The Deal Table

Texas is growing faster than almost anywhere in the U.S.—1,200 new residents every day, three new subdivisions on average, and booming demand for homes, offices, and data centers. Land strategy, phased development, and infrastructure planning drive long-term value, while energy supply and city regulations set critical limits. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • The...

JJ Barto of Broadwing Capital explains how lower middle market private equity actually works—partnering with founder-owned businesses, navigating first-time institutional capital, and creating value through disciplined execution rather than financial engineering. A grounded look at how durable lower middle market businesses are built, transitioned, and scaled—without relying on leverage-driven sho...

Dan Hunt outlines the business logic behind FC Dallas, continuous stadium reinvestment, and North Texas’ World Cup 2026 strategy. He explains how capital allocation, infrastructure upgrades, and market integrity translate into durable economic impact. WHAT WE COVER The Hunt family’s long-term investment thesis in American soccer Dan Hunt’s role running the business side of FC Dallas vs. on-field d...

Navigating a founder-led exit is more than just a transaction—it’s a pivotal moment for a business and its owners. John Willding breaks down how private equity and strategic buyers differ, why early planning and quality-of-earnings analysis matter, and how thoughtful deal structuring drives long-term value. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • How founder-operators s...

Buddy Ozanne, founder of Property Advisors Inc., discusses the evolution of wealth management and the critical components of long-term estate preservation. The conversation covers his transition from a transactional insurance model in the 1970s to becoming a pioneer in the fee-only RIA space. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Key Takeaways ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ -The transition from transactional sales...

Tailwater Capital’s Jason Downie and Edward Herring examine today’s U.S. energy crunch driven by AI demand, population growth, and infrastructure constraints. They discuss nuclear’s comeback and how disciplined investors are positioning for long-term value in a market defined by reliability and capital scarcity. WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • U.S. energy shortfall and the need for relia...

Tracy “DOC” Curry transformed a career setback into a platform for measurable impact. Through DOC CARES, the Dreams Experience Academy, and global minority ownership ventures, he links music, AI, and mentorship to educational outcomes and sustainable social growth. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN • Lessons from 40+ years of personal and professional growth • Faith, perseverance, and using life’s challenges to r...

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) is reshaping America’s capital markets. Nicole Chambers, Global Managing Director and former NASDAQ executive, explains why the U.S. has fallen from 9,000 to 4,400 public companies, how exchange regulation pushed issuers away, and why Texas is becoming a new financial power center. Nicole breaks down the decline of public listings, the shift of financial talent from...

Energy investing, private equity strategy, and the career mindset behind “The Fastest Tortoise.” Ken Hersh breaks down risk, resilience, decision-making, and the leadership principles that shaped modern energy finance. He explains operators vs. assets, probabilistic thinking, market cycles, and why “yellow lights don’t turn green.”Ken served as President & CEO of the George W. Bush Presidentia...

Michael Sarner joined Capital Southwest in 2015 and currently serves as Chief Executive Officer, bringing over 30 years of experience in finance, treasury, and BDC’s. Leveraging his extensive background in financial services, Sarner has built best-in-class teams and innovative solutions to support the company's growth. Under his leadership, his team has raised over $2 billion in debt and equity fi...

Lane Kasselman is the President and Chief Business Officer at Blockchain.com, where he has transformed the startup unicorn into a fast-growing multinational business. Kasselman has spent over two decades consulting on business strategy, public policy, crisis management and communications, running communications and public affairs for Uber, AT&T, The Messina Group and his own firm, Greenbrier....

Troy W. Eckerd, Chairman of Eckerd Enterprises, shares his journey from humble beginnings to building over $1 billion in energy assets. With decades of experience in finance, oil & gas, and private capital, Troy explains how he navigates an industry riddled with obstacles, misrepresentation, and high failure rates to deliver real returns for investors. Season 2 of The Deal Table is brought to...

Brint shares how his firm produces more adjudicated data than anyone else and is changing the tax landscape forever. From leveraging AI and ChatGPT to optimize taxes in real-time, to navigating the ever-changing gray areas of the tax code, Brint dives into how innovation, leadership, and technology intersect in the world of business taxes. We also get a glimpse into Ryan’s unique work culture, rem...

