Jim welcomes the CEO of Master Storytelling and former host of Planet Money, the always-entertaining Adam Davidson. We explore the importance of crafting a compelling and memorable narrative for companies to effectively communicate with various stakeholders, including investors, management teams, and customers. We take a detour to delve into the challenges of generic messaging, the significance of being distinct and memorable, and the role of storytelling in aligning and coordinating actions within a company. 

Jim talks Low-Code/No-Code with Jon Kragh, founder of Proactive Logic Consulting.  Jon and his team provide fractional CTO, cloud architecture, tech modernization, and process automation services.  Jon has a wealth of experience with low-code solutions and he can quote both Kierkegaard and Ray Dalio, so come have a listen.

Jim talks with IBM Champion and the Incredible i Show host, Peg Tuttle.  IBM's Power Systems platform running the IBM i operating system powers some of the most significant applications in the world.  Peg has 20+ years working in the IBM I world, and we talk about everything from common misconceptions to leveraging the latest and greatest open-source solutions on the IBM Power Systems platform.

Jim talks with Stanford's Dr. Mohammad Rasouli about AI's pending disruption in Private Equity.  He is an ex-McKinsey consultant from the Bay Area and the New York offices managing AI activation projects for private equity clients. He has worked with top-20 private equity funds and many middle and small-size PEs to use AI technology for automating their fund processes and to use AI for their portfolio companies.

Bill Snow, a noted authority on mergers and acquisitions, is back with the second part of our discussion on his new book, Mergers and Acquisitions for Dummies.  He joins host Jim Milbery to discuss the most common problems that sellers encounter in the deal process.

 Devin is joined by Tuck Hardie, a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group. After operating through the bankruptcy at Marvel as a client of Houlihan, Tuck switched sides and joined the HL team over 20 years ago. Tuck introduces the restructuring business, how it has changed during the past two decades, lessons from the GCF (and how we are still feeling the effects), and what's happening in today's "higher for longer" environment. He provides helpful tips for investors and companies trying to avoid needing his services.

Bill Snow, a noted authority on mergers and acquisitions has represented buyers and sellers in a multitude of industries. He joins host Jim Milbery to discuss his new book, Mergers and Acquisitions for Dummies.   In this episode, we focus the conversation on the most common pitfalls that can derail a deal.

Two Hundred and Seventy Three Episodes and Two Million downloads later, it's the 10th anniversary of the PE Funcast.  Indulge your intrepid co-hosts, Devin and Jim, as we walk down memory lane.

This week we sat down with Clark O'Niell and Jay Barlett from BCG to discuss their most recent research report on Generative AI and its implications for PE investors and their portfolio companies.  GenAI is already becoming a game changer, with use cases emerging across all industries; Use cases range from efficiency improvements to long-term advantages (i.e., transformative use cases). And we promise you that Skynet is not listening in.

In this episode of the PE Funcast, we take a deep dive into the relationship between the portfolio company CEO and the private equity Partner. What do they talk about when they talk? How does their connection evolve from the interview, to building the team, to planning for an exit? What does the first year of a PE-backed CEO gig feel like? Devin and our newest portfolio CEO, Dave Lucey, cover it all here in a frank and wide-ranging conversation about Dave's first year at the helm of Biscom. We plan to do follow-ups in the years ahead as Dave and Devin take Biscom from new platform company to eventual exit.

We’ve been hearing more questions and interest in operating partner roles than ever before. In our latest episode of the Private Equity Funcast, Operating Partners Jim and Cici cover some of the most frequently asked questions we frequently hear about the role of Operating Partners. We cover things like why an operating team is needed, the history and evolution of Operating Partners at PE firms, and different Operating Partner models. We also discuss the relationship between Operating Partners and deal teams, how operating teams are structured within a PE firm, and some common paths to becoming an Operating Partner.   This episode is also available in video format on YouTube.

Ted Bililies, Managing Director and Head of Global Transformation Leadership Practice at AlixPartners joins Devin again to review the findings of the 8th Annual PE Leadership Survey. Devin and Ted discuss where PE and Portfolio Executives agree and differ on what's most important in today's turbulent times. They talk about sprinters vs. marathoners, growers vs. grinders, and peace-time vs. war-time leaders. They also cover how technology adds to the challenges of scaling companies and the crisis of middle management and how to address it.

In this episode of the PE Funcast, Devin and our Head of Research, David, discuss our research on software valuations, “What’s a Software Company Worth.” They cover how software valuations have trended over the past 20 years, the challenges that private and public investors will face over the coming year, and inject some of “what we’re seeing” inside our portfolio and the markets we play in.

The grand finale of our two-part conversation with Kelley Powell, a long-time ParkerGale collaborator, and ex-portfolio executive.  Kelley talks about the ins and outs of working with PE from the portfolio company perspective.  She's a wealth of knowledge about working with PE AND helping founders prepare for a PE process.

Part One of a two-part conversation with Kelley Powell, a long-time ParkerGale collaborator and ex-portfolio executive.  Kelley talks about the ins and outs of working with PE from the portfolio company perspective.  She's a wealth of knowledge about working with PE AND helping founders prepare for a PE process.

Jim spends an hour talking about technical due diligence with Dan Bender, and Lukas Ingelheim from Code & Co.  Dan and Lukas have over 250 engagements under their collective belts and have literally "seen it all."  We cover a wide range of topics, including Technical Debt versus Architectural Debt, code "smells," and the top ten things a company should have in place ahead of technical due diligence.

Jim talks with an old friend and comrade, Alan Williamson, about his new book - Think Like a CTO.  Alan shares hard-won lessons on how to thrive in the fast-paced role of Chief Technology Officer. We discuss the ins and outs of establishing successful technology platforms and teams, leveraging practical software selection and implementation frameworks, conducting bias-free interviews and performance reviews, and earning your place with other senior leaders. 

Jim talks Mergers and Acquisitions Roll-up strategies with Matt Lynch, Managing Director at District Capital Partners.  We discuss the various types of add-on acquisitions and answer the key questions.  What is an M&A roll-up strategy, and why does it matter? How does it work?  How do you get started?

Jimmy is joined by Katrina Calihan, Executive Coach and Co-Founder of Wind + Sail Leadership Partners, to discuss and demystify executive coaching. Jimmy and Katrina have been working together since 2019 when they launched L6, the leadership development program that has now become a staple inside ParkerGale and our portfolio businesses. On today’s show, they discuss the landscape of executive coaching and why the impact of an executive coach can be so profound by “bringing you into the room” to a coaching engagement. They also give tips for finding the right coach if you are currently on the market. Katrina even gets Jimmy to talk a little about his own experience with his coach.  This episode is especially for the skeptics. For you all, executive coaching may very well be one of the biggest investments in yourself or in the leaders around you that you aren’t making. Listen to find out why. 

In this episode of the Private Equity Funcast, Operating Partner Cici Zheng is joined by Jared Ranere, President and COO of thrv, a firm that delivers services, training and a software platform using the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework to identify and serve customers' unmet needs. We cover what the framework is and how it's used at PE backed portfolio companies, both during due diligence and post-close, how the JTBD framework potentially expands the total addressable market (TAM) of an industry we're looking at, and how the framework translates into product strategy and go-to-market execution. 

Jim talks with Paul Stansik about his experiences digging in on the sales and marketing function within our portfolio.

In the latest episode of the Private Equity Funcast, Operating Partners Cici Zheng and Paul Stansik discuss the ICP - Ideal Customer Profile. As investors, we're frequently asking our portfolio companies - who is your ICP? Which ones are your best-fit customers, the ones that your product is truly the best fit for to solve their pain points? How do we avoid trying to be the dreaded "swiss-army knife" and being everything to everybody? In this episode we discuss why defining an ICP is important to us and our 3 step process for building out an ICP. 

Jimmy is joined by David Cohen, Human Capital Partner at Kelso and Company. David has been working in the Human Capital / Private Equity space for over a decade and has helped shape the discipline across the PE industry. They break down the various ways that human capital can impact a portfolio business, including alignment to strategy, leadership effectiveness, talent acquisition, and org design. If there’s a word that defines today’s episode, it’s alignment. It is at the center of how both Kelso and ParkerGale think about the human capital practice. To be successful, leadership need to get dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people organized around a common purpose and strategy. If you can’t do that, not much else matters.

In this episode, Jimmy is joined by Laura Queen, founder, and CEO of 29Bison, a Human Capital Consultancy focused on the PE space. Laura is also the author of the book “People Economics: Defining and Measuring the True Value of Human Capital” and is a genius at understanding how strategic human capital management contributes to the value creation process. They break down Human Capital Due Diligence – what it is, how it’s done, and why it’s the fastest-growing of all the diligence workstreams.

Jim talks all things DevOps with Dave Mangot from Mangoteque.  Dave's philosophy is "Get Good at Delivering Software", and he has helped many well-known companies become "best in class"  We discuss the four keys that define a company's competence in software delivery; deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to recovery.  There's also a heated discussion about whether "the cloud" is cheaper than running your own data center.

No prospect is going to buy enterprise software on impulse.  Prospects don't need advertising, they need help, help understanding that they have a problem, help in understanding their options for solving that problem, and help in working their way through an evaluation and choosing a solution.  Paul Stansik talks with Marcus Sheridan, author of "They Ask, You Answer" about these topics and more.

