Buyers and Builders

Nathan Lindley is the CEO of Lindley Home Services, an HVAC platform that has completed 11 acquisitions across Texas. But this story almost ended before it began... After acquiring his first two companies with an SBA loan, Nathan watched revenue collapse, burned through his cash, nearly lost his father's retirement savings and came dangerously close to bankruptcy. The turning point was  a com...

Chris Rolls is the founder of PieLAB Capital, a holding company with nine portfolio companies built through 13 acquisitions. After building and selling multiple businesses, Chris entered private equity to learn the investing side of the game. But he eventually became convinced that the traditional PE model forces investors to sell their best businesses too early. That realization led him to build...

In this episode, David Flickinger, founder of Vellm.ai, joins Mikk Markus to explain how his journey from Marine Corps officer to AI implementation shaped his perspective on technology, and how business owners, private equity professionals, search fund operators, and CEOs can move beyond using Claude and ChatGPT as a simple productivity tool and begin building AI infrastructure that creates real e...

Brett Kelly is the founder and CEO of Kelly Partners Group. Since founding the firm in 2006, Brett has completed more than 90 acquisitions, compounded revenue at over 30% annually and built a business expected to generate roughly $50 million in EBITA in 2026. Timestamps: 0:00 Brett Kelly's early years and losing his job at 22 3:57 Writing to 80 successful Australians while unemployed 9:13 The...

Andrea Allegrini is one of the key operators behind one of Europe’s most fascinating small-cap acquisition stories. Lindbergh is building what could become the country’s first national HVAC maintenance platform through a disciplined roll-up strategy focused on fragmented, family-owned businesses. In this conversation, Andrea explains how Lindbergh evolved from a logistics operator into a serial ac...

Ramsey Sahyoun shares how Evergreen grew from a Berkshire-inspired idea into a $1.5B revenue, $250M EBITDA HoldCo with 160 acquisitions. We discuss proprietary sourcing, decentralization, talent, value creation, MSPs, and the lessons behind building one of America’s most interesting acquisition machines. Timestamps: 0:00 Evergreen’s scale and long-term hold model 2:06 Discovering private equity an...

Mark Sinatra has lived the full search fund journey: discovering ETA at Wharton, acquiring Staff One HR, surviving the 2008 crisis, scaling the business, selling to Oasis Outsourcing, and later helping build ETA Equity. In this episode, Mark shares what he learned from nearly a decade as a search CEO, why talent unlocked the business, how he survived the hardest years, and what he now looks for af...

In this episode, Robert Irving of Buffalo Growth Partners shares what he learned from building a fire protection business from zero to $20M in revenue, selling it to private equity, rolling equity, and then helping execute a 137-company rollup. Timestamps: 0:00 Why PE value creation is harder than it sounds 1:52 From fire protection operator to $20M in revenue 4:09 The three sales roles that drive...

Simon Plummer is the co-founder of Arbor Permanent Owners, a holding company built for long-term ownership. In this episode, Simon drawing on his experience acquiring and operating three founder-led SMEs, he shares a practical playbook for the first year of ownership: - how to settle a team, - build trust, - create momentum, - improve sales, - think about pricing, - and know when to invest for gro...

Why networks are one of the most underrated advantages in the lower middle market, and how to build them. We explore how trust, introductions, persistence, and long-term generosity can create better deal flow, stronger relationships, and a real competitive edge for buyers, builders, and investors. This episode is heavily inspired by the wisdom of Alix Pasquet, a Managing Partner at Prime Macaya Ca...

In this episode, I sit down with P.V. Ramanathan, or Ram, to unpack the story of how he helped lead a management buyout of a struggling cathodic protection business in 2003 and turned it into Corrosion Technology Services ( https://ctscp.com/ ). Himself local to Dubai, Ram's company, CTS, includes 10 companies operating across 8 countries and 3 regions. The free cash flow generation gave Ram...

Dan Lifshits, co-founder of Dwelly, explains how he is building an AI-enabled roll-up in the UK lettings market by acquiring independent agencies and modernizing them with software. Dwelly has completed 9 acquisitions in just 24 months, combining a buy-and-build strategy with a technology-first operating model designed to improve service for landlords and tenants while making agency operations far...

