Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast

Setting the appropriate working capital target is a significant part of any deal, and it's often something sellers just don't understand. Tony Montanaro, partner in the forensic, litigation & valuation department at Louis Plung & Company, talks about the intricacies of working capital in an M&A deal.

John Estafanous is leading RallyBright, the second company he's founded. He's recently raised investor capital — his first experience with the process — as he looks to accelerate growth for the company, which offers a software platform designed to improve team performance. John stops by the pod to talk about how founding the first company has informed building the second, what he learned selling t...

Liana Douillet Guzmán joined, FOLX Health as CEO in February 2022 and was tasked with growing the business to all 50 states. FOLX Health, operator of a digital health company intended to serve the LGBTQ+ community, has raised nearly $60 million since its founding through seed, Series A and Series B rounds, putting the company's pre-money valuation at $95 million. Guzmán discussing the growth of FO...

Eric Satz is the co-founder, president and CEO of Alto, developer of an alternative asset investment platform intended to connect everyday investors to alternative investment opportunities. Satz and his team raised $39.94 million of Series B venture funding in 2022, putting the company's pre-money valuation at $250 million. He talks about the capital-raising process and what the future holds for A...

Provide, an integrated suite of financial products for healthcare practitioners, was acquired by Fifth Third in 2021. Launched in 2013, the company made its way through pivots and financing rounds to ultimately become an independent business line of the bank in a deal that could accelerate the growth of an already growing company. Provide Chief Business Officer Andrew Bennett stops by to talk abou...

Dave Tolmie is a senior partner at The Edgewater Funds, a private equity firm he co-founded in 2001 and has helped grow to more than $3 billion in committed capital. The former CEO of Yesmail, Inc., a company he led through a successful IPO and subsequent sale for $720 million, and previous Senior Vice President of Operations for Bally Total Fitness, a company he joined after building and selling...

Dick Simon, a serial entrepreneur and leader in advancing psychedelic-assisted therapies, is the co-founder and CEO of Sensorium Therapeutics. The company identifies new, promising drug leads for therapeutics inspired by psychoactive plants and fungi to address mental health issues such as anxiety. Dick talks about the business, how it's grown, and its recent fundraising, which brought a $30 milli...

After JD Harris joined Ascent Solutions in 2014, he bought out the previous owners and turned the company from a hosting company — which was 95 percent of its business — into one that provides cybersecurity advisory, consulting, education and managed services. In 2021, he sold a minority investment in the company to RunTide Capital to accelerate the already exponential growth the company experienc...

Hirewell, a recruiting company founded by Matt Massucci in 2001, recently raised $21 million from Pry-tek Holdings, a copany with global reach. Already, Matt has teamed with Pry-Tek on an investment in the London-based executive search firm TritonExec, a company that's expected to compliment the capabilities that Hirewell brings to the organization. Matt talks about the deal, the diligence and wha...

Tranice Watts co-founded Lifting Lucy when she was in her early twenties, working in an industry not known for much diversity. The idea came to Watts — the first Black woman to co-own and operate a craft brewery in the state of Maryland — when she was on a subcommittee of the Craft Brewers Conference. Lifting Lucy has since grown into a national organization that supports under-represented communi...

Silas Deane founded VendEngine, a financial tech software solution for inmates and their families, when he realized there were serious issues with correctional facilities in regard to money transfers. He discusses the founding of the company, how COVID-19 played a critical role in the firm's path, and how he ended up selling the business to Tyler Technologies.

Selling a closely held business is a unique and taxing challenge. When an owner's eyes are focused too intensely on how much they'll get and how to keep it away from the IRS, there's a lot they can miss. Jon Eesley, who has been a part of many M&A transactions both as an accountant and as a financial adviser, talks about the personal toll a process can take, how to emotionally prepare for an event...