Your company acquired another company - congrats! But what happens next? In this episode, Operating Partners Cici and Jimmy break down the Integration Management Office, or IMO. They discuss what it is and how they deploy it inside the portfolio to integrate recently acquired businesses into their acquiring entity. They discuss how they stand up the process, the key processes that need to be in place to make sure everything gets done, and how to make sure you don’t forget about the humans involved in the process. 

Jimmy is joined on the show by Ted Bililies, Managing Director at AlixPartners, for what is now becoming a yearly ritual to discuss the results of the 7th Annual PE Leadership Survey. This year, the theme is all about the COVID-driven acceleration of trends that is propelling human capital to the forefront of the value creation agenda. They discuss the great resignation, how CEOs are now more fearful for their jobs than ever, and the rising important of talent recruiting, engagement, development, and retention. They close with tips to help leaders and investors better manage in a world that is only become more and more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. 

On this episode of the Funcast, Operating Partner Paul Stansik is joined by CEO Elias Rubel, whose team at Matter Made works with B2B marketing teams big and small to help accelerate their revenue growth. If you've ever wondered how to organize a marketing team, the right way to interview a marketing leader, the foundation you need in place to launch an effective demand generation campaign, or what leaders of companies like Loom, G2, Dropbox, and other unicorns are doing to tune their inbound lead machines, this one is for you. 

It's the grand finale of our annual March Madness episodes -- the final four.  Cass versus Jimmy and Paul versus Cici for all the proverbial marbles for our favorite podcast!

It's our annual March Madness show.  This year our intrepid Operations Team picks their 16 favorite podcasts.   Have a listen as Cici, Paul, Cass, and Jimmy along with Commissioner for Life -- Jim work their way down to a final four.  And play along at home with our survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FMP6J8V   The final four battle it out for supremacy on next Monday's episode.

Sometimes the recipe for a good discussion is to simply pick an important topic, invite two smart people who disagree with each other, and then sit back and listen. Today Paul Stansik, Operating Partner at ParkerGale, is joined by Cory Bray (MD at ClozeLoop) and Nelson Gilliat (Author of Death of the SDR: And the Birth of Buyer Centric Revenue) to talk about how to get prospecting and growth right. In the course of a rousing hourlong debate, Paul, Cory, and Nelson cover the spectrum of opinions on “how to prospect well”, the evolving role of the BDR/SDR, and where sales and marketing teams should focus to maximize their chances for success.

Jim and Attorney Peter Halprin from Pasich, LLP discuss the ins and outs of Cybersecurity Insurance and Litigation. We cover a wide range of topics with a focus on what private equity leaders need to know about these issues, including: why private equity leaders should treat attacks as inevitabilities, how cyber insurance can provide breach response support and financial protection against cyber risks, and how companies may be able to find coverage under other policies for cyberattacks, including crime, kidnap and ransom, property, and technology errors and omissions.

In this episode, Cici Zheng talks with April Dunford, a positioning consultant, speaker, and author on how she helps growth stage companies with positioning. They discuss the difference between product messaging and product positioning, how to "fix" positioning problems, and why founders, PE firms, and portfolio companies should even care about positioning in the first place.

In this week's episode, we are talking with Pam Lang, CEO of Xcelerated Data, a company that focuses on fixing data quality problems leading to better decisions in your marketing organization.   Pam explains compiled lists, hotlists, the differences between consumer lists and business lists, and SIC codes versus NAICS codes.  

Jim, Cici and Jimmy discuss community building within our portfolio. We cover everything from organizing small teams across our companies to ParkerGale's approach to "summits".

It's our annual predictions show for 2022 with your original hosts, Devin and Jim. With the glut of other pontificators doing their usual prognostications, we've decided to shake things up a bit and focus on resolutions, or rather our anti-resolutions.

Devin walks us through three (yes 3!) new additions to the ParkerGale team. We're calling it the Platform Team and it includes a Head of Community, a Head of Origination, and a Head of Research. Listen to hear a brief description of each role and if you are interested (or know someone who is) email your resume to devin [at] parkergale [dot] com and ryan [at] parkergale [com] with "Community" "Origination" or "Research" in the email title. We will send you a detailed job description so you can learn more.

It's our annual holiday episode, with your original hosts -- Devin and Jim. While the debate over "Die Hard as a Christmas movie" is settled (it is), there are still plenty of things to discuss this holiday season, so come have a listen.  

Jimmy is joined by Tim Schumm, CEO of Lucas James Talent Partners to discuss The Great Resignation. Just about everyone has been impacted by this personally or professionally in some capacity, but mid market businesses can feel this even more acutely. They discuss the macro trends that are driving this phenomenon and then share what the most create mid-market companies are doing to win the war for talent.

We’re hiring! ParkerGale VPs Ben and Nori join Jimmy to discuss the Investment Associate role at ParkerGale. They discuss Associate responsibilities, core values, and what makes the job unique (including, but not limited to, great office snacks). Please share with interested friends or colleagues.

Jimmy is joined by Eric Green, co-founder of WPD Management, a Chicago-based real-estate and property management company, to discuss the recent transformation that Eric guided WPD Management through. They discuss Eric's founder's story and how he built the business, the realization that he needed to extract himself from the day-to-day operations, and how over a 18-month period, he deployed the ParkerGale People Ops playbook, empowered his team, and transformed his business. Jim joins in on the fun to frame the dialogue with Jimmy.

Jimmy is joined by Amanda Lannert, much lauded CEO of Chicago-based Jellyvision, to discuss how Jellyvision is transforming their culture as we emerge from the grips of the pandemic. They discuss how COVID impacted Jellyvision's business, how she has embraced the mantra "purpose, and not presence," how they are re-thinking company communication, and what her team is now doing to invest in meaningful relationships.

ParkerGale Operating Principal Paul Stansik is joined by Zorian Rotenberg, former head of Sales, CRO, and now a PE growth advisor. Zorian and Paul share their approach to diagnosing and addressing typical growth problems, how sales teams can use simple math to set better pipeline targets, and what sets great CROs apart.

Jimmy Holloran and Paul Stansik share the lessons they’ve learned inside the portfolio from the last 2+ years working on teams, talent, and culture. They cover how to get the most out of your next team offsite, what great management training has in common, how to make hiring and performance management more human, and how ParkerGale thinks about fostering cultures that last.

Ryan Milligan discusses the state of the Canadian M&A market with Pierre Chamberland, founder of NetGovern. Pierre describes his roughly 20-year journey from entrepreneur to selling to private equity, followed by a discussion on the state of investing and M&A in Canada and differences with the US market.

Inspired by their friend Dave Kellogg, Devin & Jim discuss the questions Limited Partners (and prospective Limited Partners) ask that you should always know off the top of your head. These are the questions that responding with "let me get back to you on that" will make you look bad, unprepared, or just plain out of touch.

Devin and Cici sit down to discuss how we do commercial due diligence at ParkerGale. You know, all the market sizing, customer calls, surveys, competitive analysis you do after LOI but before you close the deal. We have two eras here at PG -- the way we did commercial diligence before Cici joined us and the way we do it now. Lots of good stuff to learn before you dive into your next transaction. Learn from the best and take notes. We promise it's going to help.

ParkerGale's newly promoted Senior Associate Dean Olson sits down with Devin to talk about his path from Indiana University to working in the private equity industry. Like the interviews we've done in the past with other PG-ers, you'll learn about the career choices made early in your 20s and how Dean thought about his different choices in consulting at Bain & Company to his work at ParkerGale. He reflects on what he's learning and where he's headed next. If you are early in your career or know someone looking to get into PE after college, Dean has a lot of great advice.

Devin sits down with BluWave founder Sean Mooney to discuss how his firm helps PE funds run diligence better and post-closing operations faster. BluWave provides services to 500 PE funds and countless service providers so you can find the right resource at the right time with the right skills for the job at hand -- commercial diligence, sales effectiveness, interim executives, and plenty more. Sean has a unique perspective on PE having worked in the industry prior to founding BluWave in 2016.

Devin is back with Ben Falloon and Cass Ziebel to talk about software buyout lingo. The trio revisits past popular episodes with all new "lingo" updates. Sit back and enjoy, and there just might even be a lesson or two to learn in between all the laughing (or is that crying?).

Jim and Devin are back together on this latest episode, talking about Exits for portfolio companies.  How do we time our exits? Do we get unsolicited offers or do we take them to market? When does management get involved? These are just a few of the questions that we answer on this latest episode.   

Another conversation with Jason Heltzer, Managing Partner at Origin Ventures and a Chicago Booth professor in the second of a three-part series on Board Meetings. In part two we talk about ideal board members -- and the not-so-ideal board members.

Partner Kristine Heinze talks with Kelly Cornelis, Partner and COO of LaSalle Capital, a long time friend of ParkerGale. Kelly talks about her journey clawing her way into Private Equity, and her experiences as a founding member of Chicago Women in Private Equity.

Devin sits down with Christoph Jost and Peter Waleczek, the founders of Berlin-based software buyout fund Flex Capital. Christoph and Peter started as tech entrepreneurs prior to founding Flex and they discuss their process of raising their first fund, what they look for in a deal, how they source companies, and what they do with them after the acquisition. They also talk about the similarities and differences between the US and German tech buyout market.

The ultimate question: “On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being very likely, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” Operating Principal Cici Zheng talks with Jessica Pfeifer, General Manager and Co-Founder of Wootric, an InMoment Company about Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and why it’s the ultimate question to help measure customer loyalty. In this episode, we cover what NPS is, the benchmarks for a good NPS score, and most importantly, why we think it’s important from both the portfolio company and private equity firm perspective. We discuss how ParkerGale uses NPS throughout the lifecycle of an investment, from due diligence, during our hold period, and prior to the sale of a company. We also share some of the key takeaways that our portfolio companies have learned when it comes to implementing a program, whether it’s learning how to close the loop on the customer feedback or how it can help prioritize decision making across all functional areas.  

Devin sits down with Jordan Brugg, the Head of Private Equity at SpencerStuart to discuss his research on whether repeat or first-time CEOs outperform over the long-term. You might be surprised with the findings. Devin and Jordan dive deep into the study, talk about CEO assessment, and offer some tips for people looking for their first CEO job running a PE-backed company.  

Jimmy is joined by Dave Kellogg, Board Member of a couple ParkerGale companies and writer of the Kellblog. The two discuss a classic post from Dave's Kellblog - A Missive To Human Resources, where Dave argues that HR exists to "Help Managers Manage." The two dissect the pithy purpose, discuss common pitfalls People Ops leaders fall into, and share examples when People Ops leaders really shine.

Our newest portfolio company CEO, Todd Dauchy, sits down with Principal Kevin Fitzgerald to talk about his journey from being CTO to the CEO seat.

Partner Kristina Heinze talks with Lisa Hudson -- Director of Global Events for WomenHack.  Its mission is to promote gender equality in tech and help people get hired at companies committed to diversity in the workplace across 125+ cities around the world.  Kristina and Lisa talk about WomenHack's approach and Lisa's wide range of experience working all over the world. So come have a listen and use the promo code "PARKERGALE" to get a 15% discount on upcoming WomenHack Events.

Jim spends an hour with Jason Heltzer, Managing Partner at Origin Ventures and a Chicago Booth professor in the first of a three-part series on Board Meetings. This series germinated from Jason's tweetstorm on the elements of a healthy board. In part one, we talk about the board deck itself, in parts two and three we'll discuss board members and the actual board meeting.

Jimmy is joined by Ted Bililies, Managing Partner at AlixPartners, to share the results of the Sixth Annual Private Equity Leadership Survey, which focuses on leading investments during times of disruption. They discuss the top priorities for generating value, the increased focus on human capital due diligence, and the evolving role of leadership when managing through disruption.

Operating Principals Cici Zheng and Paul Stansik are joined by the founders of ClozeLoop and authors of some of our favorite books on sales training and management - Cory Bray and Hilmon Sorey. Hilmon and Cory share their views on where most sales training falls short, the importance of uncovering customer pain, and how we work together to assess, train, and enable our portfolio company sales teams.

Our listeners have submitted their picks in our March Madness 2021 Best Business Books podcast -- so come have a listen along with the ParkerGale Ops Team!

Paul, Cass, Cici and Jimmy square off with their best business books March Madness bracket with your host, Jim, as the Commissioner.   Come have a listen as the operations team dukes it out for the championship.   And get ready for a follow-on podcast reviewing our listener's picks.

Principals Jimmy and Paul discuss the ParkerGale approach to hiring, why hiring is essential to get right, not just at the C-suite level, but how we work with our portfolio companies to develop the capability to hire well throughout the organization. They also cover what a certain 90's shampoo commercial can teach us about what not to do during an interview.  

Guest host partner Kristina Heinze talks with Ivelisse Simon, Managing Partner of Avante Capital Partners - a women and minority-owned private credit and structured equity fund based in Los Angeles, California. They cover everything from Ivelisse's path from investment banking to starting a successful firm, including an infamous "Wasabi" incident.

Principals Cass and Kara finish their interview with Professor Chris McGowan, from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. As an investor, advisor and teacher, Chris has been in the private equity industry for 26 years, when he began his own career in private equity as an associate at AEA Investors in New York City.  In this episode, Cass and Kara explain their own personal impact that Chris has had on their careers, and Chris gives advice for MBA students and non-students alike who are trying to navigate breaking into private equity.

Principals Cass and Kara interview Professor Chris McGowan, from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. As an investor, advisor and teacher, Chris has been in the private equity industry for 26 years, when he began his own career in private equity as an associate at AEA Investors in New York City.  In this episode, Cass and Kara explain their own personal impact that Chris has had on their careers, and Chris gives advice for MBA students and non-students alike who are trying to navigate breaking into private equity.

Can you predict the future by throwing asparagus against the wall?  Have a listen to Devin and Jim on the Funcast's mostly-annual predictions show.

Private equity deal teams need to work together seamlessly to close a buyout successfully. However, each member of the deal team does have different responsibilities and perspectives - all of which are important. ParkerGale Associate, Nori Welles-Gertz, makes her PE Funcast debut, discussing with Principal Kevin Fitzgerald and Partner Ryan Milligan the myriad of details, thoughts, and worries she has throughout a live deal. Kevin and Ryan contribute their perspectives and provide a true top-to-bottom view of what each role focuses on and cares about.

Private equity firms get tons of inbound emails from executives looking for their next opportunity.  Paul and Jim discuss the best ways to get private equity teams to pay attention to these emails -- and how to avoid getting on the blocked list.

Devin and Jim reunite for our sometimes annual Halloween episode.  Today's discussion revolves around what is currently scaring us the most in private equity.  

Guest host, Cici, interviews Cass Ziebel on her return to ParkerGale after two years at Chicago Booth. Cass talks about her background prior to working with ParkerGale as an Associate, what she learned before business school, how she felt about going, and what she ultimately got out of it. Cici and Cass also discuss her transition from the deal team role as an Associate into an operating role as a Principal, and why she decided to make the switch over to the light side.

It’s no secret that there are not very many women in private equity. According to a recent Preqin study, women account for just 19.4% of total private equity employees. In this episode, Cici and Kristina are joined by Ann Kraftson, Managing Director from the recruiting firm The Oxbridge Group. We discuss why there aren’t more women in PE, why we care about it as a private equity firm and why we think it’s a compelling industry for women to explore, especially those at the pre-MBA level. We share some of the myths vs. realities about the scary reputation of PE and shed some light on the general PE recruiting process (including the differences between on-cycle and off-cycle recruiting).

Leadership, culture, and their impact on investments are growing trends across the private equity industry. In this episode, Jimmy and Devin are joined by Ted Bililies, Managing Director at AlixPartners and founder of the consultancy's Transformative Leadership Practice. We discuss the findings from AlixPartners’ 5th Annual Private Equity Leadership Survey which reveal just how critical human capital is to value creation and how culture is an often overlooked source of value by investors. We also discuss why these topics are so important today given the volatility and uncertainty we are all experiencing in 2020.

Leaders shape culture, and in turn, culture shapes an organization. In this episode, Jimmy and Devin are joined by Katrina Calihan and Amanda Cutright, creators and facilitators of the L6 Program – the Leadership Development Program we roll-out at our portfolio companies. We discuss the six-month, transformational program that helps develop evolved, mindful, and skillful leaders at our companies and how those leaders help to create and shape cultures that last.

Kevin and Jim spend an hour with Ben Harrison, Co-Founder and President, Financial Services at DealCloud about the DealCloud platform and how we use it at ParkerGale. Our collective paths have crossed over the years, so as per usual we digress into some private equity history along the way.

No serious athlete steps on the field without a scouting report. No serious professional should lead without one either. In this episode of the Funcast's Leadership Series, Paul and Jim discuss a simple document that can help you clarify working styles and create a high-performing team. This episode references our recently published article, which can be found at parkergale.com/scoutingreport.

Jim talks with Ryan Milligan about the use of debt in private equity deals and the state of the lending market in uncertain economic environments.

Jim talks with Kelley Powell, Alan Williamson and Jim Headley from the MacLaurin Group about tackling large-scale technology projects in a private-equity-backed company.   All four of us worked together on a very complicated project some years ago. We focus our discussions on the Valley of Anguish, the deep hole between the initial enthusiasm and the finished project.

Jim, Jimmy and Dr. Steve Julius get together to discuss the denouement of The Last Dance. Dr. J leads the discussion around managing a superstar to become part of a broader system and why so few stars make the transition to being great coaches -- and the parallels for middle market PE portfolio companies.

Jim, Jimmy and Dr. J discuss everything from "The Last Dance" and the Warren Commission to John McCain as part of a new intro to a classic episode in which Devin and Kevin Fitzgerald talk with Steve Julius, PhD aka "Dr. J" about organizational behavior and team dynamics.   Dr. Julius opines on human behavior, organizational dynamics and business development.

Jim talks with Paul Petefish from Evolve Security about the ins-and-outs of an actual security assessment -- ours.   We cover everything from penetration testing to phishing attacks.

The conclusion of our two-part episode (both recorded before the coronavirus pandemic) with ParkerGale advisor and former Chicago Bulls team psychologist Dr. Steve Julius discussing how elite sports franchises think about organization and team culture and what can be applied into a business context.

In episode 1 of a 2-part episode (both recorded before the coronavirus pandemic), Jim, Jimmy, and Paul are joined by ParkerGale advisor and former Chicago Bulls team psychologist Dr. Steve Julius to discuss how elite sports franchises think about organization and team culture and what can be applied into a business context.

Weeks ago, before we were all focused on the coronavirus pandemic, Jim and Jimmy recorded our (mostly) annual March Madness episode. We hit pause on posting this one for a while, but on what would have been the finals of the men’s college basketball tournament, we thought a little levity would be something listeners could use.  In this episode, the months of the year face off in a battle for supremacy.

We talk with Paul Petefish, Founder and CEO of Evolve Security about some simple and fast suggestions to make remote working more secure.

A fan favorite episode -- The FunCast spends an hour with Kirkland & Ellis partner Ryan Harris (formerly of McDermott Will & Emery LLP) talking about the legal traps founders fall into when setting up their companies and when they sell them. What's the best company structure -- C Corp, S Corp, LLC?  How do you handle employee equity?  Hear about the infamous "Cubs side letter."  What are the common issues Ryan sees when founders go to sell their business and how can you avoid them? Listening to this conversation won't make you stronger, but it sure will make you smarter!  Enjoy.

Jim and Jimmy are joined by Marla Caceres and Nelson Velazquez, improvisors at Chicago’s famous Second City Theatre. They discuss how ParkerGale has leveraged the Second City Works to provide professional development for senior executives in addition to the concepts that underpin the Second City philosophy and why they are so important to fostering growth, teamwork, and innovation. Oh – and don’t miss the end when the crew improvises a song entitled “The Ugly Burning House.”

On this episode, Jay Nathan (Founder of Customer Imperative) joins Paul Stansik to share how companies can be more intentional in building intimacy and delivering value to their customers. We talk about how his consulting firm builds customer success teams, how business leaders get this wrong, and the baby-steps that anyone can take to "make the renewal a no-brainer."

Jimmy sits down with Dean Brown, CEO of Ipro Tech. Dean discusses his upbringing in a military family, his education in Industrial Psychology, the serendipity of a career, his love of products and product strategy, his experience founding, scaling, and ultimately selling his startup, why culture is so important to him in business, and much more.

In part 3 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim and Cici continue the discussion of how product strategy ties into value creation, and how specifically as a PE firm, we monitor our portfolio companies’ product strategy through taking a detailed look at their product roadmaps. We discuss how we conduct Product Strategy Reviews – the objectives, who’s in the room, and what we actually cover. We talk about why we’re focused on outcome-driven product roadmaps, how we work with our portfolio companies to prioritize what actually gets built and why that’s so critical when we’re allocating scarce resources to create value.

In part 2 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim is joined by Cici to discuss the private equity investor's perspective on how and why products get built. Living in a world of limited resources, we discuss the framework that we use to help shape the discussions with our portfolio companies about prioritizing their products and features. We talk about market segments versus markets, the Ansoff matrix and Geoffrey Moore's famous "Bowling Alley" strategy.

In part 1 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim is joined by Cici to discuss the three levers of value creation - risk mitigation, revenue growth, and cost reduction, and how we think about the three in the portfolio. Jimmy joins as well to add the People dimension.

On this episode, Keith Hadley from the Table Group joins Paul Stansik to chat about how we build aligned C-suite teams and healthy portfolio companies. We cover what healthy organizations do differently, why most team offsites are not time well spent, and how to tell if you're on (or leading) a dysfunctional team.

Devin and Jim kick off the new year with our annual predictions episode.  Come have a listen as we opine on what 2020 has in store for Private Equity.

Jimmy Holloran talks with Stacey Kacek, OnePlus Systems CEO. They discuss her early career as an engineer at Motorola, her transition into leadership, and her perspective on being a CEO. Along the way, they cover key influences in her life, lessons learned, and as well as advice for aspiring CEOs.

Jim recently got massively over-billed by Hertz, prompting a discussion about what happens to customers when process automation goes off the rails. Ryan Milligan jumps in with a Zappos story that will warm your heart.

As part of our continuing People Operations series, ParkerGale Principals Jimmy and Paul dive into the 9box, a talent management framework commonly used to assess an organization’s breadth and depth of talent. Jimmy and Paul cover why this matters, how to effectively review an organization’s entire talent base, and why it pays for investors to be involved in the process.

Devin sits down with Cici to discuss some easy but very important things you should be doing to extract deeper customer and market insight into your software products.

Partner Ryan Milligan talks with Mike Trasatti, CEO of DealerBuilt and Bill Lamm of Presidio Technology Partners about how a deal really gets done. Covering everything from the banker signing up to represent DealerBuilt to ParkerGale courting and successfully completing the deal with management.

Come have a listen as Stephen Tallamy CTO of EditShare talks about strategies for making technology transitions for complicated software platforms.

Hiring technical people is hard when you don’t know all the buzzwords and acronyms. Devin and Jim help you with good process and some helpful questions to ask when you are hiring Engineering and Software Development leaders.

Continuing our on-going series of interviews with ParkerGale portfolio company CEOs, Jimmy interviews Tom Obermaier, CEO of Rippe and Kingston. We talk baseball, growing up in New York, leadership lessons from President Washington, rising to Chief Risk Officer at Citi Bank at the time of the financial crisis, and his evolution as a CEO at RDC and Rippe.

Jim talks with fellow Babson College Alum, current portfolio company CTO, Tom Shore about application software from the early 80s through today.  We talk Digital Equipment PDP/11s all the way through the current no-code fascination.

We talk to PG Principal Kara Master about her journey from the model UN and a career in journalism to joining the deal team at ParkerGale.

Buckle your seatbelts for a fast-paced conversation with Dave Kellogg. Dave and I first met back in the early 80s at Ingres, when I was a pre-sales engineer and Dave was a technical support rep. We’ve each spent over 25 years in enterprise software, in mixed roles that involve both technology and sales & marketing. We reconnected recently and met up up in Chicago at ParkerGale’s “intergalactic headquarters” for a pretty broad-ranging conversation about a recent blog post that Dave wrote (Things to Avoid in Selecting an Executive Job at a Startup) along with a lot of interaction about differences between PE-land and VC-land. Come have a listen -- where else are you going to hear the phrase "Axe Battle of Differentiation"?

In the kickoff to the new People Operations Series, ParkerGale Principals Jimmy and Paul provide an overview of ParkerGale’s People Ops team. Having worked together at Bain, they bring some history together to the firm and their work leading all things people, talent, and culture across the portfolio. They dive into how ParkerGale thinks about building a cohesive leadership team, hiring great talent, and creating learning and development opportunities across the portfolio. They also set up what to expect over the coming months in the on-going People Ops Series.

Jim and Jimmy talk to ParkerGale Operating Principal, Paul Stansik -- DECA medal winner and ex-professional Lacrosse player.

Guest hosts Jimmy Holloran and Ryan Milligan invite Andy Hulett onto the funcast to discuss the benefits of outsourced HR for small, growing businesses. Turns out there’s a lot more to it than managing benefits and payroll. 

Guest host Jimmy Holloran talks with EditShare CEO Conrad Clemson.   Find out how a physics major from William & Mary ended up working as a private equity CEO.

More madness with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson and special guest Tom Shore.  We talk about the just how much automation and software tooling do you need to write applications.   The big social media software companies would claim that nothing short of continuous delivery is enough.   But is this really necessary for smaller companies that are delivering enterprise-class applications?

Guest host Jimmy Holloran talks with Jim about the bevy of useless email solicitations that we get after every deal announcement.  We talk about the PE 2/20 model and how it applies to buying services from vendors -- and the right and wrong ways to pitch PE funds.

In our latest episode, we talk with Rick Noble, CEO of Aircraft Technical Publishers. He has led several market-leading digital publishing organizations over the course of his career, holding positions that include CEO of Triumph Learning and Haights Cross Communications, CEO of Blackboard Engage, CEO of Medical Media Holdings, and President & CEO of Thomson Healthcare.

Jim talks with ParkerGale's newest addition to the Operating Team handling talent management -- Jimmy Holloran.  He joins us from the mean streets of St. Louis with stops at Nortel, Teach for America, Bain & Company and HomeChef along the way.

Jim and the MacLaurin Group Team -- Alan, "The Mad Scotsman", Jim Headley and Kelley Powell tackle Paul Graham's "Makers versus Managers" essay.   How do you balance the need for managers to "meet up" with programmers/writers/creators need for large blocks of uninterrupted time to complete projects?

Devin interviews True Search Partner and CFO-whisperer Matt Goldstein about how to land a CFO job at a PE-backed company. They cover the process from the candidate side and the company side. How to differentiate yourself; how to prepare for interviews; what PE funds are looking for; what goes wrong when things go wrong; what you should expect to get paid and how much equity you should expect.

We're back with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson and his partner in crime, Jim Headley, of the MacLaurin Group. Alan and Jim give us their thumbs up and thumbs down on various development tools, cloud platforms and business intelligence software stacks.

