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How Jamestown Capital Researches and Publishes Private Market Analysis
Jamestown Capital's research is produced entirely in-house by the firm's principals, Henry Carter and Nate Harner. Every dataset we publish, every tool we build, and every article we write is sourced, developed, and reviewed by our team—not outsourced to freelancers, agencies, or AI content generators.
We believe that rigorous, transparent analysis is rare in the lower middle market. Most research in this space is either locked behind expensive paywalls or produced with an agenda. Our goal is to publish work that we would want to read ourselves: data-driven, clearly sourced, and useful for making real decisions.
What We Publish and Why
Our publications fall into three categories:
Research — Long-form analysis of trends in SBA lending, acquisition financing, and small business performance. These pieces are designed to give searchers and investors a data-backed view of the market.
Tools — Interactive applications built on public datasets. Our tools let users query, filter, and visualize data that would otherwise require significant technical effort to access.
Analysis — Focused examinations of specific topics such as LBO modeling assumptions, policy changes, and industry benchmarks. These are shorter, more targeted pieces meant to address common questions we encounter.
Each publication is intended to be a standalone resource that can be referenced, cited, and built upon by others in the private equity lower middle market community.
Data Sources
SBA Lending Data
Our SBA lending research draws primarily from the SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA datasets, which contain loan-level records going back to 1990. We supplement this with Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) for macroeconomic context, including prime rate history and inflation indices.
Business Listings Data
For acquisition-related analysis, we aggregate data from major business listing platforms. This data is processed through our own pipelines to normalize fields, remove duplicates, and flag inconsistencies. We do not scrape or republish proprietary listing content.
Industry Performance Data
Industry-level performance metrics are sourced from federal statistical agencies and public financial databases. We use NAICS codes as our primary classification system, consistent with SBA reporting standards.
How We Build Our Tools
Our interactive tools are built using the same datasets that inform our research. The development process follows a consistent pattern:
- Identify a question that requires repeated data queries to answer
- Source and validate the underlying dataset(s)
- Build a data pipeline that cleans, normalizes, and structures the data
- Develop an interactive front-end that lets users query the data directly
- Validate outputs against known benchmarks and spot-check edge cases
Editorial Standards
Every piece of research we publish goes through a structured review process before it reaches our site:
- The author drafts the analysis and documents all data sources and assumptions
- A second team member reviews the methodology, data processing, and conclusions
- Automated checks validate data pipeline outputs against expected ranges
- Final review confirms that all claims are supported by cited data
We correct errors promptly and transparently. If a dataset is updated or a methodology is revised, we note the change in the relevant publication.
Who Produces This Research
Henry Carter and Nate Harner are the principals of Jamestown Capital. Henry and Nate bring over twenty years of experience solving complex problems in the high-frequency trading space. Together, they handle everything from data sourcing and pipeline development to writing and publication. More about the team is available on our team page.
Citing This Research
We encourage readers to cite and reference our work. If you use our data, tools, or analysis in your own publications, please link back to the relevant page on jamestown-capital.com. For press inquiries or data requests, contact us at contact@jamestown-capital.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Jamestown Capital get its data?
Jamestown Capital uses publicly available datasets including SBA FOIA loan records, business listing aggregators, and federal economic data. All sources are cited in each publication.
Is Jamestown Capital's research independently verified?
All analysis is reviewed internally by at least two team members before publication. Data processing pipelines include automated validation checks, and raw sources are linked so readers can verify independently.
Who produces Jamestown Capital's research?
Research is produced by Jamestown Capital's principals, Henry Carter and Nate Harner, who have backgrounds in finance, software engineering, and data analysis. No content is outsourced to third parties.