Chicago / Family office / Multi-generational

2PZ is a family office built from the exit of an industrial operating business, shaped by a specialty-chemicals journey and the responsibility of turning one chapter of family enterprise into the next.

Experience carried
from one chapter to the next.

The family office grew out of a real operating history: industry, a chemical business, transition, and a widening idea of what long-term responsibility can include.

01

An industrial family

The story begins with a family working inside industry—close to customers, physical products, technical constraints, and the daily responsibility of keeping a business moving.

Operating roots
02

Building the chemical business

A specialty-chemicals company expanded beyond its original products and markets by investing in people, systems, governance, and a broader view of where its capabilities could matter.

Products, markets, and professionalization
03

Forming the family office

After the operating-company chapter changed, the family began building a new institution for investing, learning, and carrying long-earned judgment into a more flexible portfolio of opportunities.

A new operating system for capital
04

Purpose beyond investment

The next chapter extends beyond returns. It includes philanthropy, education, and the patient work of preparing future generations to use capital and relationships with purpose.

Philanthropy and the next generation

We invest across a few key areas.

Our interests remain broad by design. Within each area, we look for specific problems, credible insight, and teams building something that can matter over time.

01

Digital Finance & Web3

Digital Finance & Ownership

Infrastructure that makes money, ownership, identity, and financial participation more programmable and accessible.

We are interested in durable financial products built on better rails—not technology in search of a use case. The strongest opportunities solve a real problem in payments, ownership, compliance, access, or market structure and become more valuable as trust compounds.

Considerations
  • Programmable payments and settlement
  • Digital ownership and asset infrastructure
  • Identity, compliance, and risk tooling
02

Life Sciences & Health Technology

Life Sciences & Health Technology

Science, diagnostics, care models, and enabling tools that improve how health is understood and delivered.

We look for teams translating scientific or clinical insight into measurable outcomes. Evidence matters, but so do workflow, reimbursement, manufacturing, distribution, and the practical work of earning trust from patients and providers.

Considerations
  • Earlier and more precise diagnostics
  • Enabling tools for research and care delivery
  • Longitudinal and preventative health models
03

Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics

Applied Intelligence & Data Infrastructure

Systems that make expertise more available, workflows more legible, and consequential decisions materially better.

We favor applied intelligence that earns a durable place inside a real workflow. The product should understand its user, improve with use, and create an advantage that extends beyond access to the same underlying model.

Considerations
  • Vertical AI embedded in expert workflows
  • Data infrastructure for complex decisions
  • Tools that expand human judgment and capacity
04

Sports & Wellness Technology

Sports, Wellness & Human Performance

Products and experiences that help people perform, recover, participate, and build healthier routines.

Sports and wellness sit at the intersection of identity, community, media, science, and behavior. We look for credible outcomes, authentic user love, and business models that can grow without outrunning the evidence behind the product.

Considerations
  • Recovery and performance with measurable outcomes
  • Technology that widens participation in sport
  • Community-led consumer health platforms
05

Frontier Technology (Space & Defense)

Frontier Systems: Space, Defense & Resilience

Hard technologies and mission-critical systems where software, engineering, and the physical world converge.

We are drawn to consequential technical problems with demanding operating constraints. Long development cycles can create durable value when mission need, commercial demand, and a credible path to scaled delivery reinforce one another.

Considerations
  • Autonomy, sensing, and resilient communications
  • Dual-use systems with commercial demand
  • Infrastructure security and operational resilience
06

Real Estate & PropTech

Real Assets & Property Technology

Businesses improving how physical places are financed, built, operated, protected, and experienced.

The built environment is enormous, fragmented, and still full of incomplete information and manual coordination. We look for companies that reduce waste, make assets more productive, and create better outcomes for owners, operators, and occupants.

Considerations
  • Operating systems for real assets
  • Construction productivity and housing supply
  • Energy, insurance, and resilience for property
07

Board & Operating Partnerships

Private Equity Partnerships

Partnerships with private equity firms and portfolio companies through board service and hands-on operating roles.

We partner with private equity investors and management teams where our experience as family-business operators can be useful—from board-level perspective and strategic guidance to hands-on operating support. These relationships are grounded in shared values, clear roles, and a practical commitment to building stronger businesses.

Considerations
  • Board and operating roles aligned with the company’s needs
  • Partners who value operational experience and a long-term perspective
  • Situations where our network and pattern recognition can be useful

Conversations, classrooms, and material.

Podcasts, presentations, and public sessions exploring family business, private equity, and what comes after an operating-company transition.

6 items

PodcastAugust 2025
Private Equity Uncorked podcast thumbnail

The Happy Customer Channel · Episode 85 · 57 min

Private Equity Uncorked

A candid family-business conversation about growth, buyer alignment, culture, and the transition from operator to investor.

Watch episode ↗
PodcastMay 2025
Launching the family business to a new level podcast thumbnail

Beyond the Family Business · 47 min

Next Gen CEO: 20× sales of the family business

How a struggling textile-dye distributor expanded into a specialty-ingredients business—and how the family navigated private equity and the next chapter.

Watch episode ↗
PresentationApril 2024
2PZ Ventures

Institute for Family Governance · Miami Conference

How to Sell Your Family Company—Lessons Learned

A journey from a textile-dye business to a global enterprise, including governance, professionalization, two sales, and the family office that followed.

View presentation ↗
SpeakingMay 2024
2PZ Ventures

Kellogg John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises

To sell or not to sell the family business?

A Kellogg re:connect discussion on generational transition, preparing for a sale, preserving culture, and selecting the right professional partners.

Read event summary ↗
PodcastAugust 2022
CEO Coaching International podcast thumbnail

CEO Coaching International · 37 min

Four keys to preparing a business for private equity

A practical discussion of leadership, outside networks, multi-year preparation, and finding real alignment with a capital partner.

Listen and read ↗
ClassroomKellogg
2PZ Ventures

Northwestern University · Kellogg School of Management

Family-enterprise lessons in the classroom

Operating and family-business experience carried into graduate classrooms, executive education, and individual mentorship.

View Kellogg profile ↗