Devin and Jim talk about macro and micro events for 2019 including; the global economy, the U.S. economy, politics, the tech market and the implications for private equity in the new year.

A far-reaching conversation with Brent Beshore, CEO of adventur.es, a buyout shop based in Columbia, Missouri.  Brent recently released his book "The Messy Marketplace", the ultimate "how to" book for selling a business in the world of imperfect buyers.

No awkward musical guests or actors passed-their-prime --- just Devin and Jim giving thanks for another year of fun with the podcast.

Jim talks with ParkerGale Operating Principal, Jake Petoskey, about optimizing back office systems at portfolio companies.   In this episode we focus the discussion on organizing Sales Opportunities as the tip of the spear using Insight Squared with Salesforce.com

The first episode in a five-episode arc discussing ParkerGale's four operating pillars: Systems, Talent, Growth and Product.   In part one, Devin and Jim introduce the four pillars.  The follow-on episodes will feature deep-dive interviews with ParkerGale's OPs team.

The first in a series of interviews with the CEOs of ParkerGale's portfolio companies.  In this week's episode, we talk with Len Finkle, CEO of Profisee.  Have a listen and find out how he made the journey from intrepid salesperson to private equity CEO.

This week's topic comes from our listeners and it's one of our favorite subjects -- us!   It's the "how did we get into private equity" episode.  So hop into the wayback machine with Devin and Jim and find out how we got from Albany, New York and Brockton, Massachusetts all the way to private equity in Chicago.

Talking with Drake Paulson and Graeme Faulds from eVestment, a Nasdaq company, about the results of their 2018 Private Markets Due Diligence Survey. Find out how Limited Partners feel about fees, the use of credit facilities to close deals and due diligence.

The second part of our scoping conversation with Jay Bartlett and Joe Repp from EY-Parthenon.   This time we flip the conversation and talk about undertaking a market study prior to SELLING a company.

We're back with Jay Bartlett from EY-Parthenon talking about scoping due diligence processes for private equity deals with special guest, Joe Repp.   This is part one of a two-part episode.  

A follow-up conversation with the Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson.  This time we're talking about the technology section of the 2018 Stack Overflow developer survey.   It's Java vs. C#, MariaDB vs. Oracle, AWS vs. Azure and much, much more.   

The Mad Scotsman, Alan Williamson, returns to the funcast for a lively discussion of Stack Overflow's 2018 Developer survey.  We talk about all things development, backend vs frontend vs. full stack -- and the myth of the high school dropout programming genius.

Jay Bartlett from Parthenon is back on the funcast to talk about the evolving role of the operating partner in private equity.   The EY-Parthenon team has been delving deep on this topic with limited partners and portfolio company executives.    Come have a listen to the latest insights.

Jim and Devin talk about the one or two characteristics that can blow an otherwise terrific executive out of the water.  It's Bill Simmons' 90/10 rule -- only better!

Our day jobs have been getting in the way of our podcasting ... but the long wait is over, we are back in the saddle with our annual March Madness Episode.  This year we cover the technologies that are having the biggest impact on our portfolio - it's Amazon vs. Google, Netsuite vs. Salesforce.com, C# vs Python, PostgreSQL vs. MySQL ... and more!

Jim and Devin walk through the list of technology companies where Jim has worked over the years. We talk about the lessons learned as they apply to PE-owned tech companies in the middle market. We cover decades of computing from Digital Equipment Corporation to Oracle and beyond. Bonus content includes a Rupert Pupkin shoutout and a Regis Philbin impression.

Devin and Jim kick-off their collaboration with PitchBook, the leading private equity and private company database now owned by Morningstar. Nizar and Dylan from PitchBook's research team discuss their recent report on first-time private equity funds -- the fundraising stats, the increasing demand and the unique challenges new funds face.

Devin and Jim talk about the major macroeconomic factors that affect Private Equity.     Here's a hint -- it's mostly a robust economy and lower interest rates.

Devin and Jim talk about the four basic Halloween villains -- Vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolves and Mummies -- and how PE deals often end up as one of these monsters. Plus, we do a fast review of the BEST Halloween candies and our most popular costumes when we were kids.

Devin & Jim welcome ParkerGale’s newest teammate to the FunCast. Cici joined us from Bain & Co to manage our go-to-market activities across the portfolio. Cici talks about her not-so-straight path to private equity, what her day to day job is like and modestly chalking up her career success to luck.

Devin and his daughter Quinn spend an hour with high school English teacher Nathaniel Small on exploring the challenges of teaching people. We talk about why it is so hard for an expert to teach a novice. How teaching in an academic setting can help you improve your teaching in a business setting? And why, in the end, it all comes back to Empathy, Storytelling, and Autobiography.

Listener Request! Devin & Jim take a look at private equity deals from the sellers' side of the table and cover questions such as: How do you select a PE buyer? What questions should you ask prospective buyers? What's negotiable and what's not? And all kinds of useful tips and tricks.

Talking with Anthony Onesto of the Konrad Group about "Digital Strategy". It means different things to different people and we make an attempt to define the basics. This is a big topic -- covering everything from websites, email, SEO/SCM to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This is part one of several episodes that we will dedicate to this broad-ranging topic -- comparing digital strategy to an orchestra. Plus the usual side trips into pop culture including the Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs movie and Benjamin and Rosamund Zander's "The Art of Possibility".

Devin and Jim sit down with NextGen Growth Partners founder Brian O'Connor to discuss search funds, pledge funds, traditional funds and all the similarities and differences among them. They go deep into backing entrepreneurs to create an investment thesis that leads to buying a company. NextGen has a unique model that we think the FunCast army will find interesting.

Devin and Jim take a random walk down their reading list of favorite business and research books.  We mention some old favorites and some hidden gems and talk about ParkerGale's official reading club's August selection.

Devin (and Jim from behind the sound board) welcomes back Cass and Ben for a mad-cap review of all the confusing terms and phrases thrown around the typical private equity shop. We give you the shortcut to understanding WACC, TTM, ICs, TAMs and LPACs. Now, doesn't that sound exciting!

Devin and Jim break down the what, how, why and when of the often maligned, but rarely explained, process of PE funds taking money out of companies before the exit.  Plus: shout outs to some PE Funcast fans and a smattering of 80s music.

Devin and Jim go deep on their process for developing investment theses. They cover: where to start, tools to hone your thesis, how to fight confirmation bias, when to give up and when to stick with it.

Devin and Jim were inspired to delve into the "Ship of Theseus" story in the first episode from season two of Gladwell's "Revisionist History".  If we change out every "board" (no pun intended) in our companies over our ownership period -- is it the same company/ship when we exit?   

Rebroadcast of Brian Walker from AE Marketing Group interviewing partner Kristina Heinze-- talking about leadership, women in private equity and branding.

Devin sits down with Myra D’Souza, ParkerGale’s head of talent management. They cover how to get into private equity from the HR side of the house; what PE firms do about human capital pre and post-deal; and how small companies can be better at talent management.

An introduction to customer analytics with Ben Falloon and Jake Petoskey from the ParkerGale team.  The first of several episodes tackling the tricky topic of building ground-up customer analytics and building market maps.

Jim talks with Andrea Goulet and M. Scott Ford from Corgibytes -- specialists in software remodeling.  This is a continuing conversation on technical debt, the albatross around the neck of many companies.   Our conversation focuses on Makers vs. Menders, so come have a listen.

Jim and Devin sit down with ParkerGale Principal Jake Petoskey to discuss his path to private equity thru the operating side of the house. Similar to past episodes with Cass and Kevin we cover all the details for how to get into PE, but this time without the traditional finance background.

We spend an hour talking with Anthony Onesto from the Konrad Group.  We've known Anthony as a cutting-edge thinker in the Human Capital Management space for many years.  Today we finally managed to get him in front of a podcast microphone to start a series of episodes on talent.

Limited Partner, John McCarthy, is back for another book club episode.   This time we talk about Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow -- and how it applies to private equity.   Try listening to this episode with your System 2 thinking.  

By popular demand ...  it's our annual March Madness Episode from two guys that know nothing about college basketball but love bracketology.  It's the Elite Eight -- Lou Adler vs. Daniel Pink, Geoffrey Moore vs. Strunk & White, Malcolm Gladwell vs. Dan Carlin and HBR vs. Kara Swisher.

Jim spends an hour talking about Information Security with Evolve Security's CEO -- Paul Petefish.  We keep bumping into Pete and his team at 1871 - and figured it was time to talk a little bit about Information Security.  Everybody KNOWS that it's an important topic, but how does one get started figuring out where they stand from an InfoSec standpoint?  

Jim, Devin and Ryan sit down to discuss why people are so bad at interviewing and what they did to fix their own mistakes. They cover the strategy and tactics for improving your interviewing skills and provide some helpful tips you can try out on your own.

Limited Partner Mike McClure sits down for a discussion about the other side of the fundraising table. We cover: the first meeting, following up and what can set you apart from all the other GPs in the market.

Over the past year we've changed out a number of tools and software that we use to manage the fund.  Come have a listen and find out what things we've moved off of and our new favorites.  Spoiler alert: Contactually, Microsoft Office 365, Egnyte, NetSuite, Squarespace, Intralinks ... and Basecamp.

