larger organization. So this is where we're
helping business owners with outside capital to work with private
(03:04):
equity firms to go through some sort of growth planning
for expansion efforts. So if a business owner is looking
to expand their business and get some outside capital, we're
going to help them go through the process properly, find
the right match, get the right deal, and send themselves
up so they can quickly accelerate their business for growth
and get it to a level that is much larger
(03:26):
and much more secure than it is on its own.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And again kind of like when Facebook took over Instagram,
only you know, for smaller businesses, medium sized businesses, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Absolutely. I mean, mergers and acquisitions is in the headlines
every day. You know, if we're talking about media, you know, Disney, ESPN, Lugas, Rives,
all of them have gone through consolidations. You know, there's
a lot of news right now about Netflix and everybody
else going out and acquiring different businesses. That's great, that
hits the headlines. That's actually not who we're supporting. We're
(03:57):
supporting the people you go to church with. We're supporting
the pe people who you're going to go and see
a family gatherings. We're helping those businesses that are aren't
a somewhat more difficult market. Public businesses have a different profile,
a different process, a different level of transparency. The privately
(04:17):
held markets that we work in, it's very very challenging.
Information is scarce, the market is harder, there's a lot
more unknowns.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, and you're probably dealing with and correct me if
I'm wrong. You're dealing with people who you know, selling
their business or trying to expand that's not really necessarily
what they're good at. They're good at running their business,
so I'm sure the whole thing can be pretty overwhelming
and like a daunting task to them.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It can be, and that's where we're here to really
help them and guide them. And one of the principles
of our business is trust, and trust runs through everything
that we do because at the end of the day,
this is a journey that we go on with our clients.
It's their legacy, and you know, at the end of
the day, they need to trust that we're providing our
expert guidance in terms of how to go through that
(05:01):
mergers and acquisitions process. They're experts at what they do.
I will never be as capable at that specific business
as our business owner that we're representing, nor do I
want to be. I don't need to be the guy
who is in the HVAC business or the industrial services
businesses running it. I need to be an expert in
mergers and acquisitions to help people understand how to go
through the process, navigate it correctly and get the best
(05:22):
results at the end of the day. So we form
very close partnership with our clients and work with them
over a long period of time and work with them
hand in hand to get the best results. We can't
be successful without our clients, and our clients can't be
successful without us. It's truly a partnership at the end
of the day. And I know we'll probably tie it
all back to the naming rights are strength away from
a little wife here, but that's a big part of
(05:43):
why we did it is trust and excellence runs through
our organization, how we approach our clients and how we
think about our day to day. And when you look
at culture and alignment you talk about the Tampa Bay
Lightning and the Venic Sports Group, the parallels there are
obvious and their world class organization that we wanted to be,
you know, tied together with in terms of how we're
growing the business and where we're at in terms of
(06:05):
the life cycle of Benchmark International. And again we talked
a little bit about the profile of what we do,
but not necessarily our wider spreads present. So again, wherever
you want to go I'm happy to talk about Benchmark
or hockey or whatever people are interested in.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, I would say naming the arena Benchmark International, was,
you know, a big move. I would say the next step,
probably in my opinion, would be these monitors behind me
here in the studio that have the Ryan Gorman Show
having you know, Benchmark. And once you get that naming
right there, then I mean, are you guys are set? No?
(06:40):
What I wanted to talk to you about it again?
We're joined by Tyrus O'Neill, CEO of Benchmark International. Here
on the CEO spotlight the fact that you're headquartered here
in Tampa, but you're a global company. What was it
about Tampa that made this area so attractive to set
up shop?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
It's a great question. We are our global operation. We
have fifteen offices on three different continents or throughout the US,
or throughout Europe or throughout Africa, and have widespread operations. Tampa, though,
is our global headquarters. It's our heart of the business.
It's where we were founded originally and where we want
to always have our largest presence and be principally known.
(07:21):
The Tampa market is a great place for business and
going back to the arena a little bit and talking
about the evolution of Tampa over the last ten fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Downtown, it's a whole different world now.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It's amazing. And I'll turn it around and say, why
wouldn't you want to be in Tampa. The growth of
the city, what people are investing back into it, what
has been done in Water Street, what mister Vinnick has
done in terms of the growth, the expansion and attracting
business owners and particularly financial services businesses to Tampa makes
it a wonderful place. The people here are amazing. We
(07:53):
recruit locally. We try to get homegrown talent. University of Tampa,
University of South Florida great schools for us to pull
from in terms of talent and recruitment. University of Florida
and all the other schools. I'm a Gator, so I
have to give you out a shout out. All the
different schools that we pull from are excellent talent. And
(08:14):
the city that the way it's been invested back into
the city, the economy, the way the city is growing.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And I'm sure you know if you've got if you've
got people who you want to bring on board who
are in other parts of the country. Tampa Bay area
is a pretty pretty hot and attractive area right now.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
That's exactly where I was going. You know, Tampa Bay
is no longer I forget where I first heard this term,
but I'll use it anyway. It's not a flyover city.