In this episode of The Deal Table, we sat down with Dr. Alex Farahmand. Dr. Alex Farahmand MD, is the co-founder and president of Tidal Medical Technologies, a pioneering medical device company transforming respiratory care through smart technology. Tidal Medicals flagship innovation is InSee which is a connected, user-friendly incentive spirometer designed to boost patient compliance and improve...

In our latest episode of The Deal Table, we had the honor of hosting Tom Leppert- former Mayor of Dallas, CEO of Turner Construction, White House Fellow, and an all-around leadership powerhouse. What stood out most wasn’t just his impressive resume, it was how he got there.

Chris Gannett believes that business is the leverage point for global change- and he’s got the track record to back it up. He has raised millions in funding, contributed to over $500 million in M&A value, and invested in over 50 startups. As a CMO and GM with Sony, "American Idol," Elvis Presley Enterprises, TheBlaze and MediaMath, Chris' work helped achieve multiple Grammy and Emmy Awards, th...

Today’s guest, Jimmy Tran, blends business acumen with deep personal perspective. As the former VP of Corporate Strategy and M&A at CBRE, Jimmy led over $2 billion in acquisitions and played a key role in tripling earnings in just 8 years. He also spent time as a management consultant with Bain & Company, working in Dallas, Hong Kong, and Singapore, helping global leaders make smarter, fas...

Today on The Deal Table, we're joined by Scott Harper- Dallas-based entrepreneur and co- founder of Dialexa, the digital product engineering firm he launched in 2010 with just "$50, a domain name, and big dreams".Under his leadership, Dialexa grew into a powerhouse consultancy serving clients like Uber, Amazon, and Toyota before being acquired by IBM in 2022.Scott helped define "digital product en...

This week on The Deal Table, we sit down with John Donovan, former CEO of AT&T Communications and current investor in some of the most disruptive technologies reshaping the world as we know it. In one of our most thought-provoking conversations yet, John pulls back the curtain on the frontier of innovation- from quantum computing and synthetic biology to AI, space tech, and hypersonics.

Today on The Deal Table, we’re joined by Leib Bolel, founder of Lioncrest Ventures, a firm focused on flexible, multi-product financing solutions for early growth-stage tech companies. He also serves as a Partner at Grayhawk Capital, where he’s spent nearly seven years investing in and supporting B2B software companies. Before that, Leib was the CEO and founder of the Arizona Israel Technology All...

On this episode of The Deal Table, we sat down with Eric Bennett to talk about the next frontier in biotech: brain health. Eric launched Brain Capital Partners and the Brain Superfund in 2025 to invest in brain science venture and growth capital. The Fund focuses on mental health, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, brain injuries, wellness, and longevity. It targets companies offering th...

In this episode of The Deal Table, we sit down with Mara McNeill, a powerhouse in the world of finance, banking, and public service. From scaling Toyota Financial Savings Bank from $1B to $6B in just four years, to navigating complex regulatory waters during the 2008 financial crisis at the U.S. Treasury, Mara brings unmatched experience in strategic leadership, community banking, and transformati...

This week on The Deal Table, we sat down with Victor Vescovo, a true modern-day explorer, decorated U.S. Navy Commander, deep-sea adventurer, Everest summiter, Blue Origin astronaut, and seasoned venture capitalist. From the Mariana Trench to Mount Everest, from space travel to investing in cutting-edge tech and de-extinction, Victor shares the mindset, discipline, and calculated risk-taking that...

On this episode of The Deal Table, we sit down with Suresh Narayanan, an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and visionary leader with deep roots in aviation. From aerospace engineering and military jet modifications at AQRD to driving innovation as COO of JSX, Suresh has been at the forefront of change in the industry. Now, as the founder of Jets MRO, he’s shaping the future of aviation with a p...

Douglas Smith, former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and current Head of Global Affairs at Orchard Global, dives into the deep intersections of public policy, national security, innovation, and business. From stories behind the launch of TSA PreCheck and Global Entry to cybersecurity risks in private equity and the role of government in advancing green tech, Smith under...