Andrew Dunlap

Most RFQs get quoted exactly as drawn. Nobody stops to ask if the print is asking for more than it needs to. A tolerance held tighter than the assembly actually requires. A wall thickness left over from a design that used a different material. A feature that made sense in the original CAD file and just costs machine time now. Every print has a little fat in it somewhere, and most shops don't have a reason to go find it (they just quote what's in front of them). The RFQ stage is the cheapest moment to catch that, before anything's been cut and before the part's locked into a bill of materials for the next five years. Change it after 10,000 units are running and it's expensive. Change it before the first one and it's just better engineering. At Clarke Precision Machine, that's part of how the team reads an RFQ: not just what tolerance can we hit, but is this the least material, least time version of this part that still does its job. If you're sourcing a new part, ask your shop that question before you ask for the quote. clarkeprecisionmachine.com

Chicago paid Boeing $50m to move its headquarters from Seattle. Two decades later, Boeing left anyway. The 2001 deal came out to $100k per job, for about 500 jobs and zero factories. Chicago thought it was buying a headquarters, but really it was just renting one. Today Boeing's headquarters sits in Arlington, Virginia. Before we take a bow: what moved here can move again. A poached company is a poachable company. The research says the prize is real. A headquarters is worth millions a year to local charities and hundreds of six-figure households in town. That's why towns/cities bid. But a subsidy only rents what somebody else's subsidy can rent back. There is one way to hold a headquarters that no one can outbid: own the company, permanently, in town. That's the Harbor model. We buy Virginia businesses and hold them forever. The corner office stays, the board seats stay, and the generosity that follows them stays, because there is no next buyer. Virginia businesses in Virginia hands. harbor.capital

Management (my 8yo) reminded me about the importance of uptime this weekend...

I spent my twenties riding and racing all kinds of bikes. It was part of the reason I wanted to move to Virginia! I don't get out much these days, but when I do, this beautiful place is there waiting.

Virginia has run the same slogan for 57 years. But CNBC just keeps pushing us to adopt a new one. Virginia is for builders. The 2026 Top States for Business rankings came out yesterday and Virginia is back up to #3, with six #1 finishes since the study began (more than any other state, ever). We’ve been top 5 every year since 2018. Last summer we got knocked off the top spot with federal cuts dragging us down a bit to #4, but we’re back moving in the right direction. Ohio took its first title, too. Congratulations folks. Don’t get too comfortable though, we want our title back and we’re coming for it.

Every state is either a net importer or a net exporter of companies. Virginia exports. We ran 16 years of deal flow across 11 states, and only two states came out on the import side. New York netted 828 companies off everyone else. Illinois netted 343. The other nine sold, Pennsylvania gave up the most, and Virginia lost a net 117 companies. The jobs usually stay, at least at first. The ownership never comes back. Payroll still runs (probably) from the original site, but those high-level decisions shift to a conference room in NYC. Harbor exists so Virginia becomes a net importer. All the data: all.harbor.capital

People ask where our deal flow comes from. The honest answer is our team’s calendar. Here's who just I met with last week: • An owner in the middle of a ~$500M sale of his company • A European family office • A state Treasury dept • A founder friend in the early innings of building • The guy who runs a multi-family office here in Virginia • A capital group in DC • A team carving out a division of a massive company to bring it to Virginia • Frontier's leadership team (our portco in Richmond) • A young guy I mentor who's deciding whether to drop out of school to double down on his startup (he probably should, he's brilliant) • The head of a global construction company's Virginia division, looking for talent • A team about to go out on their own in real estate • An M&A attorney at arguably one of the most powerful firms in the country • My LinkedIn strategy team • Multiple groups interested in investing in Harbor's fund • A podcast host, recording an episode on a great business podcast • The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce • UVA staff, talking partnerships • The owner of a mid-sized commercial construction group in Virginia • A broker with a deal we're interested in • An owner of a Virginia RIA And that doesn't count the calls, texts, and emails in between. Most of those meetings aren't deals. That's the job. You show up for the mentee, the chamber, the podcast, the exec hunting for talent, and you keep showing up. Over time, the touch points add up. People think about you and introduce you to a deal. We had 5 deals come inbound last week. Every one of these conversations spins the flywheel a little faster. If you're an owner, or know one thinking about what's next, shoot me a note.

There's one American landscape Virginia can't give you. The desert. That's it. That's the whole list. Everything else is here: • Oceans and mountains • Lakes and rivers • Four seasons, snow and beach in the same year (and when you're unlucky, in the same 60 days) • Rural quiet or a big city skyline, one hour apart • Cheap in the mountains or a fortune near DC • Simple or luxury, your call Oh, and 12+ nationally ranked universities, public and private, from UVA to Virginia Tech to Washington and Lee to Mary Washington. Number one in education, two years running. Six-time number one state for business. More than 120 million people within a day's drive. Europe, one flight. And none of it at California or New York prices. Name a state that does all of it better. I'll wait.