It is a destination. It is a growing powerhouse, and
it's somewhere that is attracting a lot of talent and
a lot of world class out in a place where
people want to be. People are coming here from New York,
people are coming here from California. People are looking at
(08:54):
Tampa as the place to be in the place to
raise their family, and the place to excel their careers.
And we have been proud to be a part of
that growth, a benchmark international over the last you know,
ten to fifteen years of seeing the city evolve and
grow into a financial services powerhouse. But we're just getting started.
There's so much potential for this city and there's so
much opportunity out there. You know, what's been done at
(09:15):
Water Street, what's been done with the wharf, and what's
been done throughout Tampa Saint Pete and its rage going up.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I mean, it's just one thing after.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Another, absolutely it's you know, we haven't hit the ceiling
and not even close to hitting the ceiling, and the
runway is still there. And we look at the next
ten to fifteen twenty years, there's a lot of investment
that's going to go into the city and there's a
lot of opportunity, and we want to be there and
be a driving force so that and be a part
of it and make sure that we're helping out the
communities as that grows. Because we chose Tampa Bay for
(09:47):
all the reasons I just articulated, but we believe continued
the investment in the city is important because again maybe
a little cliche, the rising tide lifts all boats. Yeah,
you know, the more we can give back to the community,
the more we can support business owners, the more we
can make Tampa Financial Services Powerhouse better is for benchmarkt
the better it is for every resident of the Tampa
Bay area, and it's just better overall for the economy.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Here on our CEO spotlight, we're joined by Tyrs O'Neill,
CEO of Benchmark International. You can learn more at BENCHMARKNTL
dot com. So in your field of mergers and acquisitions,
you're getting I think a good sense of the economy
and in particular the main street economy. What are you
(10:32):
seeing right now with smaller to medium sized businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
We're very bullish as we're looking at winding down the
year and going in the twenty twenty six that's always
a hot topic. Yeah, there's a lot of macro indicators
that make us think twenty twenty six is going to
be a very very nice market and very good economy.
And when you're looking at interest rates in the way
they're trending, especially in the world that we live in
(10:57):
with mergers and acquisitions and dead and lending, in the
cost of capital and everything else, it's creating quite a
strong platform for a lot of activity. There's been some
hiccups in the private equi world over the last couple
of years given interest rates and the cost of lending
and debt and everything else. And if we have another
six hours, I can talk to you about dry powder
and all the different things that we look at. But
(11:20):
big picture, when I speak in a macro sense, the
amount of capital that's out there, the amount of transactions
that are happening, the runway that we're seeing, the data
that we collect, what you'll touch upon here in a minute.
You know the way interest rates are trending, in the
way that the business environment, the business climate is going,
twenty twenty six is going to be a very, very
impactful and positive year. And there's a lot of reasons
(11:43):
behind that, and I won't get into every single reason today,
but one of the things I'd like to articulate about
Benchmark International is sometimes I feel like we're a data
company who happens to do mergers and acquisitions. So we're
across the globe and we're working with thousands of business
owners in every single industry, and we're working with publicly
(12:04):
traded businesses, working with privately held businesses, working with private
equity firms, vcs, high networth individuals.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Got a lot of information coming in. It sounds like it.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Not necessarily as our clients, but on the other side
of the table, as people who are very important to
the overall M and A process, And as we go
out there invest in technology, data systems and collect this information.
The amount of information that we've collected over the years,
working on again thousands of transactions and thousands of different
businesses and different industries has created this data engine that
(12:34):
we utilize to make us very successful what we do
with our go to market strategy and really separates us
from a lot of people in the industry. And that data,
again is what we look at when we think about
trends the market, what's happening in M and A, what's
happening within the mid market, because again the mid market,
which is not publicly available information and somewhat difficult to
(12:56):
understand and lacks transparency in some ways, there's no better
source of information the benchmark International and the fact that
we're looking at all this seeing the trends, the activity,
what people are saying, what deals are happening behind the scenes,
and having access to a lot of confidential information and
confidential processes in the private market. When I say we're
bullish about twenty twenty six, you should be bullish about
(13:18):
twenty twenty six because we have a lot of visibility
into the things that are happening within again the economy
and the businesses that fall within the range of that
mid market.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Let me ask you this because you know, having CEO
of a company like yours here with me, I think
it's really interesting. We spend a lot of time these
days on the show talking about AI and you just
mentioned technology and data and all of that. How is
that changing your company your industry? Is it already having
(13:49):
a significant impact?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Significant is an interesting word to think about. AI is
going to have an impact. It's going to have an
impact to our industry. It's going to have an impact
to our business. It's going to have an impact to
our market. It's kind of an impact to the world. Again,
if you would have asked me ten fifteen years ago
if we were one the naming right partner of the
Lightning and then two if technology data SaaS spend and
(14:14):
information systems where our number two spend on our P
and L outside of people, I probably would have thought
you were crazy. But again, data is king, and it
funnels through and feeds the rest of the business in
terms of how we grow, scale and attack our process.
