The new owners
The ownership letter introduces Shawn Honaryar and Ben Zheng as “committed Portland school operators” with “over a decade of deep experience in early childhood education.” Public records present a more detailed picture.
- 2020B.A. Physics, Dartmouth College (magna cum laude)
- 2020–22Finance
Goldman Sachs — Investment Banking Analyst, New York - 2022–24Private Equity
BC Partners — Associate, New York. BC Partners manages ~€40B across buyout and credit. While still in this role, Shawn began acquiring preschools. - 2022–24Concurrent
Acquired and operated Little Blooms Academy (Dec 2022–Sept 2024) and Grantham Children’s Academy (Sept 2023–Sept 2024) while employed in Private Equity. - 2024–Current
Co-Founder & President, Aspen Academies (founded December 2024). Leads curriculum, community programming, and teacher compensation.
- 2018B.A. Applied Mathematics / Statistics, Harvard (cum laude)
- 2018–23Tech
Google — Software Engineer (Sheets) and Product Manager (Search), 5 years - 2024Private Equity
Anacapa Partners — brief PE role, May–Aug 2024 - 2023–25Education
MBA, Harvard Business School (George F. Baker Scholar — awarded to top 5% of class). Concurrent with Aspen’s founding. - 2024–Current
Co-Founder & COO, Aspen Academies (founded December 2024). Oversees operations, technology, and back-office systems.
Aspen Academies
Aspen Academies is the company through which Shawn and Ben acquire and operate preschools. Founded December 2024, it describes itself as “the leading early education company” with a mission to “redefine premium early education.”
Their ownership transitions page actively markets to preschool owners looking to sell, targeting single- or multi-site operations in the western United States. They state they are “proudly founder-owned with no outside investors” — a claim worth tracking as the portfolio grows.
The M&A deal team
LinkedIn profiles for Aspen Academies employees reveal a structured acquisition operation with junior analysts sourcing and evaluating hundreds of schools. The language in their public job descriptions is from their own profiles.
The portfolio
Small Wonders is not a one-off acquisition. Oregon Secretary of State business records show 9 active Aspen Academies LLCs registered over 15 months (January 2025–March 2026), all listing the same mailing address — a residential property in the San Francisco Bay Area. We cross-referenced each LLC against Oregon Department of Early Learning & Care (DELC) licensing records and Multnomah County Preschool for All (PFA) provider IDs to gather more info.
DELC has issued a new childcare license to 6 Aspen schools — a formal ownership transfer on the state record. There are 3 additional schools that have an Aspen LLC is on file with the Secretary of State, but DELC has not recorded an Aspen-held license.
Location: 2793 SE Powell Valley Rd, Gresham, OR →.
County: Multnomah.
Licensed capacity: 114 children.
Ages served: 1 month–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC504658 · Aspen Academies Gresham LLC DBA Summit Day School · Issued March 7, 2025.
LLC: 2353265-92 · Aspen Academies Gresham LLC · Oregon · Registered January 15, 2025.
PFA: E145.
Aspen’s first Oregon acquisition. View the prior owner’s testimonial on Aspen’s site.
Location: 1024 NW Glisan St, Portland, OR →.
County: Multnomah.
Licensed capacity: 35 children.
Ages served: 6 weeks–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC504780 · Aspen Academies Pearl LLC D.B.A Curious Minds - Pearl · Issued November 3, 2025.
LLC: 2487346-91 · Aspen Academies Pearl LLC · Wyoming · Registered November 5, 2025.
PFA: D079.
Location: 14361 SW Pacific Hwy, Tigard, OR →.
County: Washington.
Licensed capacity: 80 children.
Ages served: 6 weeks–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC504779 · Aspen Academies Tigard LLC D.B.A Curious Minds - Tigard · Issued November 3, 2025.
LLC: 2487368-94 · Aspen Academies Tigard LLC · Wyoming · Registered November 5, 2025.
