The Deal Podcast

Landing a two-year contract felt like a win. Aaron Travasos saw a deadline: "We have one to two years to replace this customer." In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner of FA Mergers, sit down with Aaron Travasos, P.E., Principal at Gregory Consulting and Controls in Lafayette, Louisiana. Aaron left a steady engineeri...

She built her app with one end in mind from day one: get acquired. And she did it while owning 100% of the company and raising two kids under two. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-hosts Scott Shea and Jeremy Beyt sit down with Kelly Hebert, VP of Design & Media at Robert Hebert Media and co-founder of Project Dryve, a navigation app built to solve the messy, real-...

He built Lego-verifying software with his daughter and an AI chief of staff named Carl who texts his wife. Justin Obney has strong opinions about what founders keep getting wrong. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Justin Obney, CEO of Obney AI, for a candid conversation on how business owners should actually think about artificial intellig...

33 years behind the microphone in Baton Rouge — and a master class on how college sports quietly became one of the biggest deal-making machines in America. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, hosts Joshua Wilson and Scott Shea sit down with Charles Hanagriff — veteran sports broadcaster, co-host of "Live at Lunch" on 104.5 ESPN, and the voice of Eagle 98.1 Gameday for over two decades —...

He got told no 2,000 times before Wall Street said yes. Rip Reeves cold-called his way off a borrowed New York City phone book — and four decades later runs the company whose magazine first taught him the business. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, recorded on the Baton Rouge Podcast Tour, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Rip Reeves, CEO of Institutional Investor and form...

He cashed out everything during the pandemic — left a guaranteed paycheck to raise $30M and buy a bank that didn't exist yet. Five years later, it's quadrupled. In this episode, recorded live in Baton Rouge on our Louisiana Podcast Tour, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Scott Gaudin, President & CEO of Currency Bank. Scott traces his path from folding towels an...

Should you grow your business or protect it? The answer depends on one number — and most owners don't know theirs. In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-hosts Scott Shea (FA Mergers) and Jeremy Beyt (CEO, ThreeSixtyEight) sit down with Ben Vance, CPA, Director at Faulk & Winkler, who brings nearly 20 years in business valuation, transaction advisory, and family office work. Ben unpacks th...

He built a national construction firm out of a town of fewer than 1,000 people — then sold it without feeling like he sold out. In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Lenny Lemoine, founder of LEMOINE, the Louisiana services company he and his brother Tim grew from a family lumberyard into a 1,500-person leader in building, infrastructure, and disaster response. Lenny...

What separates the PE firms that build lasting companies from the ones that destroy them? Jeff Koonce says it comes down to one asset that never shows up cleanly on a balance sheet. Jeffrey Koonce is a Partner at Bernhard Capital Partners, a Baton Rouge-based services and infrastructure-focused private equity firm with more than $6 billion in AUM. A recovering CPA and former tax attorney at Phelps...

Erik Billet and Jude David built a family office that's done 12 acquisitions in five years — without outside investors, without a fund clock, and without ever planning to flip a single company. In this episode, Erik Billet, CFO of Kin Capital Partners and CEO of Stately Doors and Windows, joins Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner at FA Mergers, to walk through...

What happens when a buyer looks at your business and says, "The owner is too involved — we can't pluck him out"? That's the moment your exit value collapses. And it's the moment Jeff Martin has spent a career helping founders avoid. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA and Managing Partner at FA Mergers, sit down with...

He spent over two decades as a full-time Catholic minister. Then four kids, a tight bank account, and a global pandemic forced a pivot that would reshape everything. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA and Managing Partner at FA Mergers, sit down with John Ray Perkins, a top-producing Realtor with Keller Williams Realty of Acadiana in Lafaye...

What does it take to scale a plaintiff's law firm to 17 attorneys across three offices — without losing the mission, the culture, or your sanity? Blake David has done it, and he's still trying cases. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Blake R. David, founding partner of Broussard, David & Moroux in Lafayette, Louisiana, alongside co-host Jude David...

What if the smartest move before your liquidity event isn't talking to your banker — it's talking to a community foundation? In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Missy Andrade, President & CEO of the Community Foundation of Acadiana (CFA), to unpack one of the most overlooked tools in middle market dealmaking: the community foun...

Mark Weber made $12,000 his first year in business. He never hired an employee. Three decades later, he's built a portfolio across life insurance, real estate, and mortgage lending — all on strategic partnerships and commission-only hustle. Mark Weber is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and CEO of Mark Weber Enterprises — a multi-layered company spanning real estate, investments, insurance, a...

What if the smartest growth strategy in your community wasn't being run by a private equity firm — it was being run by a charity? Kim Boudreaux and Sarah Clement of Catholic Charities of Acadiana have spent the last two decades quietly executing one of the most disciplined nonprofit roll-up strategies in Louisiana — growing from a $1.2M agency with 23 employees into a $15M, 90-person, 14-orga...

What if the Lord interrupted your career at the peak of the American dream? Saul Keeton walked away from 25 years in commercial real estate. Kevin Granger left nursing and music behind. Both said yes to something bigger. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Saul Keeton and Kevin Granger of Family Missions Company — the largest lay Catholic foreign missionary organ...

What does it actually take to walk away from a thriving career at the top of your game — and how do you do it without leaving wreckage behind? In this special episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA — Managing Partner at FA Mergers — sit down with Father Jim Brady, JCL, Pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. Before entering the pr...

What happens when a former musician with degrees in graphic design and public relations becomes the executive director of one of Louisiana's most important startup engines? You get Destin Ortego — and a playbook that's helped founders raise $116M in venture capital and drive over $2 billion in economic impact since 2018. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host...

What does it actually take to land a $1.4 billion manufacturing deal in a parish of 70,000 people? Mike Tarantino has the playbook — and he's running it in real time. In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Mike Tarantino, President and CEO of the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation, to break down the mechanics of modern economic development dealmaking. Mike w...

What if the same company could give you four bites of the apple? Steven Pivnik did exactly that — and nearly lost it all in between. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Steven Pivnik, serial founder, endurance athlete, and exit advisor who built and monetized the same software company four separate times before finally selling to a $4 billion competitor. Steven s...

What does it take to turn a text message into a viral brand? Bryan McGehee, founder of Gatr Coolers, did exactly that — starting from a camper with his wife and kids, betting his house on a cooler company, and going full-time the same month COVID shut the world down. Bryan McGehee is the founder of Gatr Coolers, a premium customizable cooler and drinkware brand built out of Thibodaux, Louisiana. B...

What if the biggest mistake you're making isn't a bad deal or a wrong hire — but spending your life doing things you're capable of instead of things you were made for? Dominic Dupré grew up watching four cousins build successful companies in Louisiana's energy corridor. He graduated into the shale boom, swung sledgehammers on a workover rig, and had his entrepreneurial dreams d...

What if the thing slowing your growth isn't what's missing — it's what you refuse to cut? Yarin Gaon sold his fourth company at 28, ran turnarounds as an Entrepreneur in Residence at a venture capital firm, mentored 400+ founders through the University of Chicago and SCORE, and has earned an MBA along the way. Today he runs Fractional Partners, where he applies a private equity-styl...

He was drowning in investor debt, swinging a hammer in Houston just to make payroll — and still found a way to build something worth fighting for. This is a story about grit, partnership, and what it really takes to grow a trade business from the inside out. George Boudreaux founded Pelican Roofing Company in Lafayette, Louisiana on July 4th, 2014 — not from a place of momentum, but from a burning...