About Focus Advisors

Who We Are

Focus Advisors helps MSO owners achieve the best results when they sell their business, enabling them to realize the full value of what they’ve worked so hard to build. We’re focused exclusively on collision repair – and we’ve sold more MSOs than any other firm.

By staying at the forefront of industry trends and utilizing our database of buyers and investors, we provide our clients with unparalleled insights and a competitive edge. In the ever-evolving collision repair market, this allows you to maximize the value of your business and navigate the sale with confidence you are achieving the best possible result.

Hear What Our Clients Have to Say

"I needed expertise and a trusted partner to get the value I deserved from the business I spent 36 years building. David and Chris at Focus Advisors exceeded my expectations in every way. I can’t recommend having an intermediary like Focus Advisors on your side highly enough."

"We were very pleased with the representation provided by Focus Advisors. The offers that we received exceeded our expectations. We closed this transaction in the middle of the pandemic, seemingly an impossible task. You can imagine how tricky this was and I believe we wouldn’t have been able to complete the transaction without the skill and expertise provided by Focus."

"Dave Roberts really understood the dynamics of our family business and our goals in seeking a sale. His deal expertise, analysis and advice were vital to our decisions and a successful outcome and transition. We highly recommend him."

"David Roberts’ experience, professionalism and integrity were invaluable to our Management team as we prepared Price’s for acquisition. David guided us through the process, helped us resolve issues, and provided great advice…."

The Focus Advisors Story

Our CEO, David Roberts, has done more transaction (both buying and selling) than any other advisor. He is best known for co-funding Caliber Collision Centers in 1995 — envisioning a more collaborative repair process across insurance companies, insureds, and repairers. At that time, 52,000 separate collision repair shops represented what was then a $25 billions industry in the US. Together, David and his partner began buying, rationalizing, and systematizing one of the nation’s first consolidated, performance-based MSOs — which by the time of its sale in 2008, would become the world’s largest collision repair consolidator.

After leading dozens of acquisitions for Caliber, David saw an opportunity to help MSO owners achieve the best results when they sell their business. He founded Focus Advisors with a proven method to help them grow, thrive, and prepare for a strategic exit. Today, Focus Advisors has grown to a team of trusted advisors — all committed to the same mission of helping MSO owners realize the full value of what they’ve worked so hard to build.

Our Team

David Roberts

Managing Director

David brings unparalleled knowledge and experience to his strategic advisory and mergers and acquisition work in the automotive services industry. In 1995, he and his partner, Matthew Ohrnstein, co-founded Caliber Collision, the world’s first and now its largest collision repair consolidator. As Chairman of Caliber through 2003 and the initial leader of its Corporate Development team, he wrote the book on how to change, grow and thrive in this intensely competitive industry. Helping raise more than $125 million in capital for Caliber and other providers, he also led the acquisition of 37 individual shops and Multiple Shop Operators at Caliber.

Gail Simpson, PhD

Director of Research

Gail Simpson, PhD, has spent more than 25 years as an entrepreneur, management consultant, and executive skilled in research, strategic planning, product development, marketing, risk management and fraud control.

She serves the Director of Research at Focus Advisors. She created and managed the proprietary industry database of all 32,000 collision repair shops in the US. Prior to joining Focus, she co-founded her own specialized adjusting firm focus on auto insurance, served an executive of the Council for Responsible Public Investment where she advocated new investment approaches to California’s largest public pension funds.

Chris Lane

Principal

Chris joined Focus Advisors in 2015, having spent the prior 15 years as a consultant advising business owners how to effectively scale their businesses through development of sound operational and marketing strategies. As Operations Director he brings a startup-company mindset to managing clients, prospects, and business execution – move quickly, communicate clearly, with discipline and commitment. He originally developed his business fundamentals at Intel Corp, spending 12 years in marketing, marketing strategy, and program management, and has a BS in Applied Math/CS from Carnegie-Mellon.

Raul Salinas

Associate

Raul joined Focus Advisors in 2021, bringing marketing and operations experience as a former start-up entrepreneur. In late 2018, he co-founded Siticar, a tech-based mobile car maintenance and detailing platform that delivered convenient services with the quickest booking experience to customers living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Raul graduated from San Jose State University in 2020 and holds an undergraduate degree in Economics.

Gail Taff

Research Manager

Gail joined Focus Advisors in 2016, following 14 years of behavioral science research. Her specialties are improving business efficiency by finding new uses for existing data and ensuring data quality in large databases. As Research Manager, she keeps Focus Advisor’s proprietary market intelligence database the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date in the automotive industry, enabling the business to understand local markets and spot new trends quickly. She has worked on developing mathematical models of behavior and co-authored a book on finding and using existing data to analyze community problems. She has a Public Health Master’s degree with a specialization in Behavioral Sciences from UC Berkeley.

MADELEINE ROBERTS

Associate

Madeleine joined Focus Advisors in 2022, bringing with her five years of experience in mixed-use, urban-infill real estate development. She previously worked in both development and strategy roles for large real estate investors and developers in both Washington, DC and San Francisco. Madeleine graduated with high distinction from Duke University, where she majored in Public Policy and minored in Economics. She currently pursuing a designation as a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Contact Focus Advisors Today to Learn More About Our Services & Benefits

You made your business what it is today but selling or expanding it requires knowledge of the game and experience in the industry. You may only sell a business once in your life, but the buyers and investors do this for a living and know the ins, outs, and how to come out on top. Let Focus Advisors help even the playing field and get the very most out of your business for you!