Private Equity Value Creation Podcast

Shiv interviews Brad Armstrong, Partner at Lovell Minnick Partners (LMP). In this episode, Shiv and Brad talk about LMP’s approach to supporting their portfolio companies with a robust operating partner bench, as well as how to prioritize where to allocate budget, resources, and advisors when making value creation plans. Learn about weaponizing the value creation team and other benefits outside of...

Shiv interviews Stephen Marks, Managing Director, Emmersion Capital. In this episode, Shiv and Stephen discuss the benefits and challenges of nearshoring, including the economies of scaling your workforce in Latin America, onboarding and company culture, as well as macroeconomic risks and political challenges. Learn about labor arbitrage opportunities, the complexities of dealing with foreign taxe...

Shiv interviews Diamond Innabi, Principal at Software Equity Group. In this episode, Diamond shares how investment banks can help founders position their companies to increase the likelihood of transactions. Learn how successful founders think about the process of exiting, as well as how to maximize the valuation of a transaction and ensure the interests of founders and investment banks are aligne...

Shiv Narayanan, Founder and CEO at How To SaaS, shares his presentation from Silicon Y’All 2024. Learn about the nine critical marketing problems most companies face, from poor gross revenue and net retention problems to not generating enough traffic or leads. Shiv also shares the five most common value creation scenarios and the four major marketing mistakes companies make.

Shiv interviews John Bailey, Co-Founder at OneFund Investments. In this episode, John shares how he runs his fund of funds, how he vets the PE firms they invest in, and the pros and cons of how PE firms approach operating teams. Learn about key differences between the three models for operating teams within PE firms, how to build a lean (but impactful) ops team, as well as how an integrated ops te...

This episode is sponsored by scaleMatters. Shiv interviews Scott Stouffer, CEO and Founder at scaleMatters.  This episode is all about data – data hygiene, data infrastructure, and the insights that come from data to make those important value creation decisions. Learn how scaleMatters – a firm that specializes in go-to-market analytics – reviews and audits client data, why it’s important for comp...

Shiv interviews Sean Cantwell, Managing Partner at Volition Capital.  In this episode, Sean shares how Volition Capital’s  operations teams support their portcos with the resources, tools, and frameworks they need to grow. Learn about  best practices including portfolio summits, internal resource portals, and training. Hear about when it makes sense to work with generalists vs specialists, how Vol...

Shiv interviews Jordon Kruse, Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, and Matt Wilson, Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, at Oaktree Capital.  In this episode, Matt and Jordon explain their approach to special situations investing, including rescue financing transactions where they restructure the debt and balance sheet of companies. They share how they create the most value for their...

Shiv interviews Krista Skalde, Chief Talent Officer Partner at Inovia Capital, Meryl Almeida, Director of Corporate Development at Inovia Capital, and Kory Jeffrey, Principal & VP, Technology at Inovia Capital. In this episode, Krista, Meryl, and Kory share how they evaluate acquisitions, how to create value from a corp dev perspective, and how to merge corporate cultures. Learn about how Inov...

Shiv interviews Aldy Keene, CEO at Loyalty Research Center. In this episode, Aldy shares how to evaluate the quality of relationships to understand how loyal a company’s customer base really is, and how both founders and investors can use that data to create value. Learn why companies should spend more time analyzing their customer base, how to find which segments are truly their best-fit customer...

Shiv interviews Randy Garg, Founder and Managing Partner at Vistara Growth.  In this episode, Randy explains the situations in which debt is a viable avenue for funding companies, how growth debt differs from growth equity, and how to decide which is right for your company. Learn what the targeted returns are on these types of investments and the role of debt in the current market.  The informatio...

Shiv interviews Tim Strickland, Advisory Partner at Summit Partners.  In this episode, Tim draws on his experience as CRO of Zoom Info and in leadership roles at large martech companies to discuss what it takes to build and grow multi-hundred and billion-dollar go-to-market organizations. Learn what metrics are important to track to keep everyone aligned with the company’s growth objectives and ho...

Shiv interviews Brian Neider, Partner at Lead Edge Capital. In this episode, Shiv and Brian discuss best practices for building boards and what board members can do to add value to  portfolio companies. Learn how to guide a business as a board member once you’ve invested in a company, what the changes to the financial markets mean for PE firms, and how they can source better deals. The information...

