Investors & Operators

Episode 159: John Koeppel, Partner and Team Leader, Private Equity and Independent Sponsors, Lippes Mathias LLP

John is a Partner at Lippes Mathias LLP, where he sits on the Executive Committee and leads the firm's Private Equity and Independent Sponsor practices. In more than 25 years, he has led 250+ transactions, including M&A, fund and SPV formations, co-investments and financings, ranging from $5M to more than $250M, with a focus on direct deals. Before joining Lippes, he was a partner in the private equity and investment funds group at an Am Law 100 firm. John earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Law, and his B.S./M.B.A. from the University at Buffalo.

Topics:

• The State of Independent Sponsor Capital
• The Three Economic Levers: Closing Fee, Advisory Fee and Carry
• When to Use a Placement Agent
• Earnouts, Rollover and Seller Notes to Bridge Valuation Gaps
• C Corp vs. Flow-Through: QSBS and Bonus Depreciation
• A Section-by-Section Walkthrough of a Template LOI

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

• The shortage is quality deals, not capital.
• "The lack of supply is on quality deals, not on capital," John says. He counts 318 SBICs and well over 1,000 capital providers active in the space, alongside an estimated 5,000+ independent sponsors. Deal sizes are climbing too: John closed a $140 million independent sponsor deal this year, something he says the market would have laughed at five years ago. The good deals get funded, and the number one differentiator in finding the right equity partner is whether that firm has invested successfully in your sector before. Instead of going out to 1,000 groups, find the 20 to 40 that love your space.
• Know the three economic levers, and where they bend.
• Every independent sponsor deal comes down to a closing fee, an ongoing advisory fee and carried interest. The closing fee is typically 2% of enterprise value, or $200K on a $10M deal, and is usually rolled into equity as profits interests, though first-time sponsors can sometimes negotiate part of it in cash. The advisory fee is most often 5% of EBITDA, and can go higher in the first year or two when the sponsor is rolling up their sleeves. Carry typically starts once the capital partner gets its money back plus an 8% preferred return, then steps up in tiers. One term savvy sponsors never overlook is broken-deal coverage: many capital partners will cover 80% or more of expenses if the deal falls apart.
• Every LOI has a missing party at the table.
• "There's really three parties to every IS deal. There's the buyer, there's the seller, and there's the capital," John says. When the LOI gets signed, the capital isn't in the room. A seller may love a massive earnout, but that structure may not be fundable once debt and equity partners weigh in. Seller notes of about a turn of EBITDA at 6% to 10% are common, typically junior and unsecured. And exclusivity is "not even close" the most important section for any buyer. It's one of the few binding provisions in an LOI, and sellers increasingly ask independent sponsors for a proof-of-funds checkpoint at day 45 or 60 to keep it.

About Lippes Mathias LLP

Lippes Mathias LLP is a national law firm with more than 220 attorneys across 17 offices in the U.S. and Canada. Its Private Equity and Independent Sponsor practice, led by John, focuses on direct deals in the lower middle market, supported by a team of 30+ professionals across tax, finance and the specialty areas needed to close a deal. The firm was recently ranked one of the top three law firms in the direct deal and independent sponsor space, and it tripled its independent sponsor deal volume last year.

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Sean is President of the Eastern Operations Area at TurnPoint Services, a Trivest portfolio company, where he oversees a $640M P&L with about 2,200 employees across 27 brands and 33 locations. Four years ago, he served as a Marine Raider officer in special operations. He's also a member of 51 Vets.

Topics:

• Hiring Veterans for Execution
• Marine Raider Selection
• The Military-to-Business Transition
• Scaling Leadership from 150 to 2,000 People

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

• Execution is the most underrated skill in a portfolio company.

Many veterans don't know how to talk about their soft skills once they're out of uniform, so they undersell them. Sean's message to PE firms is that people who can both build a plan and carry it out are rare, and special operations trains exactly that. He calls them "strategic executors." For sponsors building leadership benches, hiring for those traits can matter as much as industry experience.

• Scaling a team takes the same skills, used on purpose.

