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On this episode, Sequoya Borgman, Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital, discusses buying and holding family and founder-led businesses in manufacturing, industrials and other legacy industries. Learn why leverage—not growth—often drives returns in these deals, and why hold periods can stretch decades rather than the typical PE fund cycle.
Hear how culture gets set early in a business, why professionalizing finance, systems and leadership takes years rather than the first 90 days and where AI is starting to play a role in capturing institutional knowledge that has only ever lived in an owner's head.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Mike Magliochetti, Operating Partner at Riverside Partners, shares what it means to be a deeply engaged operating partner—and why he believes the role has to go far beyond an advisory or check-in function to add real value to portfolio companies.
Learn what separates high-impact operating partners from the rest, what it takes to build trust and transparency with founding teams, and why a focused sector network is a critical advantage in healthcare private equity. Mike also shares key lessons from his book, Dancing Between the Toes of Elephants, written to demystify the language and dynamics of private equity for operators on both sides of the table.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Jackie Joelson, Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital Practice at Oracle NetSuite, joins Shiv to break down why ERP transformation has become one of the established levers sponsors pull inside their portfolio companies.
Learn how buy-and-build roll-ups, sponsor-backed carve-outs and decades-old legacy systems each demand a different approach to ROI and change management to unlock the full enterprise value potential. Plus, hear why clean, consolidated data has to be a priority, and the challenges of benchmarking AI readiness across portfolios.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Ian Ross, Partner at Concentric Equity Partners, discusses how being a family backed private investment firm changes the economics of lower middle market investing. Learn why fund-cycle pressure pushes firms to sell their best companies early, and how removing that pressure supports a feed-the-winners strategy that keeps reinvesting in businesses as they grow, using growth, multiple arbitrage and leverage to build enterprise value along the way.
Hear how portfolio companies can weigh short-term EBITDA dips against long-term payoff, why customer acquisition cost and lifetime value apply just as much to services businesses as SaaS, and how leadership teams can navigate AI-driven shifts in marketing and go-to-market strategy by building the trust needed to try new approaches with management.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Aryeh Landsberg, Managing Director at 17Capital, explains how NAV lending works as a flexible, fund-level capital tool for private equity managers—and why demand has been driven by opportunity rather than stress.
Hear how NAV facilities fit alongside traditional portfolio company debt, subscription lines and continuation vehicles across the fund lifecycle. Learn how 17Capital underwrites deals by assessing manager track records, portfolio quality and the delta between entry assumptions and actual exit outcomes. Then learn how GPs are deploying fund-level capital for accretive M&A, AI infrastructure investment and public-to-private bids—and why the ability to move quickly with certainty has become a competitive edge in today’s environment.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Jonathon Ferguson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at AshGrove Capital, explains how bespoke financing solutions for B2B software differ fundamentally from both direct lending and venture debt—and why underwriting on conviction rather than exit optionality changes how you structure a deal.
Hear how to think about valuing a software business as a lender, why proprietary data and vertical software have proved resilient as AI accelerates, and how performance-linked credit facilities tie capital deployment directly to growth milestones—with capacity that can grow organically as a company hits its plan.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Jonty Yamisha, CEO of Axxonsoft, draws on a career that has spanned private equity underwriting, operating partner roles and the CEO seat to explain what gets lost when investors, operators and portco leaders don't speak the same language—and how to close that gap.
Hear how the "what needs to be true" reframe transforms a top-down financial mandate into a shared problem-solving conversation, and why building a unified data taxonomy across marketing, sales and finance is the unglamorous prerequisite to any coherent value creation plan. Then learn how Jonty's three-factory model—delivery, customer success and go-to-market—uses the customer journey as connective tissue to align teams that otherwise default to blaming each other.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Tyler Newton, Managing Partner at Catalyst, makes the case for a disciplined approach to growth investing that sits between VC and buyout—and what operators and investors can learn from it.
Learn how to underwrite deals at the growth stage without relying on leverage or the power law—and why paying a fair price in the right sector matters more than finding the perfect company. Hear how to build a five-year plan that underwrites to multiple compression rather than expansion, and what it takes to win deals in a competitive market when you don't have proprietary deal flow.
From entry to exit, get a practical view of how to sequence leadership hires as a company scales, keep founders focused on three to five priorities per year, and build toward inflection points that open up multiple exit paths—from PE recap to strategic acquisition to IPO.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Christian Chauvet, Partner at Lee Equity, shares how vertical focus creates a structural advantage in healthcare and financial services investing—and what it takes to build and scale founder-led businesses in highly regulated, service-intensive industries.
Hear how a people-process-systems playbook drives organic growth across healthcare and financial services portfolios, why boots-on-the-ground referral networks are a critical and often underutilized growth lever in community care and why many founder-led businesses have attractive CAC economics but are systematically underinvesting in growth. Learn how AI is enabling providers and advisors to spend more time on high-value work—and how to think about tech enablement as a value creation lever rather than a technology roadmap item.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
On this episode, Michelle Noon, Managing Partner and Founder of Clearhaven Partners, joins Shiv Narayanan to break down how investors and operators build enterprise value in software companies through true partnership, concentrated bets and operational depth. You'll learn why running fewer deals per fund changes the math on time, attention and alignment with management teams, and why intentionally entering investments with lower leverage keeps the latitude needed to operate.
You'll also hear a candid view of how AI is reshaping software investing—the case for building an internal Claude skills marketplace, the mental model of pairing incumbency advantage with an AI-first mindset and how to re-imagine functions like sales from a blank sheet without ignoring the realities of change management.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.
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