Private Equity FunCast

Jimmy sits down with Dean Brown, CEO of Ipro Tech. Dean discusses his upbringing in a military family, his education in Industrial Psychology, the serendipity of a career, his love of products and product strategy, his experience founding, scaling, and ultimately selling his startup, why culture is so important to him in business, and much more.

In part 3 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim and Cici continue the discussion of how product strategy ties into value creation, and how specifically as a PE firm, we monitor our portfolio companies' product strategy through taking a detailed look at their product roadmaps. We discuss how we conduct Product Strategy Reviews – the objectives, who's in the room, and what we actually cover. We talk about why we're focused on outcome-driven product roadmaps, how we work with our portfolio companies to prioritize what actually gets built and why that's so critical when we're allocating scarce resources to create value.

In part 2 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim is joined by Cici to discuss the private equity investor's perspective on how and why products get built. Living in a world of limited resources, we discuss the framework that we use to help shape the discussions with our portfolio companies about prioritizing their products and features. We talk about market segments versus markets, the Ansoff matrix and Geoffrey Moore's famous "Bowling Alley" strategy.

In part 1 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim is joined by Cici to discuss the three levers of value creation - risk mitigation, revenue growth, and cost reduction, and how we think about the three in the portfolio. Jimmy joins as well to add the People dimension.

On this episode, Keith Hadley from the Table Group joins Paul Stansik to chat about how we build aligned C-suite teams and healthy portfolio companies. We cover what healthy organizations do differently, why most team offsites are not time well spent, and how to tell if you're on (or leading) a dysfunctional team.

Devin and Jim kick off the new year with our annual predictions episode. Come have a listen as we opine on what 2020 has in store for Private Equity.

Jimmy Holloran talks with Stacey Kacek, OnePlus Systems CEO. They discuss her early career as an engineer at Motorola, her transition into leadership, and her perspective on being a CEO. Along the way, they cover key influences in her life, lessons learned, and as well as advice for aspiring CEOs.

Jim recently got massively over-billed by Hertz, prompting a discussion about what happens to customers when process automation goes off the rails. Ryan Milligan jumps in with a Zappos story that will warm your heart.

As part of our continuing People Operations series, ParkerGale Principals Jimmy and Paul dive into the 9box, a talent management framework commonly used to assess an organization's breadth and depth of talent. Jimmy and Paul cover why this matters, how to effectively review an organization's entire talent base, and why it pays for investors to be involved in the process.

Devin sits down with Cici to discuss some easy but very important things you should be doing to extract deeper customer and market insight into your software products.

Partner Ryan Milligan talks with Mike Trasatti, CEO of DealerBuilt and Bill Lamm of Presidio Technology Partners about how a deal really gets done. Covering everything from the banker signing up to represent DealerBuilt to ParkerGale courting and successfully completing the deal with management.

Come have a listen as Stephen Tallamy CTO of EditShare talks about strategies for making technology transitions for complicated software platforms.

Hiring technical people is hard when you don't know all the buzzwords and acronyms. Devin and Jim help you with good process and some helpful questions to ask when you are hiring Engineering and Software Development leaders.

Continuing our on-going series of interviews with ParkerGale portfolio company CEOs, Jimmy interviews Tom Obermaier, CEO of Rippe and Kingston. We talk baseball, growing up in New York, leadership lessons from President Washington, rising to Chief Risk Officer at Citi Bank at the time of the financial crisis, and his evolution as a CEO at RDC and Rippe.

Jim talks with fellow Babson College Alum, current portfolio company CTO, Tom Shore about application software from the early 80s through today. We talk Digital Equipment PDP/11s all the way through the current no-code fascination.

We talk to PG Principal Kara Master about her journey from the model UN and a career in journalism to joining the deal team at ParkerGale.

