We're Martin and Alida Lambooy — a husband-and-wife team, South African immigrants, and the people you will actually be dealing with at Dutch Orange.
Why we do this: we believe the best businesses are built on relationships and resilience, not spreadsheets alone. After a lifetime of building, running, and selling companies — through real successes and a few hard failures that taught us more than any win — we have learned that resilience is the one trait that keeps you moving forward. We moved to the U.S. eight years ago, we are raising our three children in Charlotte, and we plan to become U.S. citizens in 2026. We came to contribute, not to take — and we did not immigrate to America to be average.
Martin has spent most of his life as an entrepreneur, and brings a rare mix of field credibility and financial discipline: a B.Com in Corporate Finance, an active North Carolina General Contractor's license, and more than 17 years managing residential new construction and reconstruction across the Charlotte metro — townhome and attached communities, high-end luxury rebuilds, and large concurrent project portfolios. He served as a Marine in the South African Defence Force, and has built and sold businesses on two continents. In his own words, the single thing that guarantees success is resilience.
Alida is the team's go-getter and creative force. She was one of South Africa's top interior decorators — she even hosted her own television show — and brings 21 years in design, sales, and business development, together with a real-estate investor's eye for value. At Dutch Orange she makes sure the businesses we partner with are well run, well cared for, and set up to grow.
Between us we bring more than 38 years of combined experience in construction and business. We have built and sold three companies, and we learned the hard way what buying a business can look like when it goes wrong — an experience early in our U.S. journey that cost us, but left us far better prepared for the partnerships we build today. Our focus now is acquiring new-residential-construction businesses in the North Carolina Piedmont Crescent and uniting the trades — framing, roofing, siding, glazing, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing — into one seamless, high-quality service for the region's property developers.
We're all about building relationships. If you are in construction, or you have financed acquisitions before, we would love to connect — and we are always happy to share what we have learned along the way. Collaboration beats going it alone every time. Reach out: we're approachable, transparent, and eager to build something great together.
We are proud members of the Carl Allen dealmaker community — a global mentorship group that trains entrepreneurs like us to acquire and grow businesses the right way. It gives us a deep support structure to draw on: experienced mentors and peers who help members work through obstacles, structure fair deals, and secure financing. It means that behind our small family team stands a large, experienced network — one more reason your business would be in capable, well-supported hands.
A little of our track record. These businesses are no longer trading, but you can view archived versions of their websites:
