Our Team
The Team You'll Work With
Our principals bring decades of M&A experience from top-tier law firms, investment banks, and investment firms. Every client works directly with senior professionals, from kickoff through closing.
Drew Eckman
Drew brings together legal, operating, and lending experience across more than a decade of work with founders and small-business buyers.
He began his career as an M&A attorney, advising founders and business owners on acquisitions, dispositions, and complex negotiations, executing more than $485M in transactions. That work gave him an inside view of how deals are papered, negotiated, and closed, and how the legal and commercial sides can pull in opposite directions when a process isn't run well.
He spent the years that followed on the operating side of small businesses. As Vice President of Portfolio Management at a venture studio, he worked directly with founders and management teams. As Senior Vice President at a technology, data, and software company focused on the HVAC industry, he helped raise a $37M Series B, grew revenue nearly 10x, and built a national distribution footprint.
Drew has also served as a success coach for business buyers through SMBootcamp, a leading M&A education business. In addition to working with Sellers, Drew leads BayCoast's acquisition financing practice. That work gives him a current, granular view of how lower-middle-market deals get financed, what lenders care about, where deals get stuck, and what it takes to close.
Education: B.S. in Finance, University of Louisville; J.D., Louisville Brandeis School of Law; MBA, UCLA Anderson. Licensed attorney.
Ryan Whittemore
Ryan's career as an investor, attorney and M&A advisor has spanned investment banking, principal investing, and small-business ownership, a combination that gives him a 360-degree view of the transactions BayCoast advises on.
He began his career across investment management and trading before going to law school to focus on private equity & M&A transactions. He later served as Investment Principal and General Counsel at Fort Brooke Merchant Partners, a private investment firm leading 13 M&A transactions.
Ryan went on to serve as a Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Florida Funders, where he led 83 new investments and helped deploy over $100M across 5 funds.
In 2025, Ryan transitioned into small-business ownership as CEO of Makaira Ventures, a holding company acquiring and operating compelling lower middle market businesses. Ryan's experience as an owner and operator aligns his perspectives with small business owners and the transactions BayCoast advises on.
Education: B.S. in Finance and MBA, University of Florida; J.D., Stetson University College of Law. Licensed attorney.
Zach Teumer
Zach has spent his career on the deal side of the lower- and middle-market.
He began at Crosstree Capital in Tampa, advising buyers on lower-middle-market M&A transactions. He then joined Raymond James in industrials investment banking, where he executed more than $1.3B of middle-market transactions across commercial and industrial services and building products and distribution.
Most recently, Zach served as Chief of Staff and Analyst at Pursuant Capital, supporting acquisitions, diligence, and portfolio management for entrepreneurs and investors.
Zach grew up working at family-owned contracting and roofing businesses in southeast Virginia. That early exposure to owner-operated businesses informs how he thinks about the realities of running, growing, and ultimately selling a company built from the ground up. It's context that's often missing in a typical investment-banking process.
Education: University of South Carolina.