Meet the Team

Transportation operators advising transportation operators. Our team brings 90+ years of combined experience in transportation ownership and transportation-focused M&A.

Experience That Matters

We’re not financial advisors who decided to specialize in transportation. We’re transportation professionals who’ve lived the business—managing operations, building carrier relationships, surviving market cycles, and successfully navigating exits. When you work with Next Mile M&A | Powered by Black Belt TC, you’re working with people who speak your language and understand what you’ve built.

Wally Brauer

Managing Partner

Wally has been in transportation for over 40 years — and he’s done what most of the owners he works with are thinking about doing. He built a freight brokerage from the ground up, grew it to $40 million in annual revenue, and sold it with the help of Black Belt TC.

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Mike Bloss

Founder, Black Belt TC

Mike Bloss spent nearly 20 years as a senior operations executive at Yellow Freight System (now YRC Worldwide), one of the largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers in North America. He was known throughout the industry as the “fixer”—the executive Yellow sent to troubled terminals to turn them around. His track record: he never failed to deliver results.

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The Team Behind the Process

Next Mile M&A | Powered by Black Belt TC is supported by a team of professionals with deep experience in financial analysis and M&A execution. Our team handles the details—from building data rooms to managing buyer communications to coordinating due diligence—so you can stay focused on running your business while we manage the process.

Ron Buesinger

Partner

Ron has spent over 30 years in finance and institutional trading, and he knows what it’s like to be on both sides of a high-stakes deal. He understands the psychology of buyers and sellers as they move through a transaction — and he uses that insight to help business owners analyze bids, evaluate deal structures, and negotiate the best possible outcome.

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Jay Roberts

Partner

Jay handles the operations, accounting, legal, and compliance work at Black Belt TC so the rest of the team can focus on growing the business and serving clients. He’s a highly rational thinker with a track record of solving problems others couldn’t crack. Early in his career at a hedge fund, Jay was brought in to explain large, unexplained P&L swings that had stumped the fund and its administrators. Within a month, he traced the issue to improper software use in currency accounting — a win that led to his promotion to CFO.

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Built on a Proven Foundation

Next Mile M&A is powered by Black Belt TC—the transportation M&A advisory firm Mike Bloss founded with a proven track record of 90+ successful exits. The proprietary data system, the buyer network of 300+ strategic acquirers, and the process that compresses due diligence timelines—all of that was built and refined by Black Belt over years of successful transactions.

Now we’re building Next Mile M&A on that foundation, with Wally and Mike leading the firm into its next chapter. Same proven process. Same commitment to seller-side representation. Same integrity and industry expertise. New name that reflects where we’re going—helping transportation business owners reach their next mile.

Let's Have a Conversation

If you’re a transportation business owner thinking about your exit and want to work with people who’ve walked your path—not financial advisors trying to learn your industry—we’d welcome the opportunity to understand your situation and explore whether we’re the right fit to help you achieve your goals.

What happens next:

1. Schedule a Call: We'll discuss your business, your goals, and your timeline.
2. Get an honest assessment: We'll tell you if now is the right time, or what you'd need to do to get ready.
3. Understand the process: We'll walk you through what working together would look like, with no pressure or obligation.

Schedule a Confidential Conversation

No upfront fees. No hard sell. Just straight talk from people who know transportation.

Wally Brauer

Managing Partner

He experienced the Black Belt TC process firsthand and believed in it so much that he wanted to join forces to help more business owners just like him. Before that, he spent 28 years with an asset-based LTL carrier, starting on the loading dock and eventually running the company for eight years. After his sale, Walter stayed on through an earnout period and helped grow the acquiring company from $500 million to over $2 billion in revenue.

He’s been a seller, an operator through transition, and a builder — so he understands what’s at stake when an owner decides it’s time to move forward.

Outside of work, Walter spends time with his wife and children and works to make a positive, Godly impact on others.

"I love the relationships with customers and employees. It breathes life into my very purpose. I love helping people."

His foundation was built on faith, relationships, and an unshakeable conviction.

"I have a strong faith in God. I felt like he had my back, and as long as I was truthful and faithful to him in everything I did, everything would fall in place."

Wally attracted employees who believed in what he believed in. Failure was not an option from the very beginning. Together, they were immeasurably blessed with customers who came and stayed, and employees who believed in the vision.

"We were going to create something special. And we did."

When the time came to explore an exit, Wally connected with Mike Bloss and Black Belt TC. What Mike described seemed almost too good to be true. But when Wally’s earnout completed on February 1, 2025, the outcome was better than promised.

"Incredibly, what Mike said 'could be' actually ended up being better. When my earnout was complete, I almost had to pinch myself. I'm in disbelief of the journey. It's almost not believable."

At 59 years old, with a life-changing exit behind him, Wally could have done anything. Beach. Golf. Volunteer work. Complete retirement.

