If they received $36 MM in a fundraise 3 years ago, you better believe that those investors put pressure on the business to grow fast or die trying. Those investors are not looking for a somewhat risky medium % return, they're looking for each company to have a small % chance of being a unicorn.
So who out there is running an investment fund that's looking to make a much more reasonable rate of return off successful but slowly growing companies? Because I would put money into that fund.
Assuming you’re asking in earnest I would begin with S&P 600 Small Cap companies, and see how they got their starts. These are all profitable companies with various levels of earnings growth and indebtedness.
Also commercial real estate fits your criteria almost perfectly.
You probably want the kind of private equity funds that do succession transactions.
Small slow growing businesses tend not to actually need capital very often, so there isn't exactly a huge market for investing in them.
On the other hand, you get a lot of businesses whose owners are getting old / sick of the business. They need somebody to buy them out and install a new management structure.
There are a bunch of funds who do things like that. Look for "Private Equity" as a more broad category rather than just "Venture Capital".