Buckle your seatbelts for a fast-paced conversation with Dave Kellogg. Dave and I first met back in the early 80s at Ingres, when I was a pre-sales engineer and Dave was a technical support rep. We've each spent over 25 years in enterprise software, in mixed roles that involve both technology and sales & marketing. We reconnected recently and met up up in Chicago at ParkerGale's "intergalactic headquarters" for a pretty broad-ranging conversation about a recent blog post that Dave wrote (Things to Avoid in Selecting an Executive Job at a Startup) along with a lot of interaction about differences between PE-land and VC-land. Come have a listen -- where else are you going to hear the phrase "Axe Battle of Differentiation"?

In the kickoff to the new People Operations Series, ParkerGale Principals Jimmy and Paul provide an overview of ParkerGale's People Ops team. Having worked together at Bain, they bring some history together to the firm and their work leading all things people, talent, and culture across the portfolio. They dive into how ParkerGale thinks about building a cohesive leadership team, hiring great talent, and creating learning and development opportunities across the portfolio. They also set up what to expect over the coming months in the on-going People Ops Series.

Jim and Jimmy talk to ParkerGale Operating Principal, Paul Stansik -- DECA medal winner and ex-professional Lacrosse player.

Guest hosts Jimmy Holloran and Ryan Milligan invite Andy Hulett onto the funcast to discuss the benefits of outsourced HR for small, growing businesses. Turns out there's a lot more to it than managing benefits and payroll.

Guest host Jimmy Holloran talks with EditShare CEO Conrad Clemson. Find out how a physics major from William & Mary ended up working as a private equity CEO.

More madness with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson and special guest Tom Shore. We talk about the just how much automation and software tooling do you need to write applications. The big social media software companies would claim that nothing short of continuous delivery is enough. But is this really necessary for smaller companies that are delivering enterprise-class applications?

Guest host Jimmy Holloran talks with Jim about the bevy of useless email solicitations that we get after every deal announcement. We talk about the PE 2/20 model and how it applies to buying services from vendors -- and the right and wrong ways to pitch PE funds.

In our latest episode, we talk with Rick Noble, CEO of Aircraft Technical Publishers. He has led several market-leading digital publishing organizations over the course of his career, holding positions that include CEO of Triumph Learning and Haights Cross Communications, CEO of Blackboard Engage, CEO of Medical Media Holdings, and President & CEO of Thomson Healthcare.

Jim talks with ParkerGale's newest addition to the Operating Team handling talent management -- Jimmy Holloran. He joins us from the mean streets of St. Louis with stops at Nortel, Teach for America, Bain & Company and HomeChef along the way.

Jim and the MacLaurin Group Team -- Alan, "The Mad Scotsman", Jim Headley and Kelley Powell tackle Paul Graham's "Makers versus Managers" essay. How do you balance the need for managers to "meet up" with programmers/writers/creators need for large blocks of uninterrupted time to complete projects?

Devin interviews True Search Partner and CFO-whisperer Matt Goldstein about how to land a CFO job at a PE-backed company. They cover the process from the candidate side and the company side. How to differentiate yourself; how to prepare for interviews; what PE funds are looking for; what goes wrong when things go wrong; what you should expect to get paid and how much equity you should expect.

We're back with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson and his partner in crime, Jim Headley, of the MacLaurin Group. Alan and Jim give us their thumbs up and thumbs down on various development tools, cloud platforms and business intelligence software stacks.

Devin and Jim talk about macro and micro events for 2019 including; the global economy, the U.S. economy, politics, the tech market and the implications for private equity in the new year.

A far-reaching conversation with Brent Beshore, CEO of adventur.es, a buyout shop based in Columbia, Missouri. Brent recently released his book "The Messy Marketplace", the ultimate "how to" book for selling a business in the world of imperfect buyers.

No awkward musical guests or actors passed-their-prime --- just Devin and Jim giving thanks for another year of fun with the podcast.

Jim talks with ParkerGale Operating Principal, Jake Petoskey, about optimizing back office systems at portfolio companies. In this episode we focus the discussion on organizing Sales Opportunities as the tip of the spear using Insight Squared with Salesforce.com

The first episode in a five-episode arc discussing ParkerGale's four operating pillars: Systems, Talent, Growth and Product. In part one, Devin and Jim introduce the four pillars. The follow-on episodes will feature deep-dive interviews with ParkerGale's OPs team.