"I can sit back, go to the beach, golf, volunteer, do whatever. I'm not interested in skin cancer. I'm not that great at golf. I still love the transportation industry. I really don't know anything else."

Partnering with Next Mile M&A | Powered by Black Belt TC allows him to stay connected in the only industry he knows and still loves. More importantly, it allows him to talk to other business owners who are no different than him.

"This allows me to connect with Mike, who I think the world of, and put the firm on steroids. I believe we can become the go-to M&A provider within the industry."

Everyone’s got a different story, but being able to share stories about where they started, where they are now, where they want to go—and being a bridge to help them get there by being acquired—that excites Wally incredibly.

"I've sat in those shoes. I realize the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice required."

Wally's Message to Business Owners

“The amount of risk, effort, and commitment required in being a successful business owner is no small task. I get that. To any business owners: Congratulations. What’s your next chapter? What’s your plan? And if it includes selling your company, we are somebody you ought to talk to.”

Mike Bloss

Founder, Black Belt TC

After Yellow, Mike joined Echo Global Logistics as Senior Vice President, where he led mergers and acquisitions and helped scale the company through strategic growth. It was at Echo that Mike saw both sides of the M&A process—as a buyer acquiring smaller logistics companies and as an operator integrating those businesses post-close.

That dual perspective—operations and M&A, buyer-side and seller-side—became the foundation for what Mike would build next.

Mike founded Black Belt TC to serve transportation business owners the way he wished they’d been served when he was on the other side of the table. He built a proprietary data system specifically for transportation M&A—software that organizes what buyers need upfront, compresses due diligence timelines, and presents businesses in ways that highlight operational strengths buyers actually care about.

Over years of successful transactions, the Black Belt process has been refined and proven across 90+ transportation business exits. It’s not generic M&A software adapted for transportation—it was built from the ground up by someone who understands LTL relationships, carrier networks, mode mix, customer concentration, and the operational complexity that makes transportation businesses valuable.

Mike’s reputation in the industry isn’t built on marketing—it’s built on trust earned over decades. When Roger Harrison checked Mike’s LinkedIn profile before responding to his email, what he saw told him he could “have a conversation with another truck guy.” When Dan Krivickas heard Mike’s name through industry relationships, the trust level was already established.

That’s the foundation Next Mile M&A is built on—Mike’s decades of transportation experience, his proven M&A process, and his commitment to representing sellers exclusively with integrity and transparency.

Now, as part of the succession plan, Mike is building Next Mile M&A with Wally Brauer—using the foundation Black Belt created to help the next generation of transportation business owners achieve successful exits.

Ron Buesinger

Partner

Ron spent a decade as co-head of Rates and Mortgages for Carlson Capital, managing portfolios that peaked at over $1 billion, and he’s negotiated over $10 billion in securities throughout his career. Early on at Raymond James and Stifel Financial, he built financial models that became go-to tools for his firm’s mortgage trading desk — work that led to a 20+ year partnership.

Today, he co-manages a $10 million alternative investment fund and brings that same clear-eyed approach to every Black Belt TC client.

When he’s not working, Ron spends time with his wife and two teenage boys.

Jay Roberts

Partner

From there, he built a cash reconciliation system from scratch because the fund was running without one. Jay started his career at a Big 8 accounting firm before moving to Raymond James Financial, where he rose from mutual fund accountant to fixed income portfolio manager on a $5 billion money market fund.

He’s been a CFA charterholder since the late ’90s and has served as CFO, CCO, and COO across multiple hedge funds and RIAs.

When he’s not working, Jay enjoys gardening and spending time with his wife and four kids.

Meet the Team

Experience That Matters

Wally Brauer

Managing Partner

Mike Bloss

Founder, Black Belt TC

The Team Behind the Process

Ron Buesinger

Partner

Jay Roberts

Partner

Built on a Proven Foundation

Let's Have a Conversation

What happens next:

No upfront fees. No hard sell. Just straight talk from people who know transportation.

"I love the relationships with customers and employees. It breathes life into my very purpose. I love helping people."

"I have a strong faith in God. I felt like he had my back, and as long as I was truthful and faithful to him in everything I did, everything would fall in place."

"We were going to create something special. And we did."

"Incredibly, what Mike said 'could be' actually ended up being better. When my earnout was complete, I almost had to pinch myself. I'm in disbelief of the journey. It's almost not believable."

"I can sit back, go to the beach, golf, volunteer, do whatever. I'm not interested in skin cancer. I'm not that great at golf. I still love the transportation industry. I really don't know anything else."

"This allows me to connect with Mike, who I think the world of, and put the firm on steroids. I believe we can become the go-to M&A provider within the industry."

"I've sat in those shoes. I realize the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice required."

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