Location: 16775 SW 12th St, Sherwood, OR →.
County: Washington.
Licensed capacity: 149 children.
Ages served: 1 month–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC504781 · Aspen Academies Sherwood LLC D.B.A Curious Minds - Sherwood · Issued November 3, 2025.
LLC: 2487364-98 · Aspen Academies Sherwood LLC · Wyoming · Registered November 5, 2025.
Location: 3634 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR →.
County: Multnomah.
Licensed capacity: 100 children.
Ages served: 2–kindergarten.
Oregon DELC: CC504820 · Small Wonders School - Hollywood · Issued April 13, 2026.
LLC: 2534134-97 · Aspen Academies Hollywood LLC · Wyoming · Registered February 20, 2026.
PFA: E158.
Both SWS campuses are held under a single LLC.
Location: 2728 NE 34th Ave, Portland, OR →.
County: Multnomah.
Licensed capacity: 120 children.
Ages served: 2–kindergarten.
Oregon DELC: CC504821 · Small Wonders School-Grant Park · Issued April 13, 2026.
LLC: 2534134-97 · Aspen Academies Hollywood LLC · Wyoming · Registered February 20, 2026.
PFA: E159.
Unknown status. At the three schools below, an Aspen Academies LLC is on file with the Oregon Secretary of State, but Oregon DELC has not issued a new childcare license to an Aspen entity. Because Oregon requires a new license whenever childcare ownership changes, the absence of an Aspen-held license suggests the acquisition is incomplete.
Location: 10360 SW 87th Ave, Tigard, OR →.
County: Washington.
Licensed capacity: 105 children.
Ages served: 6 weeks–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC052477 · Hall Blvd - Learning Tree · Issued December 11, 2002.
LLC: 2473349-98 · Aspen Academies Hall LLC · Wyoming · Registered September 29, 2025.
Site attribution inferred — the SOS filing lists no Oregon principal place of business; the LLC name and Tigard-area match to this school are indicative, not confirmed.
Location: 1105 S Elm St, Canby, OR →.
County: Clackamas.
Licensed capacity: 155 children.
Ages served: 6 weeks–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC502814 · Canby Learning Tree · Issued February 11, 2014.
LLCs: 2480699-99 · Aspen Academies Elm Property LLC (Oregon, real estate, registered October 20, 2025) and 2486503-92 · Aspen Academies Elm LLC (Wyoming, operating, registered November 3, 2025).
Location: 154 NW 1st Ave, Canby, OR →.
County: Clackamas.
Licensed capacity: 77 children.
Ages served: 6 weeks–12 years.
Oregon DELC: CC504559 · Little Explorers Daycare · Issued October 22, 2024.
LLC: 2551708-97 · Aspen Academies Canby LLC · Wyoming · Registered March 27, 2026 — the most recent Aspen filing.
Business strategy & policy
Aspen is assembling a portfolio of independent preschools across the Portland metro under one holding company — a pattern known as a rollup. Rollups in childcare depend on predictable per-child revenue, and public LinkedIn profiles for Aspen’s M&A analysts describe monitoring Oregon’s childcare policy landscape as part of their acquisition strategy. In Portland, Multnomah County’s Preschool for All (PFA) program is a significant force in preschool economics.
Rapidly buying independent businesses in the same industry and consolidating them under one holding company is known as a rollup. Rollups are common in fragmented industries like childcare, veterinary clinics, and dental practices. They can bring operational efficiencies, but they also change the relationship between families and the people making decisions about their children’s care.
PFA funds free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds in Multnomah County via an income tax on high earners. Private operators — including for-profit ones — can participate as partner sites and receive public funding per enrolled child.
The program has grown from 728 seats in 2022–23 to 3,800+ seats in 2025–26 — a program too large for any Portland preschool operator to ignore when building a business plan. Learn more about PFA →
Financing
Aspen says they have “no outside investors.” Their acquisitions appear to be financed through commercial loans. Debt financing means full ownership is retained — but loan obligations must be serviced, creating ongoing financial pressure that shapes business decisions.
