How new ownership is modernizing a 40-year-old model and talent agency
When Alycia Doxon and Taylor Carr acquired Directions USA, a model and artist management company with roots going back to 1982, they weren't just buying a business. They were stepping into a four-decade legacy built on relationships, craft, and community across the Carolinas. NMC Fund I backed the acquisition as part of our ongoing investment in next-generation ownership.
Why Directions USA was an attractive acquisition:
Directions has been a trusted name across the Carolinas for over four decades. Alycia and Taylor's first priority is modernizing the operational infrastructure, bringing better systems and automation into bookings, talent development, and back-office operations so the business scales without adding headcount. From there, two growth areas stand out: the creator economy, where agencies like Directions sit on loyal audiences monetized well below their potential, and the explosion of name, image, and likeness opportunities for athletes is a natural extension of what a talent agency already does well.
Longer term, they see the talent landscape, regional, founder-owned, and largely un-modernized, as a meaningful roll-up opportunity. Directions is the foundation they're building toward that.
On the handoff:
The transition has gone better than expected. The business was presented as absentee, and it actually was, the founder had built real systems over the years and wasn't the single point of failure the age of the business might suggest. Their takeaway: the quality of the seller and the systems they've built matters more than the age of the business or the size of the founder's shadow.
Advice for entrepreneurs acquiring an established business
"Restrain the instinct to build and disrupt on day one. You're not buying a blank canvas, you're buying a working machine, and your first job is to understand why it works before you change anything. Your startup skills are the real unlock, but they're the second move, not the first."