ParkerGale is looking to add three professional to our team -- two Principals focused on Operations and one Associate for the Investment team. Take a listen to find out if you (or someone you know) is a good fit.

The latest episode in our Fundraising series.   We spend an hour talking with John Cosgrove from Beartooth Advisors - the team that worked as our agents on the ParkerGale fund.   Come have listen and find out how Beartooth approached our fundraising process and learn all the ins and outs of working with an agent.  (This is an updated version -- fixed the audio from the original release)

Jim and Devin spend an hour talking with Jay Bartlett and Scott Orleck from Parthenon-EY Ernst & Young LLP.  We've worked extensively with Jay and Scott on buy-side due-diligence projects over a number of years.  They share their experiences tackling questions workig with us around market sizing, growth rates, cyclicality, and the competitive landscape.  All of which serves to answer the fundamental questions: Is a particular industry a good industry in which to invest?  And is the target company the right company to buy?  Jay and Scott reveal the three main reasons why deals go bad.

The second episode of our trifecta covering the raising of ParkerGale's first fund.   This episode starts off where we left our intrepid heroes just after their first close in September, 2015.  Come have a listen as we talk about our decision to hire a placement agent and our marathon of trips in late winter/early spring in pursuit of capital.

Devin and ParkerGale Limited Partner John McCarthy continue their book club series with an investing classic, "The Most Important Thing" by Howard Marks, the legendary cofounder and Chairman of Oaktree Capital Management. Turns out that Marks most important thing is actual nineteen things -- come have a listen as Devin and John focus on three of them.

Devin and ParkerGale Limited Partner John McCarthy kick off their book club series with an unusual choice, "Rumsfeld's Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life" by Donald Rumsfeld. Some surprising advice in this book when we apply Rumsfeld's observations about leadership, business, and life to investing.

Devin and Jim spend an hour talking about the strategy and tactics of raising ParkerGale's first fund. This episode covers the pre-launch up to the fund's first close.

Jim and Alan talk about a scary subject on our Halloween episode -- Distributed Denial of Service attacks.  Two weeks ago the internet experienced an unprecedented DDOS attack against a popular DNS hosting service -- Dyn -- that blocked access to a huge number of popular sites -- eBay and PayPal included.  What does this mean for the small business owner -- should you avoid the Cloud altogether?  Come have a listen and find out.

We had a great conversation with Kevin Hurley, a recent graduate from Fullstack Academy. Kevin is a high school math teacher who caught the coding bug and decided to switch careers. He's exactly the kind of self-motivated technologist that will thrive our the tech economy. So, if you are thinking about jumping into the tech space, or you're a CTO looking to hire talent from "outside the box" -- then come have a listen. One more thing ... if Chevy Chase is reading this description, we assure him that in this episode there will be NO math.

Jim talks about all things social media with Cappy Popp and John Maver from Thought Labs -- a leading Digital Marketing Strategy company. We've worked with Cappy and John on a number of projects in our portfolio, and they know what it takes to develop a social media strategy. This is the first part of an ongoing series on social media marketing. In this first part we cover the basics of when/why/how you should consider a social media campaign for your company.

Alan and Jim spend a fun hour talking with Zeke Nierenberg, Academic Director/Chicago from Fullstack Academy. Fullstack teaches qualified non-programmers to code using an immersive 13-week program. Our bias going into this conversation was Alan's belief that you can't learn to code in 13 weeks. Zeke managed to school us both with Fullstack's point of view. Come have a listen and and decide for yourself.

Alan and Jim spend an hour talking with Ben Johnson, author of BoldDB and and freelance Go developer.  The Go language is a relatively new open source programming language (and platform) started by Google and maintained by a community of developers.  The authors promote "Go" as being easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.   Go is somewhat unique in that it compiles into a native operating system executable that can be easily distributed across platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS).  Is "Go" the right choice for smaller companies?  Have a listen and find out.

Devin sits down with Jeremie Bacon, CEO and Founder of Synap, to discuss Private Equity, Managing People and Movie Quotes.

Jim is back talking with Brian Walker, CEO of AE Marketing Group on the topic of Influencer Marketing.  Does it work for B2B companies?  Why or Why Not?   What types of "marketing" projects should middle-market business-to-business companies focus their precious resources on?  (If you have a dollar to spend, where should you spend it).  We branch out into a side discussion of trying to calculate the real size of a company's addressable market, building simple "market" data marts and fallacy of "Big Data" in marketing.

Alan and Jim spend a fast half hour talking when you should consider upgrading older pieces of custom (homegrown) software. You don't have to upgrade older software just for the sake of upgrading it -- and converting from an older language to a newer language doesn't make the software any better. The first of a three (or maybe four) part series on modernizing your infrastructure.

Jim and Alan spend an hour arguing about whether you should consider bolting an application programming interface onto older applications as a path to modernizing them. The conversation meanders into a brief history of application-programming-interfaces without getting too nitty-gritty -- suitable listening for Founders, CEOs and technologists.

The first of many conversations with Brian Walker CEO of AE Marketing Group.   We've found that Marketing is often the third wheel at small companies -- behind product development and sales.   Brian's team takes a CoCreation and Customer Experience approach to building and marketing products that gets the marketing function heavily involved in improving operations and products.  So, come have a listen!

We all know there are tons of Private Equity funds. So what are the ways they try to stand out from the crowd? We cover the four biggies: Focus, Size, Sourcing and Team.

Alan, Jim and Kristina talk about a rare phenomenon in technology -- slowing down sales -- intentionally!  Faced with the need to undertake some major software refactoring, we chose to put the cap on new sales while we raced to update the platform.  This caused real tension between the board, sales management and the engineering team.  Come have a listen as we talk about the details of this successful effort.

We recently had to find a home for a legacy client/server accounting application, running in a location that was far, far away.  The software came to us through an acquisition of another company.   Our ultimate goal is to migrate the parent and child to a single, unified cloud-based application.  In the near term, however, we needed to allow the remote team to access the software as per usual, right alongside the finance team back at headquarters. And, we needed to insure that the software was backed up properly and secure.   The solution turned out to be Amazon's WorkSpaces product.

Jim and Alan talk in detail about the Valley of Anguish and how to survive it.   All large projects (ERP implementations, software re-writes, data center moves) start out with heady expectations and hardy enthusiasm.   Inevitably, as your teams start tackling the stickier issues they slide down into the Valley of Anguish -- all willing to abandon the project and go back to doing things the old way.   As operating partners, we've had tons of experience in the valley -- and can help you and your teams survive and thrive -- and come out the other end of the project with smiles on their faces.   Also, we talk about Alan's really bad hat.

Devin and Jim discuss the seven deadly sins of private equity -- sins that will turn a good deal into a bad deal. -- Pride: Don't admit what you don't know. -- Envy: Make a bad acquisition. -- Lust: Overpaying for a deal. -- Greed: Trying to do too much, too fast. -- Wrath: Market turns on you. -- Gluttony: Taking on too much debt. -- Sloth: Failing to move fast enough on management problems.

Devin interviews podcast darling Kevin Fitzgerald on his return to private equity after two years at Harvard Business School. Kevin talks about why he went, what he learned, how he landed his summer internship, how much the whole thing cost and whether or not getting and MBA was even worth it.  Just like his last podcast talking about the Associate job, Kevin spills the beans on business school and returning to the industry as Principal.

Jim talks with our old friend and colleague, Dirk Shimpach about the most common mistakes we make when implementing NetSuite.  We've done six implementations across six portfolio companies over the past five years -- so we've learned a thing or two about getting NetSuite up and running.   Dirk gives CEOs, Founders and CFOs a quick primer on the most common speed bumps and how to avoid them. We're about to start two new implementations at two different ParkerGale portfolio companies.   Our plan is to dive deep into these two projects and give you the blow by blow as we get them going.  While we've covered this topic before, we plan on going deep, deep, deep into these projects -- so stay tuned.

Alan and Jim discuss DevOps -- the intersection of software development and managing the deployment and operations of software.  We provide a simple layman's definition of DevOps and then address common misconceptions and fears.   It's not fatal if you are not doing state-of-the-art DevOps or you haven't completed automated the build and deploy process.   Instead, we given you a simple set of suggestions for getting simplified DevOps in place in order to limit system downtime and speed up re-starts.

Devin and Jim spend some time talking about the "Failure Mythology" -- the idea that you need to fail in a big way on the path to building a great company. (Aka "The Steve Jobs Story")  It's a popular myth in the venture space, but not at all common for private equity deals.

Small change of pace. Here's a replay of Kristina's WGN Business Lunch interview talking about private equity, being a mom and other fun stuff.

Devin sits down with Dave Will, the founder of Peach New Media, a software company he founded, bootstrapped and recently sold to AccelKKR. Dave gets philosophical about building culture and stepping aside after the sale. A good listen for founders and CEOs alike. We’ll definitely have Dave back to chat more.

Devin and Jim talk about Unicorns -- not the mythical horse with a horn, but rather the club of billion-dollar-plus tech companies. How is this market different than the late 90s? How do Unicorns affect buyouts and smaller companies, both positively and negatively? These are just a few of the questions we discuss on today's show.

