The future of private equity talent is moving toward ownership.

We explore why the traditional PE career path is breaking, why carry no longer delivers the upside it once promised, and why more professionals are choosing to build - not wait - for real equity.

You will discover:
0:00 The Quiet Exodus Inside Private Equity
1:45 Carry That Never Materializes
2:56 “I Didn’t Join PE to Be an Operator”
3:38 No Real Path to Ownership
5:27 Where PE Talent Is Going Next

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

In this episode, we break down a powerful idea from Jeffrey Walker, a private equity veteran who backed thousands of entrepreneurs and watched success and failure up close. His conclusion is uncomfortable but freeing: the people who win don’t follow a path, they create one.

You’ll hear why talent is overrated, why “perfect careers” quietly fail, how one pathless founder built a $200M company, and a practical framework for building a career or business that actually compounds over decades.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The dangerous myth of “the path”
1:04 Jeffrey Walker’s core insight: there is no path
3:05 Talent is common, intentionality is rare
4:12 The banker assembly line trap
5:53 The perfect resume that led nowhere
7:01 The pathless entrepreneur who built a $200M company
8:34 Sponsor CapitalPad - Curated deal flow. Aligned sponsors. Simplified investing.
9:44 How building your own path changes everything
12:13 A practical framework for creating your own path
14:16 The real takeaway: paths only make sense in hindsight

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Today’s guest, David Dowda (Dowda Holdings), went from burned-out insurance salesman working 80-100 hour weeks to buying his first business doing just $30,000 a year - fully seller-financed.

Ten years later, he owns nine companies across multiple industries - all acquired with zero outside equity and often minimal cash down.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 How he bought a $30k revenue business with zero cash down
3:00 Rolling up a beach town with chairs, linens, golf carts and a coffee shop
8:03 Buying a construction company 6 hours away with no experience
10:31 Sponsor: CapitalPad - investing alongside small business buyers
11:58 Flipping the construction business for a 300% return in 18 months
17:19 Scaling a moving company
22:15 Sponsor: SpaceBar Studios - b2b newsletter
35:04 Creative M&A structures with 100% seller finance, bank debt and earnouts
42:57 Building teams, promoting from within and making businesses “transition ready”
52:05 Why he believes multiples will compress on Main Street
1:02:13 Managing personal guarantees, stress and four kids under five
1:06:20 Next chapter raising capital to buy $5-20M companies

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

How these serial acquirers generate 20-40% annual returns for decades?

They buy small, niche, profitable companies again and again.

In this episode, we break down the strategy, the structure, and what private buyers can learn from the greatest acquisition machines on earth.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Why tiny acquisitions beat big deals
1:12 21x, 120x, 375x: Lifco, Addtech, Constellation & Heico’s insane returns
2:07 The simple playbook: buying small boring companies again and again
3:56 Engine #1 - Organic growth in the “unsexy” corners of the economy
6:50 Engine #2 - Programmatic M&A: what these serial acquirers actually buy
13:07 Sponsor: CapitalPad - deal-by-deal private equity access for accredited investors
14:27 Owning 100+ companies: resilience, diversification & the 7-7-7 structure
16:00 What private buyers & HoldCo builders can apply immediately (7 acquisition principles)
19:35 Sponsor: Spacebar Studios - get your B2B newsletter built for $0 upfront
21:02 Don’t chase synergies: culture, dominant niches & promoting leaders from within
23:07 You’re playing the same game as Lifco & Constellation (long-term compounding mindset)

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

In this episode, Cyrus Hessabi from Shore Capital Partners breaks down what it really looks like to build AI-enabled services, transition from VC to micro-cap private equity, and back searchers buying “boring” but powerful businesses.

Cyrus has lived every chapter of the operator-investor journey: aerospace engineering, Salesforce sales, venture capital, architecting AI rollups at OpenOcean, and now backing searchers at Shore Capital Partners.