Sean's largest Marine unit was about 150 people. Getting to 2,000 came down to delegation, commander's intent (a shared end state everyone works toward), a rigorous plan, and accountability. At TurnPoint, leadership's job is to set that intent rather than make thousands of frontline decisions a day. Sean still stays close to the work: he's "in an attic every single month, digging a trench" with the technicians who carry out TurnPoint's mission to "turn bad days into good ones."

• No mistake is permanent.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Sean tried to fix everything at once, which went against how he'd been trained. The turnaround began when he went back to solving the problem in front of him, starting with 11.5 days of GMAT prep that got him into Duke's Fuqua School of Business. He now coaches new leaders to watch for "Superman syndrome" around day 45, when taking on everything alone leads to task saturation.

About TurnPoint Services

TurnPoint Services is a family of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical brands serving residential and light commercial customers, with a mission to "turn bad days into good ones." The company partners with established local service businesses, keeping their brand names and founders' legacies while adding back-office support, training, and modern systems. Its brands share a servant-led culture built on three customer promises: no needless delays, no cutting corners, and no nonsense. Sean leads TurnPoint's Eastern Operations Area, which spans 27 brands, 33 locations, and about 2,200 employees.

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• 400+ videos
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Robin is the Head of Technology Investment Banking at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., where he leads a 50-banker team spanning 12 tech verticals. He has 30+ years of investment banking experience advising high-growth technology companies on M&A and capital raising.

Topics:

• AI in Investment Banking
• Tech Market Outlook
• Strategically Hiring Senior Talent
• Building a Collaborative Culture

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

• Growth opportunities are increasingly coming from venture-backed targets. Most of the M&A activity Robin's team is seeing isn't traditional buyouts but portcos making strategic acquisitions to build out their existing platforms. Oppenheimer’s recent sale of Kentik to PE-backed Infoblox is one example. For sponsors, it’s a reason to look beyond the traditional add-on universe when building their M&A pipelines.
• The best use of AI may be capacity creation rather than headcount reduction. Oppenheimer is using an internal analytics tool to offload model-building, SEC data pulls, and other repetitive work. Robin sees the payoff not as needing fewer bankers, but as giving the existing team more capacity to process transactions and spend time with clients. The practical opportunity is to identify where AI can remove execution bottlenecks, then deliberately reinvest that capacity rather than treating efficiency as the end goal.
• High-stakes moments are built through low-stakes repetition. Robin learned that lesson rowing at Harvard, where months of repetitive training came down to a handful of six-minute races. Dealmaking requires the same discipline: keep doing the work when the payoff is distant, so you’re ready when the moment that matters arrives.

About Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. is a full-service investment bank and wealth manager. Robin leads its technology investment banking group, with about 50 bankers across 12 verticals, from semiconductors and enterprise software to defense tech and aerospace. The team has advised on transactions including Backblaze's 2021 IPO, Corvex's $33M data-center financing, and Gilat's ~$157.5M acquisition of Comtech's satellite and space communications segment.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

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• Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, CRM Support & more
• 400+ videos
• 100+ projects
• #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Vern Davenport is a Partner at QHP Capital with 35+ years of experience building and transforming healthcare technology and services businesses. Vern is the author of Accelerating Growth, which lays out QHP’s approach to scaling companies through its Management System.

Allison Crumpler is the former VP of People & Culture at Catalyst Clinical Research. A professional Certified Coach with 15+ years of experience in clinical research, Allison focuses on leadership development, organizational culture, and employee engagement.

Topics:

1. Why Culture Drives Performance
2. Turning Values Into Behaviors
3. How to Kill Watermelon Metrics
4. Scaling Culture Across a Portfolio

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. Values become culture through repetition. Operationalizing values means defining the behaviors behind them, teaching them, and reinforcing them in practice. Allison calls it the “Mr. Miyagi” approach: repeat those behaviors over and over, even when they feel obvious. That repetition is what embeds them into the organization and gives managers and employees a shared language for accountability.
2. Measure culture with leading indicators, not just engagement surveys. Allison shares a few of the metrics Catalyst used to measure culture beyond traditional engagement and turnover data. They called them “Key Culture Indicators”: employee referrals, town hall attendance and time to hire. Put a target against each indicator, review it alongside operating KPIs, and set a more ambitious target once the current one is consistently achieved.
3. Make the financials visible so everyone knows how they contribute. An individual contributor in a 1,000-person company can't see how they move EBITDA, so they disengage. Catalyst shared key company metrics across the organization, then helped teams understand how their own work affected sales, customer satisfaction and financial performance. Transparency turned "just doing my job" into "we win or lose together."

