Slatestone Holdings was founded by Mills Snell, a serial acquirer and operator based in South Carolina with a career built entirely around buying, growing, and stewarding businesses.

Mills began his career in M&A advisory, founding and leading a sell-side advisory firm where he guided business owners through some of the most consequential decisions of their lives. He later joined a family office, where he shifted to the buy side sourcing, evaluating, and executing acquisitions on behalf of long-term capital. That experience on both sides of the table gave him a perspective most buyers simply don't have.

Today, Mills owns and operates a portfolio of businesses across South Carolina, spanning service industries and real estate. He is also the co-host of Acquisitions Anonymous, one of the most widely followed podcasts in the small business acquisition space, where he and his co-hosts analyze real deals and share hard-won insight with thousands of listeners each week.

Slatestone Holdings is the vehicle through which Mills continues to acquire and operate businesses he believes in, run by people worth partnering with, in communities worth investing in.

Ariella is a finance, risk management, and business analytics student at the University of South Carolina with a focus on deal strategy and business operations. She came to Slatestone through Mills Snell, drawn by a genuine interest in the entrepreneurship-through-acquisition model and a desire to learn it from the ground up. 

At Slatestone, Ariella oversees back-end operations across the portfolio, managing financial analysis, data systems, and operational execution.

She also founded and leads Carolina Finance Outreach, a USC-based organization with over 100 active members and an eight-person executive board, partnering with nonprofits and schools to advance financial literacy across South Carolina.