The first in a series of interviews with the CEOs of ParkerGale's portfolio companies. In this week's episode, we talk with Len Finkle, CEO of Profisee. Have a listen and find out how he made the journey from intrepid salesperson to private equity CEO.

This week's topic comes from our listeners and it's one of our favorite subjects -- us! It's the "how did we get into private equity" episode. So hop into the wayback machine with Devin and Jim and find out how we got from Albany, New York and Brockton, Massachusetts all the way to private equity in Chicago.

Talking with Drake Paulson and Graeme Faulds from eVestment, a Nasdaq company, about the results of their 2018 Private Markets Due Diligence Survey. Find out how Limited Partners feel about fees, the use of credit facilities to close deals and due diligence.

The second part of our scoping conversation with Jay Bartlett and Joe Repp from EY-Parthenon. This time we flip the conversation and talk about undertaking a market study prior to SELLING a company.

We're back with Jay Bartlett from EY-Parthenon talking about scoping due diligence processes for private equity deals with special guest, Joe Repp. This is part one of a two-part episode.

A follow-up conversation with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson. This time we're talking about the technology section of the 2018 Stack Overflow developer survey. It's Java vs. C#, MariaDB vs. Oracle, AWS vs. Azure and much, much more.

The Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson, returns to the funcast for a lively discussion of Stack Overflow's 2018 Developer survey. We talk about all things development, backend vs frontend vs. full stack -- and the myth of the high school dropout programming genius.

Jay Bartlett from Parthenon is back on the funcast to talk about the evolving role of the operating partner in private equity. The EY-Parthenon team has been delving deep on this topic with limited partners and portfolio company executives. Come have a listen to the latest insights.

Jim and Devin talk about the one or two characteristics that can blow an otherwise terrific executive out of the water. It's Bill Simmons' 90/10 rule -- only better!

Our day jobs have been getting in the way of our podcasting ... but the long wait is over, we are back in the saddle with our annual March Madness Episode. This year we cover the technologies that are having the biggest impact on our portfolio - it's Amazon vs. Google, Netsuite vs. Salesforce.com, C# vs Python, PostgreSQL vs. MySQL ... and more!

Jim and Devin walk through the list of technology companies where Jim has worked over the years. We talk about the lessons learned as they apply to PE-owned tech companies in the middle market. We cover decades of computing from Digital Equipment Corporation to Oracle and beyond. Bonus content includes a Rupert Pupkin shoutout and a Regis Philbin impression.

Devin and Jim kick-off their collaboration with PitchBook, the leading private equity and private company database now owned by Morningstar. Nizar and Dylan from PitchBook's research team discuss their recent report on first-time private equity funds -- the fundraising stats, the increasing demand and the unique challenges new funds face.

Devin and Jim talk about the major macroeconomic factors that affect Private Equity. Here's a hint -- it's mostly a robust economy and lower interest rates.

Devin and Jim talk about the four basic Halloween villains -- Vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolves and Mummies -- and how PE deals often end up as one of these monsters. Plus, we do a fast review of the BEST Halloween candies and our most popular costumes when we were kids.

Devin & Jim welcome ParkerGale's newest teammate to the FunCast. Cici joined us from Bain & Co to manage our go-to-market activities across the portfolio. Cici talks about her not-so-straight path to private equity, what her day to day job is like and modestly chalking up her career success to luck.

Devin and his daughter Quinn spend an hour with high school English teacher Nathaniel Small on exploring the challenges of teaching people. We talk about why it is so hard for an expert to teach a novice. How teaching in an academic setting can help you improve your teaching in a business setting? And why, in the end, it all comes back to Empathy, Storytelling, and Autobiography.

Listener Request! Devin & Jim take a look at private equity deals from the sellers' side of the table and cover questions such as: How do you select a PE buyer? What questions should you ask prospective buyers? What's negotiable and what's not? And all kinds of useful tips and tricks.