Maple Park Capital (“Maple Park”), a private equity firm partnering with exceptional founders and operators to build enduring service businesses, today announced that it has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors list. The list celebrates the private equity firms, venture capital firms, and lenders with demonstrated track records of supporting founder-led companies through growth and beyond.

Maple Park partners with its portfolio companies to activate new channels for value creation, built around service business founders and the long-term growth of their businesses. It provides founders and management teams access to resources typically out of reach for lower-middle-market companies, including human capital via targeted executive recruitment and seasoned operating advisors, systems and process advancement, such as technology and AI enablement, and capital resources to unlock attractive opportunities to accelerate organic and inorganic growth.

“The founder’s perspective is one built into every stage of our value creation process,” said Alexander Blankfein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. “We aim to provide our founders a different experience, one where our partnership focuses on their goals as much as the numbers, where real and compounding trust is prioritized, and where our culture reflects the same relentless commitment to success that founders bring to their own businesses.”

Since Maple Park’s founding in 2025, it has invested in Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard, the largest Italian ice concept in the world, and Prep Network, a leading prep sports platform focused on subscription content, live events, and collegiate athlete recruitment. Both companies are emblematic of a Maple Park partner: resilient, asset-light services businesses with protected demand, strong unit economics, durable cash flows, and exceptional leadership.

“We’re grateful to Inc. for this honor and to our partners for the trust they place in us each and every day,” added Andrew Lauck, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. “As founders ourselves, we understand the pride our partners have in their businesses and the importance of taking a collaborative approach to driving business value. We have the privilege of working alongside incredible leaders, and we look forward to helping them access new paths to accelerated growth.”

To compile this year’s Founder-Friendly Investors list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms to share their perspectives on how their companies have performed during these partnerships. The resulting 2026 Founder-Friendly Investors list can be viewed here: www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors.

About Maple Park Capital

Maple Park Capital is an investment firm partnering with exceptional operators and investors to drive value creation within the services economy. Based in Dallas and New York, the firm invests in North American service businesses with a focus on multi-unit, franchisors & franchisees, youth enrichment, travel and hospitality, and select business services. The Maple Park team draws on decades of investing experience and deep, longstanding relationships to invest in and scale service businesses with a proven, hands-on approach to partnership and value creation. To learn more, visit https://www.mapleparkcap.com/.

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

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