About QHP

QHP Capital is a private equity firm focused on middle-market life sciences and pharma services businesses. With $4.5B+ in AUM, QHP combines decades of sector experience with an operator-led approach to investing. Across its portfolio, the firm implements its proprietary Management System to build stronger leadership teams, operating infrastructure and commercial capabilities and support long-term, independent growth.

About Catalyst Clinical Research

Catalyst Clinical Research is a technology-enabled clinical research organization (CRO) specializing in oncology and providing clinical development services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies globally.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, CRM Support & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

John Block is the Co-Founder and CEO of Unity Partners. He launched the firm in 2022 after nearly a decade as a Partner at HGGC, where he sat on the boards of more than ten services and software companies. A St. Louis native, John is a self-described grinder who runs most mornings and throws an annual paella party for the whole team.

Topics:

1. Employee Purpose Plans
2. Narrowing a Five-Year Plan
3. Buy-and-Build vs. Slap-and-Sell Integration
4. The 1% Better Model in Diligence and Ops

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. Big five-year goals require a narrow year-one plan. Unity maps a five-year "passion for excellence" plan, usually five goals across growth, tech, and market positioning. Before the investment closes, Unity works with the leadership team to choose the 2–3 priorities that matter most in year one. Three priorities beat five because a founder chasing everything at once accomplishes nothing well. As John puts it, they got "manic about getting focused" after learning the hard way.
2. Employee equity only works with an ownership culture behind it. Unity ties its employee ownership plans to a clear return objective, then communicates progress openly along the way. For companies without a defined exit, John suggests adapting the same model around a three-year revenue or earnings goal with a bonus pool accrued against it.
3. Repeatability comes from a consistent framework, not an identical playbook. John describes Unity’s model as closer to building custom homes than identical row houses: there is a common blueprint and framework, but execution changes by company. The practical implication is to standardize the process for building the plan without assuming every portfolio company needs the same plan.

About Unity Partners

Unity Partners is a Dallas-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. The firm makes control investments in large, fragmented services industries, essential and recurring businesses across both field- and office-based services. Since launching in 2022, Unity has built eight platforms and invests out of a fund of roughly $330M. Its philosophy runs on the idea of “Building Better Together.”

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, Growth Support & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Brandon Fix is a Division General Manager at Renuity Home, where he leads one of the company's largest operating divisions. A former U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Officer, he brings a systems-driven approach to leadership, translating military decision-making, operational discipline, and team development into managing complex businesses and P&Ls.

Topics:

1. Why Special Ops Make Elite Operators
2. The Military-to-P&L Mental Model
3. Building a Sales Org That Scales
4. What Servant Leadership Means

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. Great operators see people behind every line item. Brandon doesn't treat a P&L as a spreadsheet to optimize. According to his military-to-P&L mental model, marketing is intelligence, sales are the first team into the field, operations deliver the mission, and support functions enable execution. When conversion drops, he looks at sales leadership before the sales report. When marketing underperforms, he asks whether the team has the right intelligence. Financial performance to him is the outcome of how well those teams are led.
2. At scale, your biggest lever is talent. As Brandon's organization grew to a 1,000-person, $350M division, he couldn't be everywhere at once. His job shifted from solving problems to making sure the right leaders were solving them. That meant hiring leaders who can operate independently, coaching them well, and making tough people decisions before small leadership gaps become big operational problems.
3. Don't just build skills, learn to communicate them. Brandon believes his military experience gave him the leadership skills to run a business. But earning that opportunity required learning the language of finance, operations, and private equity so employers could connect his experience to the role. His advice: learn to translate your experience into the language of the role you're pursuing.

