Ask Carlo™ | Private Equity, Simplified

Venice Film Festival. Red carpet. A woman in a crimson gown catches the light — and so do her shoes. Jimmy Choo. The brand that turned footwear into art. But here’s the remarkable bit: it began in a small East London workshop in 1996, valued at just £18 million. Over the next 16 years, four private equity firms would each buy it, transform it, and sell it on — every time at a higher price. The fin...

London, 2018. A 33-year-old former Lehman Brothers trader sits in a modest flat, running a banking app with 3 million users. Traditional banks dismiss him. Regulators are cautious. Most venture capitalists want board control. DST Global sees something different. They invest €234 million for a minority stake at a €2 billion valuation – without taking a single board seat. Seven years later, Revolut...

What does an entrepreneur see that a career investor might miss? And what changes when that entrepreneur crosses the table to become the one writing the cheques? In this episode, I welcome Shanu Sherwani — a private equity professional with a rather distinctive trajectory. He started as an entrepreneur, moved into fund management, and now serves as Chief Investment Officer of a single family offic...

Milan, 2017. A Renaissance convent sits abandoned in the Quadrilatero della Moda – five minutes from Via Montenapoleone. Frescoes deteriorating. Gardens overgrown. Most developers walk away: too complex, too expensive, too many heritage restrictions. A Luxembourg-based private equity fund sees something different. They invest €87 million. Five years later, 22 ultra-luxury apartments sell for €183...

Stockholm, 2006. Music piracy was killing the industry. Two Swedish entrepreneurs pitched investors an impossible idea: charge for streaming when piracy was free. Investors said yes – and poured $2.6 billion into it over 12 years. Here's why. This is the Spotify story – from a radical bet against piracy to a $60 billion music streaming empire that saved the recording industry.

In 2006, a London private equity firm walked into Bernie Ecclestone's office and said, "We'll buy Formula 1 for $2 billion." The twist? They only had $500 million in cash. The rest - $1.5 billion - they borrowed. Eleven years later: 8x returns. This is the Formula 1 story - how borrowed money amplifies returns in private equity, and why sports media became the perfect asset for leveraged buyouts.

In 2003, investors paid €150 million for a struggling ski jacket company. Ten years later: €2 billion IPO. Here's how. This is the Moncler story—from technical mountaineering gear to a luxury fashion empire worth over €12 billion today.