Views From the Market

What can patient, hands-on capital bring to private investing? Shael Soberano joins Mario Nigro to discuss the investment approach of his family office, which looks for durable businesses, aligned partners, and a seat at the table. Topics include: • Sharno Group’s focus on hands-on investments in well-established industries • The importance of aligning incentives and investment horizons with co-in...

Where can AI add value in financial advisory services – and why is it unlikely to fully replace professional expertise in the near term? Rob Hong of Sapling Financial Consultants joins Mario Nigro to discuss AI’s practical uses and significant limitations in financial advisory services, as well as the outlook for Canada’s lower mid-market M&A sector. Topics discussed include: • Rob’s experience us...

From diligence to value creation, where can AI make the biggest impact in a transaction? Datatonic’s Stephen Charko joins Mario Nigro for a fascinating discussion of the evolving role of AI-driven data analytics in acquisition contexts. Topics discussed include: • How AI is transforming deal diligence into “data gold mines” by analyzing board minutes, meeting records and executive interviews for k...

The use of AI in M&A continues to evolve. In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Noah Waisberg about the development of AI-driven tools for M&A diligence, Noah’s experience building and selling Kira Systems, and his current work at Zuva. Topics discussed include: • How AI fits into the broader picture of recent M&A innovations such as virtual data rooms, quality of earnings reviews and represent...

What goes into preparing a family business for a successful sale? In this episode of Views from the Market, Mario Nigro speaks with Chandra Davis about the history and growth of Electro Cables, a wire and cable manufacturer in Trenton, Ontario, and the company’s eventual sale process. Topics discussed include: • How Chandra and her brother expanded Electro Cables by focusing on quality • Why they...

What could better preparation mean for your exit value? Robert Bezede and Thomas Bevilacqua join Mario Nigro to share how their firm, Harmony Succession Partners, prepares sellers for successful exits in Canada’s increasingly sophisticated lower midmarket deal space. In this episode: • Why Harmony focuses on sell-side advisory for lower midmarket businesses • Why businesses with enterprise values...

How is AI changing the way technology companies are bought and sold? Mario Di Pietro, Co-founder and Managing Director of Origin Merchant Partners, joins Mario Nigro to discuss how AI is impacting Canadian tech M&A. In this episode: • How AI is influencing the valuation of technology companies • Why buyers, sellers, investors, and advisors are reevaluating long-term growth prospects • The continue...

Justin Joffe of Legate Partners joins us to share insights from his journey as an entrepreneur turned CEO coach, and what he believes makes a successful CEO. The discussion focuses on the challenges facing first-time business leaders, who must be able to balance big-picture thinking with detailed analysis, depending on the situation. While there is no one formula for success, Justin emphasizes the...

Anish Singla of Tequity Advisors, a sell-side tech M&A boutique focused on $20m-100m transactions, joins Mario Nigro for an insightful look at the state of tech M&A. After record activity in 2025, buyer concerns about AI disruption vulnerability are impacting certain tech sub-sectors, notably lightly-embedded point solution SaaS businesses. Anish notes that AI has moved rapidly to the forefront of...

Tyler Lang of HDL Capital, a Toronto-based M&A advisory firm, joins Mario Nigro to discuss the latest trends in lower midmarket deals. One notable shift is the lengthening of typical deal timelines to 4-6 months post-LOI, up from 2-4 months just a few years ago, driven by increased lender caution and reliance on quality of earnings reports. He also highlights a trend of sellers holding unrealistic...

Ugo Dionne, President of M&A Club Canada, joins Mario Nigro to discuss his organization’s role in Canada’s M&A ecosystem. He explains how the Club, with 20 chapters across Canada, brings together M&A service providers for monthly meetings at which they can share deal opportunities, discuss trends, and build trust-based networks. Recent “hot topics” at M&A Club sessions include the challenge of get...

In this episode, Eric Ries joins Mario Nigro to discuss his latest book, Incorruptible. The book’s thesis is that the business world’s focus on shareholder primacy and profit extraction is inconsistent with the interests of the businesses themselves. Because purpose-driven companies outperform extractive companies, buyers should diligence intangibles such as ethos, pricing restraint and employee l...

