Off the Path

My guest is Ramin Zacharia, a former investment banking analyst and associate who left to start RTD Insights, a business that provides services to CFOs and COOs at growth-stage companies. More specifically, this includes building financial models, developing monthly reporting packages, creating investor decks, and much more. As a company of one today, Ramin leveraged the banking skillset and know-how to bootstrap his way to managing an impressive book of business from which he has multiple interesting avenues to grow. Please enjoy our conversation.

My guest is Lowell Hays, a former consultant and the current CEO of QB Labs, a business that he acquired through a holding company that he operates with his wife, Kelly – also an ex-consultant. Lowell sheds light on an interesting path known as the search fund model, which allows you to become an entrepreneur by acquiring an existing business with existing products and customers versus having to start from scratch. With his tombstone logic, Lowell is the ultimate long-term thinker but manages to remain very much in the present. He's also someone who lives intentionally while also relying heavily on his gut. You'll have to just listen to see what I mean. I learned a lot from this conversation and hope you will too.

My guest is Henry Cowie. Henry is the head of commercial partnerships and a founding employee at Bartesian, a startup that's created a machine for making premium cocktails. It's a product that's been praised by the likes of Oprah and the CES for its innovation. Henry started his career as an investment banking analyst before moving to Strategy & Corp Dev at Beam Suntory. There he developed a knowledge of the spirits market, identified his passion for growing small businesses, and first became introduced to Bartesian.

My guest today is Jeff Gendelman. A former investment banking analyst and private equity associate, Jeff currently serves as Strategic Execution Lead for Califia Farms, a plant-based food and beverage company based in Los Angeles. In this episode, we get to hear about his experience making the shift from investment banking to private equity to operations and learn about the benefits of identifying an industry you love and going deep on it.