Devin and Jim welcome their partner Kristina to her first podcast where they talk about how to run a good board meeting. Who to invite, what to cover, what to avoid and how to manage your PE board members.

Alan and Jim spend some time talking about tracking events and errors in application software logs.   Most  companies are at least monitoring their web logs and database error logs these days -- but we'd argue that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  With easy access to cloud platforms, cheap computer cycles and disk storage the time is right to up the ante.   Capturing user traffic and events at all layers of your application stack can pay big dividends in customer satisfaction, software performance and system reliability. 

It's our annual March Madness show.  Hosted by two guys that don't know a THING about college basketball -- so our March Madness is all about Private Equity.   This year we are starting with the Elite Eight and working our way down to one winner.  It's EBITDA Multiples versus Revenue Multiples, Debt versus No Debt, Private Equity Owned Businesses versus Founder Owned Businesses and Backing the Founder versus Bringing in your own CEO.  Come join Devin, Jim and the Commissioner -- Ryan Milligan as we argue our way to a winner.

Jim and Alan spend some quality time talking about the most common technology challenges that we uncover when we acquire a founder owned technology company. This is not a criticism of how these companies are run, but rather a testimony to how much a small team is able to accomplish when they put their minds to it. Given that we buy smaller companies that we end up selling to larger companies -- these are the most technology issues that we need to address during our ownership period. We both have a pragmatic view of how difficult it is to keep all of these systems/processes up to date -- we don't let good become the enemy of great.

Devin sits down with Chris Morgan, the founder of Lantern Partners, an executive search firm focused on hiring C-Suite executives at PE-backed companies. We cover how to get in the candidate flow, what characteristics are required for the job, how much you will get paid and other lessons from our collective experience looking for and hiring management teams. 

Alan and Jim spend some quality time talking about the Shiny New Toy problem (SNTS) in software development.   The tendency for software teams to pin their hopes and dreams on leading edge technology that will solve all of their problems -- easier, faster better.  We discuss the problem in detail and offer non-technical founders strategies for dealing with SNTS.

Jim and Alan spend a fast hour talking about technical debt.   It's everything that a CEO/CFO/COO or Founder needs to know about technical debt -- and how to start paying it down.   What causes technical debt?  Is technical debt the result of a bad development team?  Is it possible to develop a software platform without incurring technical debt?  Is the solution to technical debt a complete platform rewrite or can you pay it down without "dry docking the boat"?  These are just a few of the questions that we answer on today's show.

Jim and Alan talk about the Cloud.   Private clouds versus public clouds.  Should you ditch your own server room and move everything to the Cloud?  Start small and build ... or go "all in" on the Cloud.   Can you control performance and scaling in the Cloud?  Relational databases or NoSQL in the Cloud.  In case that's not clear at this point, we'll be talking about the Cloud on this week's podcast.  Plus, West Wing, NYPD Blue, Kelly's Heroes.  Kiefer and Donald Sutherland in Foresaken.   Take a pass on "Assassin".   Spoiler alert: We're both passing on the trifecta of remakes; Point Break, Roadhouse and Ghostbusters.

Jim and Alan discuss the history and details of exchanging data between companies and applications.  Email might be the easiest and quickest technique, but find out what it's not very secure or reliable.  Learn about the differences between FTP (not very secure) and SFTP (pretty darn secure) and whether DropBox, Box or Amazon's S3 is a reasonable option.   Finally, we end up chatting about Web Services as the modern developer's tool for exchanging data securely, reliably and in Goldilocks sizes (hint: Just Right).  Shout outs to Dropbox, Box, Amazon and HighJump.  Plus Jim goes one for three in Alan's movie quiz.

Jim talks with Alan, Simon and Tiago about the myth of the full stack developer.   Alan plays the role of the database and webservices architect. Simon is the user interface and client-side maven and Tiago is our resident network, security and back-end guru.  We ask the key questions -- can any single developer master EVERY layer of the software stack?  Should a CEO or Engineering manager expect his/her developers to be knowledgeable about every piece of software?  We also learn that Alan hates art and white wine, but likes red wine. Plus shout outs to the Back to the Future trilogy, Poland, La Sardine in the West Loop and Ocean's Eleven.

Jim and Alan talk about the technology trends for 2016.   What's on the rise?  What technology is falling out of favor?  What will be the most hyped technology in 2016?  Jim asks the questions and Alan answers them on this latest episode of America's favorite technology-oriented, private-equity-themed, weekly podcast.  It's IoT, Elastic Search, MongoDB, RavenDB, Java, Cassandra, Hadoop, Ruby on Rails, Node.js, PostgreSQL, jQuery, Angular, Amazon RDS and even the Apple Watch! Plus, shout out for Carson McCullers "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"

Jim spends a fast hour talking with the Developertown crew about all things mobile.  Should you develop native iOS and Android applications?   Is it better to standardize on responsive HTML5 solutions?   PhoneGap vs. Xamarin?   These are just a few of the questions that we discuss, plus, shout-outs to Angie's List Founder Angie Hicks and Angela Lansbury.   Also, we talk about the Roomba (spoiler alert ... it's awesome).

Description:  Cass Gunderson recently joined ParkerGale as an Associate so we check in with her about how she landed the job, what she did before she joined us and talk about her early reactions to the new job. From time to time we'll follow-up to see how Cass is doing.

Second part of our two-episode series on the Operating Partner role in private equity.   In this second episode Devin and Jim talk about engaging with the portfolio companies and their management teams on projects and initiatives.   At the end of the day there are only three types of projects that we work on; cost cutting/efficiency, revenue enhancements and risk mitigation.

First part of a two-part episode focused on the vaunted "Operating Partner" role in private equity.  In the first part, Devin talks to Jim about his experiences as an operating partner within a private equity group -- dealing with the other partners, working on deal teams, etc.

The last of a four-part series.    Jim talks with Kamela Arya about the most common mistakes that companies make when implementing Salesforce.com.  

The third segment in our four-part series on Salesforce.com for the middle market.  In this episode Jim and Kamela talk about the implementation process.   Which department should be tackled first? Choosing your implementation partner and selecting your project team.  Implementing prototypes and incremental builds, mapping out business processes and migrating data into the new system.

Part two of our implementing Salesforce.com series. This time around we talk with Kamela Arya about which modules to license, how much they cost to license (on an annual basis), and what it costs to implement Salesforce.com in a mid-size organization, with 10 - 20 SFDC users. We even discuss the dreaded data migration problem.

Jim spends an hour with Developertown's Michael Kelly and Aaron Lerch talking about Ruby on Rails -- why Jim hates it and why they love it.

Part one of a three-part series on Salesforce.com.   Jim talks with longtime SFDC collaborator and implementer, Kamela Arya about everything you need to know about customer relationship management software and implementing Salesforce.com in the middle market enterprise

Devin and Jim finally cover the most important thing a PE fund can do -- find deals. They cover how they source deals, the banks and brokers they target. Plus they talk about their lifelong search for the white whale -- the elusive proprietary deal. Do they really exist?  Listen and find out!

A lengthy discussion with Alan Williamson on the "perfect technology stack".   In today's environment do you HAVE to be running on Linux, or is Windows Server just fine for some shops?   C# or Java?  Java or Ruby on Rails?  Should you be getting rid of all of your old perl and PHP code?  Is this the end for relational databases?  AngularJS or jQuery?

Alan and Jim talk about the ins and outs of making applications run faster and scale to handle lots of users.  We compare the two choices for scaling applications: Vertical scaling (adding more resources to existing machines), versus Horizontal scaling (spreading the load across multiple machines).  We also discuss Amazon's AWS and EC2 platforms versus Microsoft Azure.

Devin and Jim catalog all of the software that the ParkerGale team has been using on a daily basis over the past year.  We discuss the pros and cons of each, and tell you which apps have been moved to the trash bin.

Devin and Jim discuss the New York Times Amazon article.  Is driving your people into the ground the only way to build successful technology companies?  Is the CEO the last to know when it comes to company culture issues, or are they just turning a blind eye?

Jim talks with Ryan Milligan about all the different steps in closing a deal after the Letter of Intent gets signed.   Everything that a Founder needs to know, but was afraid to ask. Customer calls, references, accounting audits, purchase agreements and lender meetings -- we tackle it all and more.

Jim and Devin discuss the two types of companies that we see in the middle market.   You can either dominate a niche market (such as software targeted at specific verticals) or you can build a better mousetrap and try to capture the entire market.

Ryan Milligan joins Jim and Devin to talk about Unicorns and argue about whether the public markets are smarter than the private markets.  For the founder with a business between $3 - $5 million of EBITDA we answer the mult-million dollar question: Is it time to sell?   Ryan discloses that he'd invest in the next round of PiedPiper, while Devin would rather own Hooli stock.

Jim talks in detail with Grant Hunter about the Product Manager role in middle market companies.

A gentle introduction to product management with Grant Hunter.

Jim and Devin discuss the Innovator's Dilemma and Blue Ocean Strategy as it relates to middle market portfolio companies.

Jim talks with Evan Delaney about his trip to Apple's World Wide Developer Conference in SF.