- Ready Capital Named directly in a testimonial on Aspen’s site. The prior Summit Day School owner cited Ready Capital specifically: their established lender relationship allowed the Summit acquisition to close 15 days after signing the purchase agreement.
- Meriwether Group Capital Meriwether Group Capital is a Portland-based private lender focused on small and mid-sized businesses. In November 2025, they published a LinkedIn post announcing a financing transaction with Aspen Academies. The deal amount and specific schools covered are not disclosed in public records.
- Deal scale Aspen’s own M&A analyst LinkedIn profiles describe advancing “~$30M of actionable deal flow” and building “multi-year operating models incorporating enrollment growth, pricing, wage inflation, benefits, and debt service coverage.” This suggests the financing picture is more structured than a simple small-business loan.
- What this means Debt-financed acquisition is not the same as large private equity ownership. Aspen appears to be boutique private equity with no investors or return expectations beyond Shawn and Ben. The financial pressure comes from loan repayment and their own investing goals — different in leverage, but not without consequence for how the business must operate at each school site.
What happens next?
Nobody knows. Aspen Academies is only 15 months old, with no record for how its schools fare over time. The long-term fate of Small Wonders likely depends less on Aspen itself than on whoever Aspen eventually sells it to.
Because Aspen’s Hollywood LLC is Wyoming-formed, and Wyoming does not require disclosing members or managers in public filings, a change in who ultimately controls that LLC may never show up in any state record families can check. The first visible signal is likely to be operational: one day, school administrators will find that emails and phone calls reach someone other than Shawn or Ben. That is when families can expect change to start showing up.
For what those changes tend to look like, the only public precedent is Shawn’s two earlier acquisitions while employed at BC Partners — Little Blooms Academy (December 2022) and Grantham Children’s Academy (September 2023). Shawn’s involvement with both ended in 2024 when he departed BC Partners. Recent reviews of these schools are the only signal available for how a school acquired by Shawn and later managed by large Private Equity fares over time.
These dynamics are not unique to Small Wonders School or Aspen Academies. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley has launched a federal investigation into private equity ownership of childcare centers more broadly.
Open questions
These are the questions our community is sitting with. We’ll update this list as we get answers and add new ones as they surface. Submit yours using the form below.
What is the plan if the Hollywood Director, Grant Park Director, or Program Administrator decides not to continue under new ownership? The school’s continuity rests heavily on these individuals remaining.
All staff will be “rehired.” What is materially different about the new employment contracts, and why were those terms important enough to require re-establishing the relationship? Will compensation, benefits, hours, or employment classification change for any current employees?
Small Wonders currently operates with extremely low teacher turnover and staffs above the mandated staff-to-child ratio — a cushion that keeps the school above the required minimum even when teachers are out sick. How will the new owners maintain this staffing model, especially under cost-cutting pressure?
This announcement arrived after reenrollment contracts were signed and first deposits collected for 2026–27. Were families given the opportunity to make that commitment with full information about the ownership change?
How will you gather and implement feedback from parents and teachers?
What was the structure of the purchase? What is the lease term and what protections exist for continuity?
What is the mission and vision of Aspen Academies? What problem are you trying to solve, what’s your solution, and why are you two uniquely qualified to solve this problem? Are you willing to show the community the pitch deck you used to acquire financing?
What is the projected annual net profit per seat across your Oregon portfolio? At 220 seats, how much annual cash flow do you expect Small Wonders to generate?
Aspen’s M&A team publicly describes targeting “15+ markets” and “2,300+ M&A leads.” What is the intended portfolio size, and how does rapid growth affect attention to individual schools?
What is the long-term plan for Aspen Academies? Do you intend to sell (exit) this rollup portfolio to a larger firm? If so, what would trigger this sale? Do you have a target timeline?
Share your feedback
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