Private Equity FunCast

Quinn grills Devin and Jim on everything from their backgrounds to which kinds of potatoes that they prefer.

Jim, Devin and the Commissioner For Life, Ryan Milligan run down our 2015 Final Four results.

Jim interviews FunCast Bracketology Commish, Ryan Milligan in preparation for next week's "Final Four".

Jim and Devin discuss the pros and cons of technical bootcamps.

Jim and Devin talk in detail about Daniel Pink's autonomy, mastery and purpose with a sidebar into "fairness".

Jim and Devin discuss the technology stack that we use to run our business.

Jim talks to Joe Gorup about using eLearning in the middle market.

Devin and Jim discuss Daniel Pink's "Drive" as it relates to their portfolio companies.

Devin and Jim talk about Nassim Nicholas Taleb's gem, "Fooled by Randomness"

Devin and Jim talk discuss Geoffrey Moore's groundbreaking book "Crossing the Chasm" as it applies to the middle market.

Jim talks to portfolio company CFO, Mike Welch about his initial experiences with our ongoing NetSuite implementation.

Devin, Ryan Harris, Ian Larkin and Brad Simmons make their predictions for 2015 ... and BEYOND!

Jim and Devin talk restaurants and cuisine with Chicago's own Chef John Caputo.

Jim and Dirk Shimpach talk through a complete NetSuite implementation at one of our portfolio companies, "serial podcast" style.

Jim and Devin talk shop with Troy Henikoff from TechStars Chicago.

Devin and Jim give thanks for all of our listeners, colleagues and friends.

Jim and Devin talk about the various exit strategies for private equity-backed tech companies.

Devin and Jim talk with Tim Kelly on his research what makes a company "entreprenurial".

Devin and Jim introduce their new firm, Parker Gale Capital

Devin and Jim discuss succcession planning for founders.

Milbery's Mazlow's Hierarchy of Software Needs. We are officially a year old today and have we got a gift for you. Jim and Devin spend an hour dissecting Jim's controversial hierarchy of software needs.

What happens when your relationship with management goes south? This episode is by request How do relationships between the private equity guys and management go bad? Shocking! Yes, that happens some times. What causes it? And what can you do to fix it? Find out here.

As a follow-up to Devin's (surprisingly) popular PEHUB column from early August, Devin and Jim expound on the lingo inside a PE firm. This isn't sports talk or girl talk, this is private equity talk and it makes about as much sense as some of the wild stories in the Raymond Carver book we stole our title from. Sit back and enjoy, and just like an after school special starring Robbie Benson, there just might even be a lesson or two to learn in between all the laughing (or is that crying?).

Devin and Jim talk about Satya Nadella's public strategy letter on the future of Microsoft aka "Bold Ambition & Our Core". How does this apply to the middle market? Should middle market companies be avoiding commitments to the Microsoft platform?

Jim sits down with Evan Delaney to talk about Apple's new Swift programming language, the pros the cons -- and whether companies should be jumping into the deep end of the pool and going whole-hog with Swift.

Jim sits down with Evan Delaney to talk about approaches you can use for building your mobile applications on the Apple platform. Although we do get a little technical in spots, this episode is for the CEO, not the CTO.

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners. Today we talk about the human side of the business -- hiring your team.

A Series of PE Haikus for the sophisticated listener. A light-hearted conversation with Matthew Craig-Greene of Pivot Partners Ltd -- our Thursday gift from us, to you!

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners. In this second episode with Professor Mazzeo we discuss product differentiation and price.

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.

Devin and Uber-Associate Kevin Fitzgerald sit down with Steve Julius, PhD aka "Dr. J" to talk about organizational behavior and team dynamics. Dr. Julius opines on human behavior, organizational dynamics and business development. Listen in and get insight on creating practical strategies and easy-to-use tools for resolving a wide range of business and human resource needs.