Guy Friedman is Co-Founder, President and CEO of SteadyMD, a B2B telehealth infrastructure provider that enables telehealth patient experiences in all 50 states. He spoke on the Dealmakers Podcast about how he built SteadyMD as a direct-to-consumer offering, but quickly realized it's value to other businesses.

Years back, Sanjay Singh lead a company through a challenging integration after acquiring an industry competitor. Those first 100 days were critical to the deal's success. Sanjay, now Chairman and CEO of Mace Security International, talks about the deal, and how he walked the companies through the post-deal work, in what could be called a tense environment, to move the needle, and how his integrat...

IRA record keeping and technology solutions provider IRALOGIX raised an $11 million expansion of its Series B in 2021 and $22 million Series C funding in 2022. In this episode, Founding Partner Joe Hipsky talks about those raises and some things he might do differently looking back.

Halo Investing's vision and execution has propelled it to one of the top FinTechs in the U.S. That success also allowed it to easily raise capital to further its long-term goal of making structured notes accessible for just one dollar. Jason Barsema, co-founder and president, joined the Dealmakers Podcast to talk about how they built the company to where it is today and what we can expect in the f...

Andrew Ashur's Lucid Drone Technologies is a robotics company that's outfitting flying drones to soft-wash buildings. After bootstrapping to get to proof of concept, the design caught the eye of Y Combinator, leading not only to a significant capital raise but also an informative stint with the influential accelerator. Andrew talks about how his company and his fundraising tactics have evolved, an...

Citizens Financial Group has released its 2023 M&A Outlook, its annual survey of 400 leaders at U.S. middle-market companies and private equity firms. David Dunstan, managing director in the Citizen's M&A Group, talks about the results — that despite some caution because of macroeconomic uncertainty, pre-pandemic norms are the expectation in the 2023 M&A environment — and what that could mean for...

Dr. Patrick Hines is CEO and Founder of Functional Fluidics, a company that has developed a testing platform that can assess the health of red blood cells. The company recently raised a $3.1 million bridge round and, at the time of this interview, was in the process of working to secure a Series A that would help it expand its reach into the market. Dr. Hines shares the story of his mission to dev...

Thomas Goodmanson has been with Calabrio essentially from the start. From its spinout the maker of customer support software has been acquired twice and grown exponentially in both headcount and revenue. And with its recent acquisition by Thoma Bravo, it's looking to step even harder on the accelerator. Thomas talks about the experience of bringing on a financial partner and the differences and si...

West Monroe Senior Partner Keith Campbell stops by to talk about The Future of Diligence in Private Equity, which just happens to be the title of a report he recently co-authored. Highlighting survey findings from 100 U.S. PE companies, it explores the shifts in diligence approach that move away from identifying risk to identifying opportunity, greater data needs and the application of data analyt...

Venable Partner Chuck Morton has been recognized for decades as one of best middle-market deal lawyers in the United States. During his time as an M&A attorney, he's seen business leaders make some excellent choices and some not-so-brilliant decisions. He sat down with the Dealmakers Podcast to elaborate on both and provided specific examples.

After 20 years of working in PE at different firms, Jared Paquette has stepped out on his own, launching Conanicut Capital. Targeting the lower-middle-market, his aim is to deploy patient capital at founder-led businesses to help them grow. He talks about launching the firm, the first deal and how the process of getting capital backing for the firm affected how he looks not just at deals, but his...

Cloud Range is a cybersecurity company led by security executives and engineers who encourage military-grade simulation training for enterprise security teams. The company recently raised its first round of outside capital from three different investors. Founder and CEO Debbie Gordon talks about what that process was like for her, what she's learned that she'll apply to future rounds, and how the...

STAQ Pharma recently raised about $45 Million of Series C venture funding to build a $70 million facility on the west side of Columbus, which will add 300 jobs to the area. Its 503B Outsourcing Facility will produce compounded medications under the Current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP) quality system, a Federal Drug Administration standard. CEO Joe Bagan sat down with the Dealmakers Podcast to...