Shiv interviews Jeff Standridge, Managing Director at Innovation Junkie. In this episode, Jeff shares his framework for a strategic growth plan and how his firm conducts an introductory diagnostic based on seven domains. Jeff discusses some of the best practices within those domains and the questions you can use to determine how senior leadership views each area. Plus, learn how that process infor...

Shiv interviews Paul Swaney, Managing Director of Swaney Group Capital. In this episode, Shiv and Paul discuss how to create value when investing in industrial and manufacturing industries, and how that differs from B2B tech and software investments. Learn how Paul and his team increase capacity by looking at production lines, the impact of workplace safety, and how to increase product demand.  If...

Shiv interviews Peter Walker, Head of Insights for Carta. In this episode, Peter and Shiv discuss how PE-backed companies can use equity to attract, compete for, and retain employees, as well as to grow companies and increase continuity. Plus, learn how Carta’s first-party data helps PE firms, management companies, and founders learn from industry trends and best practices, including the recent Ow...

Shiv interviews David Bluth, Managing Director of GLC Advisors.  Shiv and David discuss how the tech M&A market has changed since 2021, with deal volume dropping by 45% in 2023. Learn the top reasons David sees deals fall apart in the last few years, how founders should prepare themselves as the market starts to become more active, and why PE firms are focusing on optimizing their portfolios r...

Shiv interviews Omair Sarwar, Founder & CEO of Gearbox Capital. In this episode, Omair and Shiv discuss how to vet founder-led companies to ensure they share the same values, how to build deep relationships with those founders, and the benefits of  focusing on bootstrapped companies. Plus, learn how Gearbox uses offshoring to enhance their investments and how it’s a win-win-win for all sides....

Shiv speaks with Kate Hawkes, VP of Marketing at How To SaaS.  Shiv and Kate talk about the challenges businesses face when they don’t have C-level marketers on their team, and how CEOs and investors can support marketers to advance to this level. Learn what being a C-level marketer entails, how this approach impacts growth strategy, how to improve communication with between marketers and the boar...

Shiv interviews Alex Western, Managing Director of Terminus Capital Partners.  Shiv and Alex talk about how TCP’s Vision Prism offers a more focused strategy, targeted positioning, builds better products, and provides a lot of enterprise value. Learn how focusing on the right mission can help investors, founders, and CEOs use this framework to build out their companies while giving everyone in the...

Shiv interviews Mohammad Rasouli, CEO of AIx2, and Philipp Reineke, COO of AIx2.  Learn how AI can be leveraged in the investment industry, from sourcing and vetting deals, to getting VDDs and CIMs ready, as well as optimizing and exiting investments. They discuss the social welfare impact of AI as more and more funds start to use the technology, how AI can be used to improve and speed up certain...

Shiv interviews Kevin Iudicello, Partner at Realization Capital Partners, on the data-driven strategies that enable the firm to create value in a crowded market. You’ll learn about the possibilities for investors in the secondary market, how the high valuations of 2020 continue to impact options for liquidity, and how companies with slower growth can present an underleveraged opportunity. Plus, he...

Shiv interviews Sunaina Sinha, Global Head, Private Capital Advisory at Raymond James. Shiv and Sunaina discuss how PE sponsors can look at overall capital formation for their funds and portcos in order to generate the highest ROI. Learn about what alternative liquidity options are available to LPs and GPs and when it makes sense to consider a continuation vehicle, as well as what to do when inves...

Shiv interviews Richard Lichtenstein, Expert Partner and Chief Private Equity Data Officer at Bain & Company. Shiv and Richard discuss how PE firms and their portfolio companies can leverage generative AI to improve investment processes and create more enterprise value. Learn how other companies are using this technology to increase efficiency, deliver better customer experiences and drive mor...

Shiv interviews Dave Mangot, CEO of Mangoteque. Dave discusses how he helps PE firms navigate DevOps and technological processes in their portcos, and the approaches that help companies deliver better products and be more competitive in the marketplace. In this episode, you’ll learn how your product release schedule is critical to value creation and generating more at-bats, the stages of technical...