2025 STL | September Monthly Meeting

Brent Beshore is the Chief Executive Officer of Permanent Equity, the Columbia, Missouri-based investment firm he founded in 2007. The firm stewards lower middle market companies over the long term, enabled by 30 year committed funds from patient LPs like Washington University. Permanent Equity is an active owner in and partner to 16 companies across the U.S., representing around 1000 team members across industries from apparel to niche construction to aerospace. After originally purchasing businesses with an SBA loan and internal profits, Brent architected the long term fund structure in 2017, raising again in 2019. Today, Permanent Equity's team of 21 continues to seek compelling opportunities to steward companies that care what happens next, focusing on companies with $3 million to $25 million in annual free cash flow. 

Raised in Joplin, Missouri, Brent went on to earn a B.A. in Politics with an emphasis in Poverty Studies at Washington & Lee University, and later attended the J.D./MBA program at the University of Missouri before becoming an entrepreneur. Brent is a former atheist and committed Christian whose faith journey is a frequent subject in discussing his evolution as an entrepreneur and individual. Brent writes a widely circulated annual letter and distilled his hard won lessons for owners into The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers, originally published in 2018 with a second edition released in 2024. 

Outside of work, Brent and his wife Dr. Erica Beshore—a St. Louis native—relish in the journey of raising three daughters and a son. He also serves as vice-chair for Love Columbia, a mid Missouri nonprofit.