M&A Masters

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Dan Phelps, Founder and Managing Director of Salt Creek Capital, based in Silicon Valley. Salt Creek Capital is a lower middle-market private equity firm that partners with talented executives to acquire profitable small businesses across the United States. Dan earned his MBA at the University of Chicago and spent time in both venture and smaller private equity investing experiences before founding Salt Creek Capital over 11 years ago. 

“We're identifying businesses that we believe would be quite attractive investment candidates. We look at financials and the competitive landscape while our executive partners look at operational issues and how well their background and skill set match up with that business. When those two things come together, the operator sees an opportunity to leverage or strengthen experiences and we see a great acquisition candidate,” says Dan.

We speak with Dan about giving sellers more comfort and confidence during transactions, as well as:

• Preparing for changes in leadership with the Executive Partner Program
• The need to quickly implement new software and systems
• Creating opportunities for organic growth using the expertise of the new executives
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Ed Bryant, President and CEO of Sampford Advisors. Sampford Advisors is the most active investment banking firm in Canada, focusing on the lower middle market tech sector, specifically software M&A. Sampford now has offices here in Austin, Texas, and was recently named by Axial as a member of the Top 20 Thought Leaders in the lower middle market for 2020. 

We chat about the trends toward software investing, as well as:

• The mindset behind the name of a company
• Sampford’s laser focus on the middle market to outperform their competitors
• Understanding the nuances of businesses in the lower middle market
• Fostering private equity relationships
• Reps and Warranties and the choices behind insuring transactions
• And more

Our special guest on this week’s episode of M&A Masters is Brett Hickey, the Founder & CEO of Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a specialized U.S. lower middle-market investment firm. Star Mountain employs a data-driven approach to provide value-added debt and equity capital to established small and medium-sized private companies, leveraging its scale-driven resources and longstanding relationships.

Brett graduated from McGill University with a finance and accounting degree and has over 20 years of investment and advisor experience, with over 15 years specifically focused on the U.S. private small and medium-sized business marketplace. He chairs Star Mountain’s Charitable Foundation which supports the career development of women, veterans, and athletes, as well as health & wellness initiatives, including cancer research. 

We chat with Brett about the surprises that have come out of the pandemic, as well as:

• The influence of growing up in a small town on his company today
• Learning from those who are already immersed in the financial culture
• The Utility Curve of Money
• The North Star of the company and their guiding values
• Impact Investing
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Peter Lehrman. Peter serves lower middle market owners, acquirers, and advisors as CEO of Axial, the largest trusted online platform used for safely buying, selling, and financing private companies. Over the last 10 years, Axial has established a single well-known platform that business owners and deal professionals alike trust to discover and connect with new transaction partners.

Peter says, “The whole idea behind Axial was to develop a trusted platform on the internet where buyers and sellers of lower middle market businesses can find, connect with, and be found by one another at the right points in time, and on the right opportunities.”

We chat about the origins and philosophy of Axial as well as:

• The big differences between the lower middle market and the venture capital community
• The common practices of evolving out of the lower middle market
• 10,000+ PE-backed portfolio companies looking for an add-on target
• Navigating the overabundance of choices in the LMM
• Trends to watch in 2021— retail 2.0 and the rise of independent sponsors and individual buyers
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we’re joined by return guest, Codie Sanchez. Codie is the managing director of Entourage Effect Capital Partners and one of the most sought out speakers in the cannabis business. She also co-leads Unconventional Acquisitions, an educational resource making the buying of businesses accessible to anyone willing to put in the work.

Codie says, “If you have the mindset to be an entrepreneur and to get to go and grind and build your own thing, you have the ability to be a deal maker, and to buy businesses, period.”

We chat with Codie about the abundance of opportunities to buy small businesses right now, as well as…

• The commoditization of buying businesses
• The timeline of businesses on the market
• The Laundromat Model
• The 9 Steps to Buying a Business, including the mindset required to close the deal
• The magic of “Deal-maker glasses” and seeing opportunities everywhere
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Jessica Ginsberg, Director of Business Development for LFM Capital. Leaders for Manufacturing Capital, or LFM, is a Nashville-based private equity firm founded by operators and engineers, investing in manufacturing companies in the US and Canada. Jessica manages business development and investment sourcing activities, and brings over 13 years of experience in the private equity, investment, and commercial banking sectors in a variety of roles in addition to earning a BS in Finance and Accounting from Georgetown University.