Devin and Jim talk about the role of leveraging microservices development in middle market companies, mixing classic development with microservices -- with proper shout outs to Martin Fowler, Conway's Law and a small sidebar into Game of Thrones.

Devin and Jim discuss the corollary to Fred Wilson's "What VC can learn from Private Equity".

Jim talks about the role of the outside board member with Syapse CEO/Co-Founder and Emerson Street Partners founder Glenn Winokur.

Jim and Devin talk about Agile, SCRUM and our experiences with various engineering project management schemes.

Devin and Jim talk about applying Howard Marks' principles of value investing in technology buyouts.

Jim chats with Evan Delaney about the out-of-the-box experience with the Apple Watch as the first batch gets delivered.

Quinn grills Devin and Jim on everything from their backgrounds to which kinds of potatoes that they prefer.

Jim, Devin and the Commissioner For Life, Ryan Milligan run down our 2015 Final Four results.

Jim interviews FunCast Bracketology Commish, Ryan Milligan in preparation for next week's "Final Four".

Jim and Devin discuss the pros and cons of technical bootcamps.

Jim and Devin talk in detail about Daniel Pink's autonomy, mastery and purpose with a sidebar into "fairness".

Jim and Devin discuss the technology stack that we use to run our business.

Jim talks to Joe Gorup about using eLearning in the middle market.

Devin and Jim discuss Daniel Pink's "Drive" as it relates to their portfolio companies.

Devin and Jim talk about Nassim Nicholas Taleb's gem, "Fooled by Randomness"

Devin and Jim talk discuss Geoffrey Moore's groundbreaking book "Crossing the Chasm" as it applies to the middle market.

Jim talks to portfolio company CFO, Mike Welch about his initial experiences with our ongoing NetSuite implementation.

Devin, Ryan Harris, Ian Larkin and Brad Simmons make their predictions for 2015 ... and BEYOND!

Jim and Devin talk restaurants and cuisine with Chicago's own Chef John Caputo.

Jim and Dirk Shimpach talk through a complete NetSuite implementation at one of our portfolio companies, "serial podcast" style.

Jim and Devin talk shop with Troy Henikoff from TechStars Chicago.

Devin and Jim give thanks for all of our listeners, colleagues and friends.

Jim and Devin talk about the various exit strategies for private equity-backed tech companies.

Devin and Jim talk with Tim Kelly on his research what makes a company "entreprenurial".

Devin and Jim introduce their new firm, Parker Gale Capital

Devin and Jim discuss succcession planning for founders.

Milbery's Mazlow's Hierarchy of Software Needs.  We are officially a year old today and have we got a gift for you.  Jim and Devin spend an hour dissecting Jim's controversial hierarchy of software needs. 

What happens when your relationship with management goes south? This episode is by request   How do relationships between the private equity guys and management go bad?  Shocking!  Yes, that happens some times.  What causes it?  And what can you do to fix it?  Find out here.

As a follow-up to Devin's (surprisingly) popular PEHUB column from early August, Devin and Jim expound on the lingo inside a PE firm.  This isn't sports talk or girl talk, this is private equity talk and it makes about as much sense as some of the wild stories in the Raymond Carver book we stole our title from.  Sit back and enjoy, and just like an after school special starring Robbie Benson, there just might even be a lesson or two to learn in between all the laughing (or is that crying?).

Devin and Jim talk about Satya Nadella's public strategy letter on the future of Microsoft aka "Bold Ambition & Our Core".    How does this apply to the middle market?  Should middle market companies be avoiding commitments to the Microsoft platform? 

Jim sits down with Evan Delaney to talk about Apple's new Swift programming language, the pros the cons -- and whether companies should be jumping into the deep end of the pool and going whole-hog with Swift.

Jim sits down with Evan Delaney to talk about approaches you can use for building your mobile applications on the Apple platform.  Although we do get a little technical in spots, this episode is for the CEO, not the CTO.

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.  Today we talk about the human side of the business -- hiring your team.

A Series of PE Haikus for the sophisticated listener.  A light-hearted conversation with Matthew Craig-Greene of Pivot Partners Ltd -- our Thursday gift from us, to you!  

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.   In this second episode with Professor Mazzeo we discuss product differentiation and price.

Devin and Jim sit down with Northwestern Kellogg School of Management Professor Michael Mazzeo to discuss his upcoming book: Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.  

Devin and Uber-Associate Kevin Fitzgerald sit down with Steve Julius, PhD aka "Dr. J" to talk about organizational behavior and team dynamics.   Dr. Julius opines on human behavior, organizational dynamics and business development.  Listen in and get insight on creating practical strategies and easy-to-use tools for resolving a wide range of business and human resource needs. 

We sit down with a real life Associate from a real life private equity fund. Removed from his natural habitat and placed in captivity in Chicago, Kevin Fitzgerald shares with us what he did to get the job, what he does on a daily basis and where he's taking the experience next (hint: it's in Cambridge, MA).

The FunCast spends an hour with "Must React" sales system founder Kraig Kleeman.   Everything that you need to know about persuasion, sales transformation and sales enablement.  Plus, you get to hear Kraig's story about meeting U2's Bono.

The FunCast spends an hour with Macworld writer and podcast impresario Lex Friedman from The Midroll -- home of 130+ podcasts.   Everything that you need to know about advertising on podcasts including listener demographics and getting started.

The FunCast spends another hour with McDermott Will & Emery LLP Partner Ryan Harris breaking down an actual private equity letter of intent.  We go term by term with one of the best transaction lawyers in the business.  Founders will learn all the tricks of the trade to even the playing field in their negotiation.  Devin says "You are welcome".

Jim and Devin discuss the vaunted venture "pivot" and its applicability, or lack there-of in the private equity business.

Jim trades programming barbs, tips and opinions with the guru of application development, Alan Williamson.

Devin and Jim don't follow college basketball, but they have cooked up their own version of March Madness. 

Bring out your debt!  We've talked a lot about funding options for owners of mid sized companies but we haven't covered debt yet.  Well, here you go.  A detailed conversation with Ian Larkin, founder and Managing Partner of Maranon Capital.  Ian describes why you should look at debt in a business like a parfait sundae (seriously, he does!) and what all those layers mean to you as an owner.  He talks about the aversion most business owners have toward debt and why they might want to change their minds a little.  Then at the end we kind of ramble on about things that have nothing to do with debt, private equity or fancy deserts.

Interview with Dirk Shimpach, President of goVirtualOffice -- a "NetSuite Solution provider and cloud technology advisor that helps companies find the Cloud CRM, Cloud ERP and Cloud Accounting software".  Dirk and his team have worked with a number of our portfolio companies on configuring NetSuite to match our business needs.   In this interview we talk about the best fits for NetSuite and things to watch out for when you are selecting and implementing cloud-based ERP solutions.

The FunCast spends an hour with McDermott Will & Emery LLP Partner Ryan Harris talking about the legal traps founders fall into when setting up their companies and when they sell them. What's the best company structure -- C Corp, S Corp, LLC?  How do you handle employee equity?  Hear about the infamous "Cubs side letter."  What are the common issues Ryan sees when founders go to sell their business and how can you avoid them? Listening to this conversation won't make you stronger, but it sure will make you smarter!  Enjoy.

Microsoft isn't going away soon as an enterprise server and platform vendor.  So there's little risk in building your server platform on Microsoft in the middle market.   It's important to build client interfaces that span browsers and mobile platforms, but the server layer is reliable and safe.   Nadella is a good choice to move Microsoft more aggressively into the cloud with Azure -- and they've got plenty of money to do it.   Congrats to the WhatsApp team and Sequoia on the sale to Facebook.  There are some lessons to be learned here in the middle market.

What are the big boys thinking about tech?  What are they worried about?  Should you even care?  We dive into the big ideas coming out of the recent CIO conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

Do you want to know how private equity firms evaluate and develop talent in their portfolio companies?  Join the PEFunCast team and Brad Simmons from Applied Executive Insights to find out what matters for small company teams, how you find it, how you develop it and how you avoid the common traps in managing teams at growing companies.

What are the simple mental traps that PE investors fall into when making decisions about pursuing an investment.  Think Daniel Kahneman meets Private Equity.  Investment Banker David Sinyard recently wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the subject of the Affect Heuristic in PE and we talk about his research, what he found and why it helps to know these when selling your business.  

PEFunCast Guest Ryan Milligan discusses investment returns for middle market technology companies and investing in vertical software.  

It's our Christmas Spectacular!  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there in the podcast ether! 

Jim talks with Jesper Kehlet about Microsoft's Dynamics AX ERP software.   We cover the main features and some tips and suggestions for a successful implementation.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners!

Jim and Devin discuss the due diligence process for private equity acquisitions.

Devin and Jim talk about the problems with the Healthcare.gov launch and the implication for middle market companies.

Jim and Devin discuss the differences between the roles of Chief Technology Officer and Vice-President of Engineering for middle market companies -- with a small detour into Agile development and hiring practices for technical staff.

Jim and Devin discuss the industry's latest buzzword trend "big data", and whether any middle market company really has a big data problem.

The inaugural episode of the Private Equity FunCast.   Devin and Jim talk about our plans for the show, and the three types of IT projects: Costs, Revenue or Risk Management.