We dive into how AI is transforming traditional service industries, where real opportunities (and risks) lie, how to evaluate founders, and why the best investing often happens in industries that don’t change.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Cyrus’s operator & investor journey
2:02 Spotting the tech gap in the traditional economy
3:43 Data infrastructure, MySQL roots & AI rollups at OpenOcean
5:15 Bridging VC, AI and micro-cap PE
7:35 Sponsor: Capitalpad - invest alongside vetted searchers
8:37 What AI-enabled services really are (with simple examples)
12:21 Inside OpenOcean’s AI-enabled services thesis & deal work
16:00 Joining Shore Capital & backing searchers and roll-ups
17:08 Sponsor: Spacebar Studios - done-for-you newsletters
18:14 How Cyrus evaluates AI risk and upside in real deals
31:01 Moving from VC to ETA/PE and key mindset shifts
45:46 Investing in what doesn’t change, AI as a tailwind & favorite book

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Most people in ETA quote the Stanford Search Fund Study, but almost no one looks at what investors actually earn. In this episode, we break down new Yale data from 1,192 investor-level outcomes and shows why access, not modeling, is the #1 driver of 10x MOIC, 30%+ IRR results.

You’ll learn why your portfolio will never be “the index”, how a tiny % of deals drive almost all returns, and what elite investors do differently to consistently catch those outliers. If you’re a searcher, investor, fund, or holdco, this is the episode that will change how you think about ETA returns forever.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Access as the #1 driver of outperformance & episode roadmap
0:40 Dinner scene: Stanford-slide searcher vs seasoned LP reality
2:15 Power laws, Magnificent Seven & how a few winners drive all returns
3:40 Yale study: 1,192 investor observations vs the Stanford search fund myth
5:35 Segment 1: The Illusion of the Stanford Index & why no one matches it
7:45 Segment 2: The Batting Cage Problem & why access determines investor outcomes
9:26 Segment 3: The Two-Stage Bet, broken searches, missing winners & 10x outcomes
14:13 Sponsor: Spacebar Studios - guaranteed 10,000 newsletter subscribers in 90 days
15:20 Elite ETA investor tier, access hierarchy & why “spray and pray” fails
17:51 Real odds for searchers, importance of elite access & final “respect the griffins” takeaway

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

#ETA #SearchFunds #EntrepreneurshipThroughAcquisition #SelfFundedSearch #TraditionalSearch #SearchFundInvestor #SearchAcquisition #BusinessAcquisition

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Sequoya Borgman has quietly built one of the most interesting retail-funded private equity machines in America. Since launching Borgman Capital in 2017, he’s acquired 20 companies across 8 platforms and raised deal-by-deal from 500+ individual investors instead of institutions.

In this episode, we break down how he sources mostly off-market deals in second-tier cities, structures conservative, over-capitalized balance sheets, manages messy founder transitions, and keeps hundreds of retail LPs aligned while staying oversubscribed on almost every deal.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Biggest risk in PE founder transitions and bad leadership fit
0:44 Why the “retail private equity” model
4:37 Working with PE as a CPA and deciding to start Borgman Capital in 2017
6:10 How uncertainty really hits lower middle-market companies
8:04 Biggest early mistakes: Hiring the wrong leaders and underestimating founders
11:35 Responsibility to employees, banks and LPs
13:10 Sponsor: CapitalPad - Backing business buyers and accessing proprietary small-business deals
14:12 First acquisition story
16:24 Why Borgman chose hundreds of retail LPs instead of a fund
20:45 Oversubscribed deals, memos, webinars and passthehat.com
29:09 Sponsor: Spacebar Studios
30:23 State of private equity today: Fewer deals closing, lower leverage and patient sellers
32:34 Why Borgman fishes in second-tier cities
36:17 Deal flow: 1,500 deals a year, 2-minute financial test and what they actually buy
40:49 Adding 500k-1M of extra equity to protect against surprises
54:44 Risks of raising from regular investors
58:59 When to sell

Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Akshay Ramachandran is a retired family office investor. In his last role, Akshay was the sole analyst at a New York-based single family office, reporting directly to the portfolio manager. Together they analyzed over 60 industries using a simple strategy: buy and hold great businesses run by great management teams. In this episode, he explains his biggest winner and covers the whole story.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:43 Defining retirement: cost of living vs net worth
3:04 Immigrant upbringing & discovering value investing
4:40 From NYU to Wall Street & joining a family office
7:58 Learning to analyze businesses & six key questions
10:33 Carvana deep dive: customer experience, lending & unit economics
17:03 Filtering noise, short reports & thinking in 10-year terms
22:21 Studying great long-term hedge funds & idea sourcing via 13F filings
25:17 Sponsor: Capitalpad - a marketplace for small business deals
26:19 What really matters: returns, time horizon & simple return math
36:16 When to sell: being wrong, better opportunities & thesis playing out
43:21 Leaving Wall Street for Buddhism & moving back to India
48:41 Enlightenment, meditation & inner transformation
55:21 Blending investing with spirituality, Substack & what’s next

Sponsored by CapitalPad:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform

Discuss investment ideas with Akshay: https://substack.com/@realreturns

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

There’s a holding company that almost no one talks about, yet it might be one of the most efficient compounding engines.

RÖKO owns 29 niche, traditional businesses, runs 21% margins, generates 14.5% returns on capital and keeps acquiring new companies every quarter. And they do all of this with a headquarters team of just eight people.

In this episode, I break down the full story behind RÖKO and its 63-year-old founder Fredrik Karlsson, the former CEO of Lifco - one of Sweden’s legendary serial acquirers. After two decades mastering the art of permanent capital, Karlsson left to build his own vehicle. Six years later, RÖKO is worth billions.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 The hidden $2B holding company with 29 businesses
0:34 Who is Fredrik Karlsson? (Ex-Lifco CEO turned founder)
1:40 Röko’s launch: $20-25M founder capital + $200M raised
2:15 Portfolio breakdown: 29 companies across B2B and B2C
3:00 Q3 2025 results: 21% margins, 14.5% ROCE
4:46 How Röko scaled faster than any European serial acquirer
5:41 Why Röko only buys high-margin (15%+) asset-light companies
6:22 Sector-agnostic strategy and disciplined capital allocation
7:07 Risks Karlsson fears most: recession and bad managers
8:29 Röko HQ model: one Excel sheet, zero micromanagement

Sponsored by CapitalPad:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Ian Rickwood, Founder and CEO of Henley Group, has quietly deployed $4B+ across US and Europe, built and sold food chains, and is now rolling up US car washes using AI-driven site selection. We also dive into what great operator partners look like, how to handle bad deals, and what it’s really like to build a serious firm with your spouse and kids.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 “Don’t give up” Ian’s core lesson on entrepreneurship and resilience
0:34 Who is Ian Rickwood and what is Henley Group?
1:04 The scale of Henley today: capital, sectors, and strategy
3:02 Early career: Procter & Gamble and Pepsi
5:02 Discovering Subway & winning the master franchise
7:04 “More margin in the lease than in the sandwich” real estate awakening
11:01 From 17 Subways to buying Benjys
13:03 Scaling Benjys to 90 stores + ~200 ‘vanchises’… then getting crushed
15:05 A tough exit and what it taught Ian
17:04 Starting Henley from lifestyle dev to serious platform
19:03 Surviving the GFC and pivoting the model
21:03 A 12-year run and Henley’s track record
22:07 Building a firm with your spouse “colors and numbers”
25:08 Bringing the kids into the business (without ruining them)
29:04 Dealing with bad deals and problem assets
31:02 Geographic expansion Holland, Germany, Poland, Ireland
33:06 Entering the US and timing the exit
33:56 From deal-by-deal to first fund
37:03 “It’s all about the deal” capital vs conviction
40:13 Sponsor: Capitalpad marketplace for acquisition deals
41:20 What a perfect operator/entrepreneur partner looks like
43:03 Reading people in a 60-minute meeting
45:02 Why car washes? Entering a ‘boring’ but beautiful business
47:03 The failed first platform: overpaying, over-spending, bad sites
48:00 Rebuilding from scratch: launching Aquasonic the right way
49:02 Data, AI and picking car wash sites
52:05 The most expensive beliefs Ian has changed
55:11 Big-picture lessons keep learning, don’t give up, pivot fast
57:17 Favorite books and how Ian unwinds
57:47 Closing thoughts and wrap-up

Sponsored by CapitalPad:
https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platform

Follow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.