Joining Mario Nigro for this episode is Mackenzie Regent, co-founder of Kalos, a boutique transaction advisory firm providing financial due diligence and valuation for midmarket deals across North America. They discuss how global uncertainty is affecting midmarket deals, where resources for diligence deep-dives are often limited. According to Mackenzie, recent systemic shocks are interrupting deal...

Jeffrey McCain of Woodward Capital joins Mario Nigro to discuss his firm’s evolution from traditional self-funded search into a broader investing platform participating across the capital stack (including LP positions in institutional funds and equity-gap situations). Jeff describes Woodward’s focus on trades-based businesses. HVAC, in particular, is attractive in light of the industry’s inherent...

George Sabbouh of Stifel Financial joins Mario Nigro for an enlightening discussion on the state of the deal market in Canada. After an uneven “K-shaped” recovery in 2025, George is seeing strong momentum in certain sectors – metals and mining, business services, infrastructure services, and waste management – amid continuing buyer hesitancy in tariff-exposed sectors such as manufacturing. Broader...

Ezio Bondi of Bondi Produce & Specialty Foods joins Mario Nigro to discuss the M&A-driven growth of his Ontario-based food distribution business. Ezio highlights the roles that operational discipline, early adoption of technology, and a clear integration playbook have played in Bondi’s success. In a fragmented produce-distribution market, Bondi’s M&A strategy leverages its roots as a small family-...

Jeffrey Elliott, a partner in Stikeman Elliott’s funds and securities regulatory practice, joins Mario Nigro to discuss the evolution of private equity fund structures in Canada. While the classic single-fund structure and traditional “2 and 20” model are still intact, sponsors are increasingly using more complex arrangements, including co-investment vehicles, GP-led secondaries, open-ended or lon...

Join Mario Nigro and Senia Rapisarda, Managing Director of HarbourVest Canada, for a discussion of Canada’s changing venture, growth and private equity landscape. Senia and HarbourVest have become a significant presence in the Canadian market, with $1.2 billion in investments focused on the technology, climate tech and life sciences sectors. Key challenges for Canada’s entrepreneurs, in Senia’s vi...

In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Adrian Bartha and Quinten Griffiths, founding partners of GoodCapital, about their approach to midmarket private equity. GoodCapital was built on a high involvement, hands on model that influences everything from deal selection to post acquisition engagement and is informed by Quinten and Adrian’s own experiences as business owners and acquirers. While not...

David Au-Yeung and Victor Wong join Mario Nigro to discuss CollectiveXP, which provides investment and advisory services in Canada’s lower midmarket. After exiting Flipp, a VC-backed tech startup that achieved revenues over $100 million, David and Victor decided to use their skills, connections and capital to work with other investors. CollectiveXP’s philosophy centres on relationship building, ea...

Sebastien Dhonte joins Mario Nigro to discuss Clairvest’s approach to mid-market M&A. Based in Toronto but very active on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, Clairvest has decades of experience with its distinctive partnership-driven investment model. Their approach prioritizes alignment of interests, with existing management teams maintaining effective operational control. While Clairvest often...

In the 150th episode of Views from the Market, Ira Goldstein joins Mario Nigro to discuss the evolving role of cybersecurity in midmarket M&A. As he explains, cybersecurity diligence has become a key part of deal-making, driven by the ever-increasing value of data in many business sectors. He stresses the value of hands-on technical assessments – rather than check-the-box exercises – for many orga...

This episode of "Views from the Market" features Sévrine Labelle, Managing Director of BDC’s Thrive Lab and Thrive Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Fund, which focus on women entrepreneurs. As Sévrine notes, only 4% of investment in Canada supports women-founded businesses. The conversation centres on the newly launched $50 million Thrive ETA Fund, which helps women become entrepreneurs throug...

In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Andrew Sarna and Vanessa Hui of Forthlane Partners, an independent wealth management firm. Forthlane offers sophisticated institutional investment strategies to its clientele of high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and foundations. Vanessa and Andrew discuss how the firm diversifies client investments through private equity, hedge funds, and defensiv...

In this episode, host Mario Nigro talks with Oaklins Canada partner Jonathan Sherman. As a worldwide M&A advisory firm, Oaklins is able to expose Canadian midmarket businesses to a global marketplace of potential buyers and sellers, in addition to assisting with purely domestic transactions. The discussion focuses on the effect of tariff-related uncertainty on potential foreign acquirors. Jonathan...