Getting back to your question, we're very AI positive. Do
I think we need to integrate it overnight and change
(14:35):
our entire business model and have AI doing everything for us? No,
of course not. Do I think we should ignore it
and act like it's something that doesn't exist. Absolutely not.
I would say we're very innovative, we're very tech forward,
We're very exploratory. I think there's a lot of things
with AI that can help us create some efficiency scale
and to make the business stronger. I think it's a tool.
(14:58):
I think there's a misconception that AI it is going
to replace people every night. Yeah, it's going to be
a tool to make employees more efficient and more effective
at their role than to replace them. And we're actively
incorporating those, investigating and pushing on them. But very cautiously.
We're at a great place within our business life cycle
that we can still be very entrepreneurial. We can be
very quick to move, we can be very agile. You know,
(15:19):
we're not the large old bank that's tied up with
bureaucracy that can't make the changes. But we're also still
somewhat conservative that we're not just going to jump into
something haphazardly that isn't really thought through and well thought out.
So sorry, maybe a long winded way of answering your question.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I'm just curious. Do you find that's what you see
from a lot of the businesses you deal with as well,
that same kind of approach to it, where you know,
maybe they're not all in yet, but they're not ignoring
it either.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Varies from business to business. We've seen some people who
are really really excited with it and playing with it,
and I think sometimes people have more of a personal
enjoyment to get out of it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
But we whole interview all these questions, I generate it,
so all my answers have been AI generated.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
We might as well just match up our models together.
But no, we have definitely seen it incorporated into different
people's business models and their operations. I would say it's
still a little early in the life cycle of AI
to see it being very prevalent or everyone has it
within their business model and their operating systems. But it's
going to be an interesting part of M and A
and due diligence and acquisitions and understanding the risk that
(16:25):
is associated with it and how buyers and sellers have
to negotiate that and figure out the implications of it
moving forward. And that's where we are at the forefront
and making sure that our clients are protected in a
process and that everybody understand the rules of the game
that they're playing.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We're joined by Tyros o'nial, CEO of Benchmark International here
and our CEO, Spotlight, So let's bring it full circle here.
Do you have a preference in the nickname for the arena,
because that was certainly a big topic of conversation when
Benchmark International took over. It was will people say, hey,
I'm going to catch a lightning game Benchmark International Arena
(17:02):
or will they shorten it somehow? What are your thoughts
on that.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I've gotten that. That's probably the number one question I've
gotten an announcement. In fact, it was number two. Are
you the wrestler because of Titus O'Neill? Is that the
second question? I'm gonna answer both of these, So I
will answer both of them. So the first question about
the nickname, I'll answer it in the same way it
was the first question I got when we did the
naming the rights announcement and I was speaking with the media,
(17:27):
and I'll give you the same answer. There is absolutely
a nickname that I love and want everyone to stick to.
It is the Benchmark International Arena enough, And yes, I
do have a very similar name the Titus O'Neil, who's
actually become a good friend. I'm sure he's a pillar
in the Tampa community and we actually do a lot
of the same charitable events. We're in the community together.
(17:49):
He's a platform for a lot of good. He's a
force of good for some amazing organizations. I do have
a bone in the pick that if you google my name,
his picture shows up. But outside of that, love working
with him, love the community. The more involved we can get,
the better, And this is what it was. This was
a platform for us to get out there and to
(18:11):
have people become more familiar with Benchmark International and for
business owners to understand and get educated on what their
options are, because again, information is scarce out there, and
even understanding your options is somewhat limited, and people don't
know where to start when they're thinking about exit or
growth strategies. And I'd encourage any business owner who's thinking
(18:31):
about either exiting or growing their business to look at
Benchmark International speak with us. But this has created us
a platform to get that conversation started and a platform
for us to be in the community being a force
of good and being able to work with people and
make sure again that if we're lifting up the economy,
we're lifting up business owners, we're lifting up people, then
we win. Everybody wins.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Tyris O'Neill, CEO of Benchmark International, with us here on
our CEO spotlight Again you can learn more at Benchmark
I n t L dot com. Tyrus, really great to
talk to you. Thanks so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Thank you appreciate the time and I would love to
do it again. And h it's a great conversation. Thank you.
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