Rich Jordan is the Founder & CEO of High Ground, a company focused on helping self-funded operators build stronger, more resilient businesses. Rich has a background spanning business acquisition, operations, and growth — giving him a practitioner's lens on what it actually takes to go from searcher to successful CEO.

At SMBash 2026, Rich shares the frameworks he's developed for value creation in the critical early stages of operator tenure. He focuses on the practical levers new operators can pull to stabilize, improve, and grow an acquired business — and how to avoid the common mistakes that derail promising acquisitions in the first 12 months.