The New Frontier for Small Business: Mission-Critical Infrastructure & Readiness

In an age of geopolitical instability, climate volatility, and aging infrastructure, America is rediscovering the value of something often overlooked: small businesses that support mission-critical systems. These are the operators—local, technical, and deeply embedded—who quietly protect the infrastructure that keeps our country secure, functional, and future-ready.

At Legacy, we’re building in regions that sit at the heart of this national readiness strategy. We focus on four states that are home to some of the most important mission-critical assets in the country: Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, and Tennessee. These aren’t just economic hubs—they are operational strongholds for defense, energy, emergency response, and strategic logistics.

Virginia hosts the largest naval base in the world, an extensive defense contractor ecosystem, and vital maritime infrastructure. Colorado is a nerve center for aerospace, NORAD, cybersecurity, and energy systems. North Carolina includes Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), Camp Lejeune, and one of the country’s fastest-growing military-logistics corridors. And Tennessee, often overlooked in the national conversation, is emerging as one of the most strategically important regions in the U.S.—home to Arnold Air Force Base (a global leader in aerospace testing), the Tennessee Valley Authority’s vast energy infrastructure, and a growing network of data centers anchored by Meta and Elon Musk’s xAI.

In each of these places, small and mid-sized businesses are playing outsized roles. They install the fiber that connects the bases. They maintain the runways, dredge the ports, secure the electrical grid, and respond when disaster strikes. These are companies that don’t seek the spotlight, but whose absence would be felt immediately. At Legacy, we see these businesses as essential. And we believe they represent one of the most compelling investment opportunities of the next decade.

Defining Mission-Critical Infrastructure—and the Role of Readiness

When we talk about “mission-critical infrastructure,” we’re referring to the systems that underpin national security and public continuity. Military installations, aerospace hubs, port systems, data centers, and power grids all fall into this category. Their operation is non-negotiable. And increasingly, their upkeep depends not on massive government contractors, but on the regional specialists who know how to work inside these environments with speed, precision, and trust.

But infrastructure is only half of the equation. The other half is readiness.

Readiness is about maintaining uptime. It’s about anticipating stress. It’s about responding when systems fail—due to a hurricane, a cyberattack, or a logistics breakdown. And more and more, the federal government and large defense integrators are turning to small businesses to deliver on that promise. From emergency response firms to high-compliance logistics operators, from corrosion specialists to secure fiber installers, these companies are now embedded in the day-to-day and long-term functioning of America’s critical infrastructure.

This convergence of infrastructure and readiness is no accident. It’s the result of decades of deferred investment meeting a new reality: climate risk, energy transition, cyber-physical vulnerability, and rising geopolitical pressure are forcing every institution, from D.C. to the private sector, to prioritize continuity and resilience. And at the local level, it’s small businesses that are doing the work.

A Sector That’s Hard to Enter—and Built to Last

What makes this category so defensible is what also makes it so valuable. These businesses are protected by deep operational moats: they operate under multi-year contracts, they hold certifications and clearances that take years to obtain, and they often work in environments that are closed to the general market. You don’t become a trusted partner to a naval yard or defense agency overnight. You earn that trust over time—by doing the work well, by training your people, by passing inspections, by showing up.

The revenue model is equally compelling. Most of these companies don’t rely on consumer demand or discretionary spending. Their work is recurring, compliance-driven, and contract-backed. When a base needs corrosion cleaned from a fuel line or a port requires environmental testing, there’s no “next quarter” to push the work into. It happens on time, or systems shut down. That creates highly reliable cash flow, strong renewal dynamics, and limited exposure to market cycles.

These aren’t the kinds of companies that get disrupted easily. Their value lies in their access, their knowledge, and their embeddedness. And because of that, they scale quietly—but sustainably.

Why Now?

The next ten years will not be defined by growth for growth’s sake. They’ll be defined by resilience, redundancy, and operational certainty. Climate events are becoming more extreme. Energy infrastructure is being restructured from the ground up. National security priorities are shifting. Supply chains are tightening and localizing. Data centers, ports, and power systems are now considered soft targets—and they’re being hardened accordingly.

In Tennessee alone, we see this shift in real time. Arnold Air Force Base continues to expand its role in aerospace development. TVA manages over 16,000 miles of transmission lines and 500 substations, fortifying one of the country’s most expansive public utilities. Gallatin is now home to a sprawling Meta data center, and Memphis is on track to become a hub for artificial intelligence, as xAI develops a next-generation supercomputing campus. These projects—and the businesses that support them—aren’t speculative. They’re foundational.

The same story is playing out in Virginia, Colorado, and North Carolina. These states are not only home to major military and government installations—they’re becoming the front line of climate adaptation, energy transition, and digital infrastructure expansion. And at each node, small and mid-sized operators are being asked to do more.

Where We’re Focused—and Who’s on Our Team

Legacy is backing the operators who specialize in readiness and mission-critical work. These include marine cleaning and port services, fiber optic installation firms, high-clearance logistics operators, emergency response businesses, and regional contractors supporting everything from erosion control to secure systems maintenance. What unites them is not a specific industry, but a shared profile: they are certified, reliable, contract-backed, and quietly indispensable.

We’re fortunate to have team members with direct experience in this world. Matt Daugherty, a team member, has spent nearly two decades in defense and aerospace support, leading fiber installation programs for Navy and submarine systems and managing large-scale technical projects across the military contracting ecosystem. His insight into this field helps us evaluate companies from the inside out—not just through a financial lens, but through an operational one.

Likewise, Dan Schmerin, a Partner at Legacy, brings a national perspective shaped by his senior roles at the White House, U.S. Treasury, and State Department. His work focused on preparedness, crisis response, and public-private partnerships—including managing a $30 billion federal program during the 2008 financial crisis. Today, he brings that same mindset to building a portfolio of businesses that can weather storms—literally and figuratively.

Legacy’s Thesis

We believe that mission-critical infrastructure and readiness are not a niche. It’s not a category. It’s a requirement. The businesses that serve it, especially the small, certified operators who’ve built their reputations in the field, are positioned to thrive in the years ahead.

At Legacy, we’re not interested in flipping companies or chasing trends. We’re building for permanence. We’re backing the businesses that clean the ships, wire the bases, stabilize the energy, and respond when others hesitate. And we’re doing it in the regions that matter most.

This is not about buying service companies. This is about investing in the infrastructure behind the infrastructure.

And that’s where we’ll be for the next decade—and beyond.