Entrepreneurial DNA of US Capital Global

An Interview with Jeffrey Sweeney, Founder and Chairman, US Capital Global

When Jeffrey Sweeney, Founder and Chairman of US Capital Global, reflects on the origins of the firm, he doesn’t start with Wall Street or the capital markets. He starts on the factory floor—cutting threads on a lathe in his family’s aerospace manufacturing business in the 1970s. It’s there that the seeds of what would eventually become US Capital Global were planted: not just in manufacturing, but in a culture of technological innovation, process, and financial ingenuity that continues to shape the firm’s identity today.

“I’ve got a degree in macroeconomics and finance, as well as a degree from the school of hard knocks in manufacturing engineering,” Sweeney explains. “Back then, there weren’t middle-market investment banks. So when our company needed financing, I had to figure it out myself. That’s how I got into structuring credit for middle-market companies—out of necessity.”

This dual fluency—in finance and in operations—remains a hallmark of US Capital Global today. Founded in the late 1990s, the firm has grown into a leading global investment bank for capital raising and asset management, serving middle-market companies, with offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

The Early DNA: Technology, Process, and Quality

US Capital Global’s origins in aerospace may seem a world apart from modern finance, but the parallels are striking. Aerospace, Sweeney points out, was the first wave of industry to be transformed by technology—long before the telecom and internet booms. “We were early adopters,” he says. “We had the first fax machine in our industrial park, and our focus was always on early adoption, efficiency, and quality.”

That mindset has carried forward. “In manufacturing, it’s all about breaking complex problems into simple, repeatable steps. With the right process, ordinary people can do extraordinary things,” Sweeney reflects. “That’s exactly how we’ve approached building our investment bank.”

Today, US Capital Global continues to innovate in technological adoption—particularly in areas like marketing, diligence analysis, sales enablement, and regulatory tech. “The financial sector has been very slow to adopt new technology,” he notes, “so we see it as a competitive advantage, much like manufacturing tech was back in the ’80s.”

Structuring Capital with Entrepreneurial Empathy

In the mid-1990s, after selling the family business, Sweeney established a family office. A lifelong sailor, he then spent several years sailing around the South Pacific. Upon returning to business on dry land, he was inspired to take the family office a step further and build something more powerful. “I tucked our family office into a regulated entity—US Capital—starting with an industrial equipment leasing firm, then growing it into a full-service investment bank.”

That vision became US Capital Global. “At the core of our DNA is an entrepreneurial financial organization specializing in providing capital for middle-market businesses—something I did for 20 years before founding US Capital Global. We know what founders and CEOs are going through, because we’ve flown their desks.”

Managing Partner and COO Charles Towle, who has been with the firm for more than two decades, echoes this point. “Unlike a traditional analyst coming out of a bulge-bracket bank, many of our team members are operators. We understand business from the inside, not just from a spreadsheet.”

This operator mindset drives everything the firm does—from bespoke credit structuring to complex capital raises. “We’re not just packaging deals,” says Sweeney. “We’re solving real problems with creativity and precision.”

A Culture of Alignment and Integrity

Another defining feature of US Capital Global is its regulatory posture. While many firms brace for audits and compliance reviews, Sweeney’s perspective is different. “In aerospace, we worked closely with quality engineers from the government and major aerospace companies. We welcomed them in and listened carefully to both the letter and spirit of their comments and goals. I considered it like free McKinsey consulting. They would make recommendations, and we would respectfully and carefully follow them.”

That collaborative approach carries over into financial services. “We’re deeply aligned with the mission of our regulators, which is to protect investors. We embrace that. We stay well within the bounds of regulation, and follow both the letter and spirit of the laws in all the jurisdictions we operate in.”

Towle adds, “We are a highly regulated, fully licensed organization. And yet we maintain an entrepreneurial spirit. It’s an unusual combination.”

Jeffrey Sweeney is a lifelong entrepreneur and successful fund manager with decades of experience in corporate finance and asset management. He is Founder and Chairman of US Capital Global ( www.uscapital.com), a full-service global private financial group headquartered in San Francisco with primary offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Miami, London, Milan, Zurich, and Dubai.