Aleks
Szymanski

Seven transactions. Three as the buyer, four as the seller. Thirty-five years, four continents, and thirteen of them flying helicopters before any of it.
Rusty blue metal surface with worn orange letters partially spelling 'SUPER'.

Why I Do This

I’ve watched good businesses lose real money in the last weeks of a deal.
Not because they were badly run. Because the owner was discovering their own weak
points at the worst possible moment — under time pressure, with an offer on the
table and no leverage left — against a buyer who had seen it all a hundred times
before.

That gap is unnecessary. Almost everything that costs a seller money is findable
years earlier, and fixable if you find it in time.

‍So that’s what I do now. I get owners ready, and I stay in the room when the buyer starts running plays.
Close-up of a sign with the word PLEASE and colorful paint splatters on it.

The Work

Scrypt
Itineris
Padel39
Advisory
Smiling female doctor in white coat sitting at a table with colleagues in discussion.
Award-winning healthcare technology company. Formerly SecureCare Technologies.
Took the company on in 2009 — an OTC business with almost no revenue and $4m of debt. Removed the CEO and CTO, cut it to four people, and commuted between the UK and the US every two weeks for two and a half years before moving my family across.
Rebuilt it to around 80 people across multiple products. Acquired Axacore and DocBookMD. Sold Sfax to J2 Global, DocBookMD to Medici Technologies, and the Axacore products to Constellation. Deliberately wound down the remaining business and closed it out.
Child blowing a dandelion seed head in a green field under a clear blue sky.
Founded award-winning digital agency in 2001.
Founded in 2001 as a digital agency. Acquired eVo76. Won a stack of awards, including Small Business of the Year. Exited to my business partner to explore bigger dreams.
Twenty-five years on, it’s still going, still serving Condé Nast, the Wellcome Trust, King’s College London and others.
White cap with ventilation holes and green Padel39 logo placed on green turf.
Three years building a leading premium padel network. Three clubs today, many more opening soon.
Co-built premium padel business from nothing — brand, digital, systems, construction, HR, operations — through growth and multiple club openings.
Close-up of a window with green neon letters and reflections of tree branches and leaves.
In deals of this size, the headline number is not what lands in your account.
Most recently guided the owner of a home and commercial services business through diligence, negotiation, and sale to a strategic acquirer.
Before that, growth strategy and exit preparation for a healthcare technology company.

Before All That

Thirteen years as a decorated Royal Air Force helicopter pilot. Northern Ireland. The Falklands. Hong Kong.
Twenty-four-hour search and rescue.
Search and rescue teaches you one thing above everything else: the objective is
everything, and everything else is planned backwards from it.

Where are we going? What has to be true to get there? What happens when it doesn’t go to plan?
‍
That’s not a metaphor I picked up later. It’s how I still think.

‍It’s also where SKELA comes from. SKELA is ALEKS, reversed.
Pilot, Aleks Szymanski, inside cockpit wearing a helmet and headset with a Hong Kong 28 Squadron patch on uniform sleeve.

How I Work

I’m good at synthesizing messy, contradictory information into a decision someone can actually act on. Thirty-five years of pattern recognition across a lot of different rooms.
Elbow-deep. Not a report and an invoice. Alongside you, in the business, through the decisions that matter.
Direct. You’ll get what I actually think, including the parts that are
uncomfortable. You’re not paying me to agree with you.
Not paid by the deal. No success fee at closing. That means I can tell you the offer is poor, or that this is the wrong time, or that you should walk away.
Close-up of frosted glass with circular and irregular white patterns on a blurred background.

Recognition

Companies I’ve led have won FAST50, HousingWire 100, Best Places to Work, B2B Marketing Awards, and Small Business of the Year.

Useful shorthand. But the transactions above are the real credentials.
300+
Companies and individuals helped
35+
Years building businesses
MassMutual Southwest presents Austin Business Journal's Fast 50 for fastest-growing Central Texas companies.

Beyond SKELA

I build things.

Two ventures are currently running alongside the advisory practice —one in racquet sports, one in software.
That’s not a distraction from this work. It’s the reason I’m useful at it.

I’m still an owner, still building, still making the same decisions my clients are making.
Blurred people walking past a wooden wall clock showing 12:50 inside an indoor space.

Start With A Conversation

I’m based in Austin and always happy to meet in person, but video or phone works too. Let’s keep it to 45 minutes — no charge, no obligation. And if we meet for coffee, it’s on me.
Start Here
Testimonial
"Aleks is a rare gem with a ridiculous amount to offer anyone managing a business."
Man, Joe F., in a light blue shirt smiling and holding a pen while sitting at a desk with a laptop and phone.
Joe F.
Founder

Latest

Insight
August 31, 2026
The deal isn’t done when you sign
Insight
August 28, 2026
Five plays experienced buyers run on first-time sellers
5900 Balcones Dr
#27512
Austin, TX 78731
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hello@skela.com
Phone
(888) 287-7256
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