The Team
We're long-time operators, acquisition leaders, and company scalers with experience rolling up our sleeves and doing the work.
Joseph Heieck
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Joseph is a seasoned acquisition entrepreneur and former CEO with a deep track record in M&A, capital deployment, and leading teams through business evolutions and complex transitions. At Heiton Partners, he leads investment strategy, financing, deal execution, and board governance. He is driven by a commitment to honor the legacy of founders while scaling companies with care and operational excellence.
Prior to founding Heiton, Joseph launched gWorks through the acquisition of three companies, creating an integrated enterprise software solution for Small Town America. He bootstrapped and scaled the business with disciplined execution and high-trust leadership, guided by a set of core values that remain central to Heiton today: stubborn persistence, resourcefulness, integrity, continuous improvement, and getting the job done. Joseph sees every challenge as an opportunity to raise the floor of what’s possible.
Before his entrepreneurial journey, Joseph served as a U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer for 10 years, specializing in Special Warfare Intelligence. His work took him to Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond—experiences that forged his leadership approach, shaped his commitment to outcome-driven teams, and taught him how to thrive in complexity.
Joseph holds a BA in History from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife and three children. Outside of Heiton, you’ll find him camping and traveling with his family, chasing personal goals, and writing.
Janelle Heuton
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Janelle is a builder at heart — of teams, systems, products, and people. She brings a rare mix of operational discipline and human-centered leadership, forged through years of hands-on experience growing companies from the ground up.
Before Heiton, she helped lead the transformation of gWorks from a 15-person startup into a 140-person GovTech leader serving over 2,500 clients. She built the Product and Client Experience functions from scratch — designing strategy, building teams, and developing frameworks that scaled. Under her leadership, the company launched a $15M ERP platform, retained 98%+ of clients, and delivered 99%+ satisfaction across thousands of users.
At Heiton, Janelle leads recruiting, integration, and operational scale-up across the portfolio. Her passion lies in helping great businesses stay great through the messy middle of transition — by driving growth, developing leaders, and honoring founder legacies. Her fingerprints are on the details, and her leadership shows up in the outcomes.
She holds an MA from Columbia University, where she studied Anthropology — a background that sharpened her ability to listen, understand systems, and lead with empathy.
Janelle lives our values — grit, clarity, ownership — both professionally and personally. Outside of Heiton, she lives in Blair, Nebraska with her husband and two kids. She spends her time doing taekwondo, gardening, wrangling backyard chickens, and raising the next generation of gritty, curious humans.
Our Story
In 2015, Joseph acquired a small, founder-led GovTech company with 15 employees and became its CEO. Already working as the company’s COO, Janelle became a critical partner in scaling the business. We didn’t have a playbook—just a deep respect for the people behind the business and a clear vision for what it could become.
Over the next decade, we transformed that company—now known as gWorks—through eight strategic acquisitions and steady organic growth. What began as a single software solution evolved into a comprehensive, cloud-based platform serving the mission-critical needs of small local governments across the United States. We grew our client base by 2,000%, expanded our team to 140 employees, and maintained Net Revenue Retention above 110%—all while building durable systems and adhering to our commitments.
That experience shaped our core belief: small businesses deserve owners who care deeply, operate with discipline, and think in years—not quarters.
Heiton Partners is the next chapter. We’re a long-term holding company purpose-built to acquire and steward exceptional service businesses. We focus on enduring companies with strong cultures, defensible services, consistent profitability, and an exiting founder. Our job is to protect what makes them special—and help take them further than they thought possible.
We’ve been in the operator’s seat. We know what it means to take care of a team, scale through complexity, and build for the long haul. Today, we’re applying that experience across a growing portfolio—while supporting the next generation of emerging business leaders.
Our Values
We Get "Stuff" Done
We move with purpose, execute with urgency, and focus on outcomes.
Stubborn Persistence
Building great businesses and developing leaders is humbling — because it’s hard. But hard is where the meaning lives. We push through with resilience and a will to win.
Be Scrappy and Resourceful
We meet opportunities and challenges with focus, creativity, and grit.
Operate with Integrity
We say what we mean and do what we say. Transparency, honesty, and respect are table stakes.
Always Be Leveling Up
We keep getting better — as leaders, operators, and partners. Good enough never is.