Appalachia is being gutted. So is the rest of Virginia. When a business in Southwest Virginia sells, it leaves the state 88.7% of the time. Even Northern Virginia sits at 74%. We have to slow this down. See it all at data.harbor.capital

Why would any young person want to live in Virginia? Someone actually asked me that this week. Quick reminder: Virginia is more than gridlock traffic on 95. You can live in a city with this as your backyard.

Virginia just lost its largest venture capital firm. Columbia Capital in Alexandria, founded in '89. Over $9B raised in its life. A Texas REIT (Digital Realty) bought it. After QED, the next biggest VC firm in the state manages under a billion... Losing talent stings. Losing a company hurts. Losing investment infrastructure is worse. Those are the institutions with scale, with the LP relationships, with their finger on the pulse of where capital and industries are moving. Aaaand now that all lives in Texas. Brutal.

Everyone overcomplicate this. more HQs = more leaders more leaders = a healthier place ∴ more HQs = a healthier place That's the whole thing. The problem isn't that Virginia can't grow leaders. It's that we keep selling the companies that produce them. 82% of the businesses that sell here go to out-of-state buyers, and the leadership leaves with the logo (data.harbor.capital) Harbor is the buyer that keeps them home.

Most people spend a 40-year career earning a view like this for retirement. I get it out my front door before work. Virginia is unbeatable.

Virginia ranks 42nd out of 50. In small business lending per person. 1/3 below the national rate. It isn't loan size. Our average loan runs a hair above the national number. And it isn't that we have fewer businesses. We have the same share of companies as the rest of the country. It's that far fewer of them are getting funded. Just to get to the national average, we would have to fund roughly 2,800 more Virginia businesses, with about $1.4 billion in capital. We don't lack companies worth backing. We can do better than 42nd. And we will.

Harbor bought a few businesses this spring. And that was exciting. But none of it came close to the joy of coaching my daughter and her little lacrosse team. She won't be this little next spring. And one day, she'll want me on the sideline, not in the huddle. Until then, I'm holding on to every second of this.

"I can't find anyone good to hire in Virginia." Really? I get messages from people (young and old) like this every week. Went to Virginia Tech, started his career in Lynchburg, and wanted to stay in Virginia. His employer closed, so he left for Charleston, SC to find the work that wasn't here. He's thriving in South Carolina, but he still wants to come home. The good people didn't vanish. They followed the jobs across the state line. Talent doesn’t hate Virginia. They just don’t have a reason to stay or come back.

Most states are good at a few things. Virginia, is the complete package. Start with just the map: Drive east and you reach the Atlantic and the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the country. Drive west and you're into the Blue Ridge mountains. You can stand in the ocean at breakfast and be on a mountain by dinner, same state. But, maybe you're not an outdoors person... ok: This is where the country was BUILT. Jamestown in 1607, the first permanent English settlement in America. The Revolution was won at Yorktown. Eight presidents were born in Virginia (more than any other state). William & Mary opened in 1693, then Washington and Lee University in 1749, then Hampden-Sydney College in 1775; AND the Father of the Constitution, James Madison, was a Virginian. He got a school too! We also haven't stopped building: The only shipyard in America that builds nuclear aircraft carriers is here. So is the largest naval base (on earth). The densest cluster of data centers on the planet sits in Northern Virginia, which means a LOT of the internet physically runs through Virginia. As of this year we have the deepest harbor on the East Coast, and the single largest customer in the world (the federal government) is right across a river. CNBC has named Virginia the best state in America for business more than any other state. ANY. OTHER. And none of that is the best reason to be here… The best reason is that you can have all of it and still afford a life. Outside Northern Virginia, you get a job market with home prices that would be a fantasy in California or the Northeast. The schools are among the best in the nation, and the towns are old and have a soul. You keep what you earn, while you build where you live. Coast and mountains, the birthplace of America and its powerhouse. The career and the life. No other state has that. The rest of the country has not priced Virginia correctly yet. Get here before it does. Why do you love Virginia?

@dave_christison Have you tried putting precision hydration flow gel in your own flask and using that? I found that to be the answer after 20 years of looking.

There’s no such thing as s good running gel. I’ve tried so many, they are all tolerable at best but just generally wanna make you puke and rally. I hate those things… toast if you don’t force them down though.

Turns out, Virginia is for lovers. And buyers. Trailing twelve months of Virginia companies sold to out-of-state buyers attached. When the owner leaves, the decision makers leave. Then the jobs. Then the tax base. Harbor is the other kind of buyer that stays. harbor.capital

Virginia Tech is running out of people in charge. For those keeping score at home: in a few weeks they have turned over their: - president - athletic director - board chair And now they're standing up a brand-new CEO role next to the AD. Four powerful seats. All at once. Hokies, how are we feeling about all this??