“It's a more complicated logistical process to get a deal done virtually, so I think you have to take a deep breath and just remember that there are a lot of parties involved that have different comfort levels. And, during these wild times, it might take another couple weeks to get a deal closed, but just remember what the finish line is and work hard to get there”, says Jessica.

We chat about experiencing the manufacturing renaissance, as well as:

• Offering creative solutions for small business owners
• Honoring the expectations of manufacturing owners
• Overcoming obstacles to building trust online
• Virtual manufacturing meetings and remote decision making
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Sean Edmondson and Adam Deutsch. Sean is Vice President at Tecum Capital, a middle market multi-strategy private equity investment platform, and Adam Deutsch is the Director, Co-founder, and CFO of NewHold Investment Corporation, a holding company and private investment firm. 

Sean says, “Let's buy companies that truly fit the mold of what we're trying to build, and not try to force a financial engineering situation.”

We chat about upholding a family legacy, as well as:

• Forming strategic partnerships
• The precision manufacturing and machine market 
• Structuring responsibly for sustainable growth
• Transparency and trust for better transactions
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we’re joined by special guest, Sean Alford, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at J2 Global, an internet information and services company that includes IGN, Mashable, Humble Bundle, and more across digital media and cloud services segments. 

Sean says, “It's pretty systematized when you handle the volume of transactions that we handle, you figure out what works and what doesn't work. And through the course of the 180 plus transactions that we've done, we've figured out the playbook that works. And there are different playbooks that work for different situations. We've got these different playbooks that we're able to slot into different scenarios, and it helps to have had the reps and to have made mistakes and learn from them and improve the process as a result.”

We chat about applying strategies to various transactions, as well as:

• The ideal targets for the different J2 global segments
• Pressing pause at the start of the pandemic to clarify processes
• Warranty policies on transactions
• Fourth quarter 2020 and first quarter 2021 expectations
• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Suzanne Yoon, Founder and Managing Partner of Kinzie Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago. Chicago Mergers and Acquisitions Magazine named Suzanne 2020’s most influential woman in mid-market M&A, and she’s also been recognized by The Wall Street Journal as a top female dealmaker, shaping private equities both present and future. Just recently, Kinzie Capital Partners was honored by the Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN) as the North American female-founded firm of the year for 2020.

“Really the start of Kinzie was based on an investment thesis around taking companies that were necessary for the economy, were going through some type of transition, and maybe had some age on them with regards to operations and technology, and being able to handhold, and through governance and technology initiatives, create more efficiencies, and also make sure that the infrastructure is in place to really take a company to the next step and think about growing. That was really our thesis,” says Suzanne.

We chat about Suzanne’s journey in the financial sector, as well as:

• Kinzie’s commitment to the lower-middle market

• The Kinzie Formula: av=f(K+O)T© — wherein accelerated value creation (av) is a function (f) of capital and operational improvement (K+O), compounded by technology (T)

• Her experience with rep and warranty insurance

• Her perspective on the future for women in finance

• And more

On this week’s episode of M&A Masters, we’re joined by special guest, Peter Lyall, Group Director of Strategy at Fifth Ring, a marketing communications, or marcomm, company with locations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. They promote the ultra-simple message of helping B2B companies sell more stuff and build better brands. Peter’s goal during this episode is to shed some light on the role of marcomms during M&A transactions and to explain why this is often a blind spot during the acquisition process.

“There are quite a few skeptics about the role of marcomms within an M&A transaction, even to the point of saying that the brand isn't important,” says Peter. “So, I did a little experiment: In a room of 50-60 people, I asked everybody to put up their hands if they had chosen their wristwatch because of the brand. They all had. Then I asked them if they’d chosen their car because of the brand. They all had. These people were very brand savvy, but couldn't quite transition this thought, this appeal, this attraction of a brand, from the consumer environment to the B2B environment, which is where they're living on a day to day basis.”

We chat in detail about:

• Legacy issues and the challenge they pose to marcomms post-acquisition

• Implementing cultural values and brand messaging

• Utilizing employees as brand ambassadors in messaging

• Why cultural integration is a blind spot in M&A

• Structuring multi-brand portfolios

• The power of 3— Where 3 words can change everything

• The future of energy

• New tools to measure the intangible

• And more