Operators. Not financial engineers.
323 Horizon was built by people who have run these businesses. Hired the crews, made payroll, closed the deals, and lived the hard years. The record is the thesis.
We have done the work we now invest behind.
We have run these businesses.
A financial buyer models from the outside. We know where the margin hides and which fixes move the number, because we have made them.
We buy the essential and unglamorous.
Fire protection, facilities, flooring, field service. Non-discretionary demand that does not evaporate in a downturn. Boring is beautiful.
We hold and compound.
Held, not flipped. We keep the people who built the business and let durable companies compound, patiently.
From $800 and a pickup truck to national scale.
In 2005, Michael Crafton started with $800, a pickup truck, and handwritten invoices. He chose the work nobody wanted, the hard, unforgiving service category considered impossible to manage at scale, and spent years in the field proving there was a better way.
That company became one of the country’s largest fire and life-safety platforms: more than twenty offices serving 40,000+ customer locations, grown through eleven acquisitions and refined across five exits. He automated through the 2008 downturn and rebuilt from a 70% revenue loss in 2020 to record earnings nine months later.
323 Horizon is where that operating discipline goes to work as an investor, buying and running the essential service companies he knows cold, and modernizing them with applied AI.
Twenty years, one throughline.
Principals, and room to grow.
MC
Two decades operating field-service businesses. Built, ran, fixed, and exited.
Michael started with $800 and a pickup truck and built what became one of the country’s largest fire and life-safety platforms: 20+ offices, 40,000+ service locations, eleven acquisitions, five exits. He founded 323 Horizon to buy and operate the essential businesses he knows cold.
AM
Runs the operation behind the operation. The first call for owners and partners.
Ann Marie coordinates complex engagements, diligence, reporting, and the day-to-day that keeps the firm and its companies moving. A background across financial services and hospitality, and a working command of applied AI, turn strategy into flawless execution.
She ensures the practitioner experience Michael brings to strategy translates into clean, reliable delivery for every owner and partner.
Four beliefs, earned the hard way.
Employees first, customers second.
Take care of your people and they take care of your customers. Seven Top Workplace awards proved it.
Experience over theory.
Cash crunches, near-collapse, deals falling apart at the finish line. We know what works because we have lived it.
Discipline creates freedom.
Financial controls, accountability, operating rhythms. The unglamorous work that lets founders stop firefighting.
Everything connects to value.
Every decision ties back to durable enterprise value, not a report that looks good and changes nothing.
Our companies don’t go it alone.
323 Ocean is the advisory firm founded by Michael Crafton, a separate practice with shared roots. Our portfolio companies draw on its senior operating bench for turnaround, systems, transaction, and applied-AI work. Shared navy, shared standards, separate firm.
Visit 323ocean.com →Start a quiet conversation.
Thinking about an exit? Tell us about the business and we will tell you straight whether it is a fit. No bankers, no auction theater.
Held in confidence. Your note goes to two people, not a list.
Thank you. We read every note.
Your message is with Michael and Ann Marie. Expect a straight answer, usually within two business days.