An owner put it to me directly last year. “Your people consult for operators all over this industry. If I tell you I’m thinking about selling, where does that go?”

It’s a fair question and it deserves a plain answer, not a diagram.

The structure, stated plainly

Mark Kowalski founded Envise Partners in 2018. In 2026 Envise became part of Performance Matters Consulting, which has worked with linen, uniform, and laundry operators for years on strategy and operations. I own both firms and lead them. Steve Royals is President of Performance Matters and a Managing Director at Envise.

So these aren’t two unrelated companies that share a logo. They have the same owner and some of the same people. Anyone weighing whether to trust us with sensitive information should start from that fact rather than from an org chart.

Why the two firms are together

Most owners need operating help long before they can consider a sale transaction. Performance Matters does that work: market position, segment focus, plant performance, the things that take years to move. Envise handles valuation and transactions.

Put them together and an owner can build value and then realize it, instead of discovering at the closing table which parts of the business a buyer wouldn’t pay for. That’s the whole reason for the combination. It only works if owners trust us with the information that makes it possible.

Where the line sits

Four commitments govern how we handle what you tell us.

  • Information doesn’t move between the businesses. This runs both ways. What you tell Performance Matters in consulting work stays with the consulting team and isn’t passed to the deal team. What you tell Envise about a possible sale stays with the deal team and isn’t passed to the consultants. Owning both firms doesn’t put your file on both desks.
  • Information belongs to the engagement, not the building. The same holds inside each firm. What you share in a valuation or a sale process stays with the people doing that work, and isn’t circulated more widely because someone else might find it useful. More specifically, Steve Royals, Mark Kowalski, and I are the only ones who will know you’ve engaged Envise as your advisor.
  • The smallest group that can do the work. On a sale, the people who know your name are the ones who need it to serve you. That group doesn’t widen because a colleague is curious or because another engagement might benefit.
  • You can hire one firm without the other. A Performance Matters client is under no obligation to use Envise when the time comes, and an Envise client doesn’t have to buy consulting. If either ever feels like a condition, tell me.

The competitor question

I won’t dress this up. This industry isn’t large. Performance Matters works with operators in many markets, and over time some of them will be near you. Some may be among your likely buyers. I’m not going to promise you otherwise, and an advisor who does is either very small or isn’t being straight with you.

So the protection isn’t a promise to avoid your market. It’s the separation above: what you tell us stays inside the engagement it belongs to, and it doesn’t cross between the two businesses.

Because I own both firms, that separation isn’t a policy somebody else wrote and I inherited. If it ever fails, there’s no one else for me to point to.

Our commitment

Owners in this industry generally get one shot at selling the company. You’re trusting an advisor with information that could hurt you if it moved. I’d rather tell you exactly how the two firms work and let you judge it than let you assume a separation that doesn’t exist.