About Renuity Home

Renuity Home is one of the largest home improvement platforms in the U.S., providing replacement windows, doors, bathrooms, kitchens, garages, closets, and other remodeling services through a family of national and regional brands. The company operates across 40 states, employs 1,000+ people, and has served over 300,000 homeowners, making it a notable example of building scale through acquisitions while preserving strong local operating brands.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, Growth Support & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Before leading value creation at Brightstar Capital Partners, Chris Nicolini served as an Army officer, ran large-scale manufacturing operations, and led transformation efforts at General Electric. Today, he brings those lessons to founder-led businesses navigating growth, talent challenges, AI adoption, and operational change.

Topics:

1. AI Implementation at PE firms
2. Building a Repeatable Hiring Pipeline
3. Integration Best Practices
4. Strategy as Alignment, Not Just a Plan
5. Restructuring Frameworks

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. Successful AI adoption starts with problems, not tools. At Brightstar, AI initiatives start with a business problem. During AI hackathons, teams identify a bottleneck, repetitive task, or inefficiency, then spend the day building a solution around it. The biggest AI wins come from eliminating friction and repetitive work, rather than accumulating more tools.

1. Build a hiring flywheel, not a hiring process. Chris grew a maintenance team from 2 to 25 people by building a hiring system that consistently recruited electrical and mechanical engineers from the Naval Power Training Unit. The lesson: scalable hiring comes from building a repeatable talent pipeline, not filling roles one at a time.

1. Strategy only works when the team is aligned. Many leaders mistake strategy for a plan. The real test is whether the team understands where the company is going, why it matters, and what role they play in getting there. A brilliant plan without buy-in is just a document.

1. Understand the cause before cutting the cost. When performance declines, many companies immediately look for expenses to cut. Chris argues the better approach is to first understand why those costs exist. Some expenses are inefficiencies. Others directly support revenue generation, customer retention, or growth. Cut the wrong one, and you can make the problem worse.

About Brightstar Capital Partners

Brightstar is a middle-market private equity firm that invests in founder-led businesses across business services, industrials, government services, and tech. The firm works closely with management teams on growth, talent, operational transformation, and AI adoption, combining hands-on operational expertise with emerging technologies to create value across the portfolio.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. AGM Support, Video, Marketing Strategy, Brand Identity, Web Design & Development, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Alex Russ is the Head of Americas for Evercore’s Private Funds Group. He advises PE sponsors on fundraising strategy, LP positioning, and market navigation, with a focus on helping managers differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive capital environment.

Hilary LaBrash is a Managing Director in Evercore’s Private Funds Group, where she works closely with emerging and established managers on fundraising preparation, messaging, and investor strategy.

Topics:

1. Fundraising Environment in 2026
2. First Close Strategy & Fund Sizing
3. 360 Feedback & LP Pre-Wiring
4. What Differentiates a GP
5. Emerging Manager Playbook

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. You only get one first impression with LPs. Alex and Hilary emphasized that many Emerging Managers rush into market before the story, team, or positioning is fully ready. In a crowded fundraising environment, LPs rarely “reset” their perception later. If you show up to that first meeting half-prepared, LPs may start questioning readiness, infrastructure, and execution.

1. LPs care about organizational health more than most GPs realize. Alex and Hilary talked about how the best firms create long-term alignment by promoting talent internally, evolving economics as the firm grows, and giving younger partners real opportunity over time. When firms fail to do that, spinouts often follow. For LPs, team stability and incentive alignment are strong indicators of whether a manager can execute consistently across multiple fund cycles.

1. “Founder-friendly” is no longer a differentiator. Many firms use the same buzzwords — proprietary sourcing, operational value-add, founder relationships — making it harder for LPs to tell managers apart. What stands out today is a repeatable process: why you win deals, when you deploy operational resources, how you make decisions, and what specifically makes a company a fit for your strategy.

About Evercore

Evercore is one of the world's leading independent investment banking advisory firms, with $5+ trillion in announced transactions since founding. Their Private Funds Group works with PE, infrastructure, real estate, and private credit managers on fundraising strategy, positioning, and LP engagement—across institutional investors worldwide.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, CRM Support & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Andrew Nelson is Chief of Staff to the CEO at Waste Eliminator, where he helps drive strategic initiatives, operational execution, and growth across the company’s expanding footprint in the Southeast. Before entering the private sector, Andrew spent six years in the U.S. Army with 3rd Ranger Battalion, completing five deployments across Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He transitioned from the military in 2022 and later earned his MBA from Emory University.