In this episode, we break down IDUN Industrier, a Swedish serial acquirer that has completed 20 acquisitions to date and now trades at roughly a 65x P/E multiple — an extraordinary valuation for an industrial holding company. What makes IDUN so interesting is that it is not simply buying businesses for scale. It is building a portfolio of niche leaders: small, often overlooked companies with high...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks with Lacey Wismer of Hunter Search Capital ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceywismer/ ) about her journey from a family business background into investing in more than 100 search funds, backing operators, and building a platform around long-term business ownership. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction: Lacey Wismer on permanent capital and long-term ho...

Why serial acquirers remain one of the most powerful business models in the world. The best of them have acquired as many as 275 companies and traded at valuations as high as 65x earnings, yet most people still misunderstand what makes them so successful. I explore why the best acquirers often start slow, how they solve the reinvestment problem, why balance sheet strength and specialization matter...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks with Eric Wiklendt of Speyside Equity ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericwiklendt/ ) about Eric's journey and how Speyside has built a highly operational lower-middle-market private equity firm with $937 million of assets under management, 38 total investments, 20 platform investments, operations across 19 countries, and portfolio companies...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks with Kaido Veske of Livonia Partners ( https://www.livoniapartners.com/ ) about Kaido’s journey from working at a mid-cap private equity firm in the US to returning to Europe, raising a fund that now manages nearly $200 million, and completing 16 acquisitions to date. 0:00 Why start a fund 2:56 Wharton and early US exposure 3:39 US finance year...

Mike Markus (⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠ ) talks to Travis Jamison of CapitalPad ( https://capitalpad.com/ ) about building a deal-by-deal investing platform that’s already powered 10 acquisitions, with some deals projected to have an IRR of 25% or more. Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:36 Why CapitalPad exists 3:08 Platform walkthrough 5:22 Lessons from the first 10 deals 7:16 What a typical deal lo...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks to Vic Keller of Experience Ventures ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickeller/ ) about building 17 companies over two decades with 9 exits, having businesses acquired by Berkshire Hathaway, and his operator-first approach to building durable, people-driven companies - including a vertically integrated car wash platform spanning manufacturing, ch...

Operators, independent sponsors, searchers, and lower middle market investors: this episode is about building repeatable deal flow in the $2-15M EBITDA range by making opportunities, talent, and capital come to you. You’ll learn “relationship compounding” through two lenses: Larry Gagosian - the billionaire art dealer who engineers environments where influential people want to be (all in service o...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks to Millen Rastogi of UniversaCare ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/millenrastogi/ ) about leaving his analyst role at Deutsche Bank to build a healthcare roll-up and acquire five companies. Show notes: 0:00 Millen Rastogi 1:05 From Deutsche Bank to home care 4:30 Walking into a mess 13:26 Funding the early years 19:54 Growth numbers + COVID hit 23...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks to Reza Jafer of Second Bite Capital ( https://x.com/rezajafer ) about how he left private equity to acquire three companies in three months. Show notes: 0:00 Independent sponsor jump 3:38 Origin story 8:04 First acquisition 10:15 The motor coach platform 14:36 Deal #1 terms 18:46 Early wins 26:22 Fundraising lesson 29:44 Deal #2 raise in chaos...

The lower middle market runs on trust and relationship building. In this episode, we explore Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co., the quiet Charlotte-based advisory firm that shaped how lower middle market M&A gets done. Before private equity was institutionalized asset class, BHC figured out how to turn founder-led businesses into transactions lenders could underwrite and capital could trust. T...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks to Luis Reyes of Iberian Ventures ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/luiz/ ) about how he has completed over 30 acquisitions in 4 years and is building a fire safety rollup in Europe. Snow notes: 0:00 From rural Mexico to more than 30 acquisitions 4:00 Buy-and-build thesis 6:45 Funding the first deals 11:55 The 100-day integration playbook 19:00 Usi...

Mike Markus ( ⁠ https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy ) talks to Christa Glassburn about how she joined a search fund, acquired seven companies and scaled revenue from $15 million to $200 million. Snow notes: 0:00 Christa’s $15M to $200M scaling story 2:30 FBI operator lessons 3:37 Jump to a search fund and move to rural Virginia 11:51 First acquisition and integration learning curve 17:28 Culture reset a...