Third Look Capital: Emotional intelligence. Strategic clarity. Fiduciary focus.

 

My name is Marcus Charles. I’ve lived in and around Seattle my entire life. My wife, son and I live on the south slope of Queen Anne and spend significant time in the San Juan Islands.

 

Professionally, I’m a private fiduciary working with small-cap, family-held businesses with annual revenues between $3 and $15 million. These companies are often at an inflection point—sometimes doing well, sometimes not—but what they almost always have in common is internal disagreement among founders and family stakeholders about what should happen next.

 

My job is to bring a clear, third-party perspective on where the business actually stands and where it could or should go. That doesn’t mean ignoring the past. Strategic decisions and emotional history matter—but they shouldn’t dictate the future by default.

 

Traditional professional business services rarely offer a clean fit for this kind of work. Family office executives often have overlapping fiduciary responsibilities across multiple generations of interconnected stakeholders. Big firm consultants are expensive and not typically equipped to handle the emotional complexity of close-knit businesses with relatively modest revenues. Investment bankers are also expensive and are not worth engaging until all the stakeholders are fully aligned in a particular exit strategy. Private equity firms usually pass on reviewing businesses of this scale.

 

This is the space I operate in. I’ve started businesses of my own, invested in others, sold companies to Fortune-ranked corporations, and wound down ventures when that was the right move for everyone. I currently serve as the in-house fiduciary for a boutique family office in Seattle, and I have room in my professional life to support one additional client at a time.

 

My approach is direct and consistent. I begin by asking a set of macro-level questions to founders, stakeholders, and senior management—always in writing. I review two years of detailed monthly financials, including income statements and balance sheets, and I study the current org chart. I meet with each stakeholder offsite, as many times as it takes, and whenever possible, I observe a leadership or board meeting or two. From there, I draw my own conclusions on what I would do.  I share them in writing, and in person with care and considerations for all the stakeholders.

 

This process can take as little as two weeks, though most engagements take closer to six. I only work with one client at a time, and engagements are offered either as a flat rate or on a monthly retainer.