We sit down with a real life Associate from a real life private equity fund. Removed from his natural habitat and placed in captivity in Chicago, Kevin Fitzgerald shares with us what he did to get the job, what he does on a daily basis and where he's taking the experience next (hint: it's in Cambridge, MA).

The FunCast spends an hour with "Must React" sales system founder Kraig Kleeman. Everything that you need to know about persuasion, sales transformation and sales enablement. Plus, you get to hear Kraig's story about meeting U2's Bono.

The FunCast spends an hour with Macworld writer and podcast impresario Lex Friedman from The Midroll -- home of 130+ podcasts. Everything that you need to know about advertising on podcasts including listener demographics and getting started.

The FunCast spends another hour with McDermott Will & Emery LLP Partner Ryan Harris breaking down an actual private equity letter of intent. We go term by term with one of the best transaction lawyers in the business. Founders will learn all the tricks of the trade to even the playing field in their negotiation. Devin says "You are welcome".

Jim and Devin discuss the vaunted venture "pivot" and its applicability, or lack there-of in the private equity business.

Jim trades programming barbs, tips and opinions with the guru of application development, Alan Williamson.

Devin and Jim don't follow college basketball, but they have cooked up their own version of March Madness.

Bring out your debt! We've talked a lot about funding options for owners of mid sized companies but we haven't covered debt yet. Well, here you go. A detailed conversation with Ian Larkin, founder and Managing Partner of Maranon Capital. Ian describes why you should look at debt in a business like a parfait sundae (seriously, he does!) and what all those layers mean to you as an owner. He talks about the aversion most business owners have toward debt and why they might want to change their minds a little. Then at the end we kind of ramble on about things that have nothing to do with debt, private equity or fancy deserts.

Interview with Dirk Shimpach, President of goVirtualOffice -- a "NetSuite Solution provider and cloud technology advisor that helps companies find the Cloud CRM, Cloud ERP and Cloud Accounting software". Dirk and his team have worked with a number of our portfolio companies on configuring NetSuite to match our business needs. In this interview we talk about the best fits for NetSuite and things to watch out for when you are selecting and implementing cloud-based ERP solutions.

The FunCast spends an hour with McDermott Will & Emery LLP Partner Ryan Harris talking about the legal traps founders fall into when setting up their companies and when they sell them. What's the best company structure -- C Corp, S Corp, LLC? How do you handle employee equity? Hear about the infamous "Cubs side letter." What are the common issues Ryan sees when founders go to sell their business and how can you avoid them? Listening to this conversation won't make you stronger, but it sure will make you smarter! Enjoy.

Microsoft isn't going away soon as an enterprise server and platform vendor. So there's little risk in building your server platform on Microsoft in the middle market. It's important to build client interfaces that span browsers and mobile platforms, but the server layer is reliable and safe. Nadella is a good choice to move Microsoft more aggressively into the cloud with Azure -- and they've got plenty of money to do it. Congrats to the WhatsApp team and Sequoia on the sale to Facebook. There are some lessons to be learned here in the middle market.

What are the big boys thinking about tech? What are they worried about? Should you even care? We dive into the big ideas coming out of the recent CIO conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

Do you want to know how private equity firms evaluate and develop talent in their portfolio companies? Join the PEFunCast team and Brad Simmons from Applied Executive Insights to find out what matters for small company teams, how you find it, how you develop it and how you avoid the common traps in managing teams at growing companies.

What are the simple mental traps that PE investors fall into when making decisions about pursuing an investment. Think Daniel Kahneman meets Private Equity. Investment Banker David Sinyard recently wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the subject of the Affect Heuristic in PE and we talk about his research, what he found and why it helps to know these when selling your business.

PEFunCast Guest Ryan Milligan discusses investment returns for middle market technology companies and investing in vertical software.

It's our Christmas Spectacular! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there in the podcast ether!

Jim talks with Jesper Kehlet about Microsoft's Dynamics AX ERP software. We cover the main features and some tips and suggestions for a successful implementation.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners!

Jim and Devin discuss the due diligence process for private equity acquisitions.