Cory Strickland

Cory is the Founder and President of The 86 Group. Cory began his professional career in the restaurant industry where he began buying under-preforming restaurants, turning them around and selling them for a profit. Eventually, Cory expanded on this to developing his own concepts, building an infrastructure and growth plan and expanding the concept to several locations and later selling to private equity groups or other investors which is how he became exposed to M&A. Throughout Cory’s restaurant career, he successfully raised over $50m in private capital through PPM’s, was involved in the development and operations of 9 different multi-unit concepts. In 2008, Cory sold his Tex-Mex concept with a $13m valuation (excluding real estate) and decided to enter into the consulting business.

Cory began his consulting career by becoming trained as a Financial Analyst working for the nation’s largest business management consulting company. During this time, Cory gained an incredible amount of knowledge and experience by becoming acquainted with a multitude of different business across many industries all over the United States. It became clear to Cory, that there was a hole to fill to provide investment banking services for entrepreneurs.

Cory started The 86 Group with the simple philosophy of creating a firm to help entrepreneurs successfully buy, sell and grow their business. Today, Cory continues to assist Clients in their goals as well as provides the leadership for the growth of the firm.

Cory received a BBA in Management & Statistics from Texas Christian University and a MBA in Finance from New Charter University. Cory is an avid Triathlete and has completed 12 Ironman distances triathlons. Cory is married and currently resides in the Canyon Creek neighborhood of Richardson, Texas.