Topics:

1. Why Portcos Need a Chief of Staff
2. Military Speed as a PE Advantage
3. The Military-to-Civilian Shift
4. Translating Military Skills Into Business

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. A Chief of Staff can become a force multiplier for a PE-backed CEO. Andrew described the role as part project manager, part operator, and part accountability driver. In lean portfolio companies where leadership teams are stretched thin, a Chief of Staff can help move strategic initiatives forward across operations, finance, systems, and growth projects simultaneously.

1. Clear ownership prevents projects from stalling. Andrew shared a military execution principle he still uses in business today: every task needs a clear owner, a standard, and a “time hack” — the agreed-upon deadline for completion. Many fast-growing companies struggle because ownership and timelines are vague. As projects pile up inside PE-backed businesses, unclear accountability often becomes the bottleneck that slows execution.

1. Military operators fit portfolio companies better than Fortune 500s. Andrew made the point that large corporations can feel slow and highly segmented, while lower middle market businesses offer more ownership, faster decision-making, and clearer impact. For many veterans, that environment feels much closer to the pace and accountability they were used to in the military.

1. The right network changes the trajectory of a transition. Andrew’s path to Waste Eliminator didn’t come through LinkedIn or a recruiter. It came through a direct introduction from a 51 Vets member who had already made a similar move. One of Andrew’s biggest takeaways was how valuable it is to have people a few years ahead of you who understand both the military background and the PE/portfolio company world. 51 Vets is that network, with 500+ members from the special operations and aviation communities and mentors across IB, PE, consulting, and operating roles.

About Waste Eliminator

Waste Eliminator is a waste and recycling platform focused on sustainable waste solutions and landfill diversion. The company handles a broad range of waste streams, serving customers from households to large commercial and industrial facilities. Backed by Allied Industrial Partners, Waste Eliminator has expanded through acquisitions and now operates across multiple locations throughout Georgia and the broader Southeast.

Investors & Operators is brought to you by 51 Labs

51 Labs is a marketing agency for the lower middle market. We offer full-service digital marketing for PE, portfolio companies, IB, VC, hedge funds.

1. Brand Identity, Marketing Strategy, Marketing & AGM Video, LinkedIn Strategy & Execution, Web Design & Development, CRM Support & more
2. 400+ videos
3. 100+ projects
4. #1 content creator on LinkedIn in the lower middle market

Mike Silva is an Investment Manager at CalPERS, where he has spent more than a decade leading the institution’s Emerging Manager Program across private equity, private debt, and real estate. He focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and advocating for emerging managers internally while helping shape CalPERS’ broader approach to middle-market and venture investing.

Topics:

1. Where Emerging Managers Should Focus First
2. Nailing the 30-Minute First Meeting
3. Timeline from First Meeting to Commitment
4. Seeding vs. Staking vs. Direct Investment

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

1. If you can’t explain your firm in 2 minutes, LPs will move on. Emerging Managers need to quickly distill their team, strategy, and differentiator into a narrative that sticks. LPs like Mike are meeting hundreds of managers a year. Long-winded explanations don't just waste time but signal a lack of clarity. The managers who cut through can clearly explain four things: who they are, what they invest in, why they're differentiated, and why it matters to that LP specifically.

1. LPs value predictability as much as performance. Mike made the point that trust starts forming well before capital is committed. LPs are watching whether managers actually execute what they said they would do: hiring the right people, closing the deals they discussed, and staying consistent with the strategy they pitched. Every update becomes proof of credibility.

1. Your IC dynamics matter more than you think. Mike shared that when evaluating Emerging Managers, he spends significant time understanding team dynamics: how long the partners have worked together, how investment committee decisions are made, whether there’s healthy debate, and how disagreement is handled. Strong track records matter, but LPs are also underwriting the decision-making culture that produced them.

About CalPERS

CalPERS is one of the largest public pension funds in the world, managing retirement and health benefits for California public employees, retirees, and their families. Through its Emerging Manager Program, CalPERS invests across private equity, private debt, and real estate, backing smaller and differentiated managers it believes can generate long-term outperformance and expand access to overlooked areas of the market.