Private Equity Funcast

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.