My Guest Dr. Victoria Medvec is the Adeline Barry Davee Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. In addition to her professorship, Dr. Medvec is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Center for Executive Women at the Kellogg School and the CEO of Medvec and Associates,Continue reading “Dr. Victoria Medvec on the Art and Science of High Stakes Negotiations”
Tag Archives: M&A
Peter Lehrman, Founder & CEO of Axial, The Largest Online Marketplace to Buy & Sell SMBs
My Guest Peter Lehrman is the Founder and CEO of Axial, North America’s #1 online platform connecting buyers and sellers of small and medium sized businesses. Axial is used by over 20,000 investors, M&A advisors and CEOs, allowing them to connect on a confidential basis to explore potential M&A, debt, buyout, and growth equity transactions,Continue reading “Peter Lehrman, Founder & CEO of Axial, The Largest Online Marketplace to Buy & Sell SMBs”
Building a $5.5B Mid-Market Private Equity Firm: Brent Belzberg, Founder of Torquest Partners
My Guest My guest today is Brent Belzberg, Founder and Senior Managing Partner of TorQuest, a middle market private equity firm that he founded in 2002 that has since grown to ~$5.5B in assets under management. Outside of TorQuest, Brent serves as a Director of The Sinai Health System, having previously acted as Chair. HeContinue reading “Building a $5.5B Mid-Market Private Equity Firm: Brent Belzberg, Founder of Torquest Partners”
Venture Capital “Orphans”: Exploring an Emerging Search Fund Investment Thesis
Listen to this Blog Post Since their inception in 1984, Search Funds have largely targeted a very particular profile of company: Targets tend to be mature, enduringly profitable businesses with recurring revenue profiles, low capital requirements, and straight-forward operations. These businesses are often still run by their founders, and these founders tend to be laterContinue reading “Venture Capital “Orphans”: Exploring an Emerging Search Fund Investment Thesis”
Lessons Learned From 400+ Post-Exit Entrepreneurs: John Warrillow, Host of Built to Sell Radio
My Guest My guest today is John Warrillow, author of the bestselling book Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, and Founder & CEO of The Value Builder System, a sales and marketing software tool for business advisors to find, win and keep their best clients. Built to Sell was recognizedContinue reading “Lessons Learned From 400+ Post-Exit Entrepreneurs: John Warrillow, Host of Built to Sell Radio”
When Search Funds Don’t Go As Planned (Part 2): Trends & Observations With Jim Sharpe
My Guest My guest today is Jim Sharpe, somebody who I’ve been fortunate enough to call a mentor and friend for over 10 years now. This is Jim’s second appearance on In The Trenches (you can access the first episode here) In this week’s episode, we build upon the first-hand accounts presented in episode 1Continue reading “When Search Funds Don’t Go As Planned (Part 2): Trends & Observations With Jim Sharpe”
When Search Funds Don’t Go As Planned (Part 1): 3 Searcher Case Studies
My Guests If one were to attend a randomly selected group of Search Fund conferences, they’d be forgiven for thinking that every search fund is a smashing success. When I was both a searcher and a CEO, I often left these types of events with a certain sense of insecurity and self-doubt, as everybody seemedContinue reading “When Search Funds Don’t Go As Planned (Part 1): 3 Searcher Case Studies”
The State of Lower-Middle Market Credit: Two Major Bank Failures, Rising Interest Rates, and a Looming Recession
My Guests To say that it’s been an active 6-18 months in the banking sector would be an understatement: Beginning as recently as January, 2022, we’ve seen the US Federal Funds rate increase from .08% to 4.83%, which, at least in part, precipitated the rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and the rescue of FirstContinue reading “The State of Lower-Middle Market Credit: Two Major Bank Failures, Rising Interest Rates, and a Looming Recession”
The Merits, Risks, and Possible Unintended Consequences of Earn-Outs
Listen to this Blog Post When acquiring small to medium sized businesses, buyers often utilize a tool called an “earn-out”, which is a form of contingent consideration that sellers may receive at some point in the future in addition to the cash that they stand to receive at closing. Though earn-outs can be useful andContinue reading “The Merits, Risks, and Possible Unintended Consequences of Earn-Outs”
The Smallest Changes That Had the Largest Impacts: 4 CEO Case Studies
My Guests This is a very special episode of In The Trenches: In today’s episode, I will be interviewing 4 different CEOs of 4 different SMBs, and asking them just a single question: “What are some of the seemingly small changes you’ve made that have had the largest impacts?” When taking over a new business,Continue reading “The Smallest Changes That Had the Largest Impacts: 4 CEO Case Studies”