The episode of Pencil’s Down features Kirk Michie, founder of Candor Advisors, a boutique investment bank and transaction advisory firm. Host Fed Baradello’s conversation with Michie uncovered Kirk’s unique approach at Candor, focusing on founder-centric advisory and transaction services, all undergirded by uncompromising values. 

Their broad-ranging and engaging conversation touched on many topics, including Kirk’s path from a financial advisor to leading his own firm; taking a holistic, purpose-driven approach focused on founders’ goals and not just maximizing fees; his emphasis on integrity and persistence as core values, standing up for founders against predatory buyers, and his aim to be a “guru, guide and gladiator.”

Fed and Kirk also discussed recent trends in investment banking and opportunities for greater leverage through collaboration platforms like Finalis. Their conversation was an extraordinary manifestation of the power of storytelling. Don’t miss it!

As fellow “recovering lawyers,” Pencils Down host Fed Baradello and True North’s Ed Gehres engage in a fascinating conversation about how their deep experiences in the field of law prepared them for great productivity and success in investment banking. Sound legal training leads to clarity in execution of business strategy.

Join Fed and Ed in this episode as they delve into a wide array of issues, including the blurring line between professional services and technology, and how this development has served their respective firms—a particularly timely discussion given how crypto and AI have recently swept the economic and investment banking landscape.

Investment banker and The Silicon Valley Podcast host Shawn Flynn’s turn as a podcast guest with Pencils Down host Fed Baradello is a beautifully rendered story of how human life is relationship-based, in all its fantastic and motley diversity. We all go through the twists and turns of fate and circumstance, and Shawn’s is a story of finding opportunities in the most unlikely of places. Join him and Fed in this episode of Pencils Down, be delightfully lost in their converging stories… and then find the amazing inspiration and life lessons in both of theirs. This will surely go down as an epic episode of this podcast.

Having spent several decades at the world’s largest bulge bracket banks, including UBS, the ING consortium in Europe, Goldman Sachs, Martin Teevan provides an incredible, behind-the-scenes story in his transition to becoming an independent boutique investment banker with Sheehan Finance, in this latest episode of Pencils Down. Join host Federico Baradello as Marty details what it’s been like, leveraging the experience of being at a bulge bracket bank, and exercising his own brand equity in the investment banking markets. Of particular interest to Finalis’ audience is how Marty’s experience demonstrates and manifests the notion of virtual organizations forming dynamically—and profitably—around collaboration opportunities in the brand-new space of the Finalis Marketplace platform.

It’s almost a cliché that dealmaking in the investment-banking space is a relationship-driven dynamic. Independent investment bankers like to claim this as a fundamental aspect of their work in the business. But it’s the stories behind this dynamic that make it truly come alive as something real and practical—where genuine practitioners of it become worthy of being emulated, and which indeed are inspiring.

Graeme Woods’ story is one such inspiring narrative. Join Graeme and Pencils Down host Fed Baradello as they talk about Graeme’s journey through investment banking, and the noble goals his career arc is leading towards, as a direct consequence of the compassion and vision he has had for his clients over the years.

It’s almost a cliché in the cultural narrative of the U.S.—attaining the so-called “American Dream” and how people here live that out. Sam Kelly’s story reflects a singular aspect of that: how Americans outside of the mainstream—specifically those from migrant or immigrant backgrounds, communities of color, those from the socioeconomic margins, etc.—reach for that dream, and define it for themselves. 
In this episode of Pencils Down, Sam reflects back on his public school and undergraduate days, where he had little direction and knew only that he didn’t want to go into government work, as his parents had done. And through his own readings and his gumption to try something different beyond the expectations of his peers and community, found himself working in private equity and finance, after college. 
Join host Fed Baradello in this human—and humane—story of bootstrapping a life in the financial industry, as it were, via Sam Kelly’s journey into the beating heart of global finance in New York City, USA. Beginning as it did at the very start of the Covid pandemic, Sam’s story about founding Solomon Gideon Capital is extraordinary in its parts, and in its whole.

As befits a modern, 21st century industry, investment banking is comprised of people with all sorts of backgrounds and from all walks of life. There are outliers, of course, and this episode of Pencils Down has one such individual as its guest.

Before founding Ithron Advisors, Michael Grotell was involved in high net worth marketing in jewelry and fine art, was an award-winning writer, a change management guru, had dual degrees in Economic History and History of Art, among a multitude of other things. 

A self-styled “CEO whisperer,” Mike shares with host Fed Baradello and his podcast audience some fascinating secrets and insights about his storied career both in and out of the investment banking world.

In this episode of Pencils Down, Matt Epstein, founder and Managing Partner at Newbold Partners LLC, joins host Federico Baradello in a wide-ranging and often deep discussion about his journey into independent investment banking. There was an element of sheer luck, particularly in the way the Covid-19 pandemic intersected with the founding of Epstein’s firm; but also elements of sharp and very profitable insight with respect to what he calls a hybrid merchant banking model. Hear all about that intriguing story in this episode.

Nick McShane, founder of Progress Partners, shares his experience of working with pioneering internet companies and his journey to founding a boutique investment bank that now helps startups with M&A, go-to-market strategy, and accessing new markets. 

Nick McShane makes for a fascinating guest on this latest episode of Finalis’ Pencils Down podcast, having experienced first-hand the meteoric rise of the internet during the late ‘90s to early 2000s and working with some of the worldwide web’s pioneering companies. He went on to found Progress Partners, a boutique investment bank, and has since been helping startups with strategy work, go-to-market strategy, and accessing new markets. With 35 people based in Boston, New York, and Washington DC, Progress Partners is now also involved with M&A and helping clients who are ready to buy and sell companies. 

Listen to this episode to learn about Nick's unique journey to founding Progress Partners and his perspective on the modern world of investment banking.

Earlier this year, Finalis took a major step forward, expanding overseas with the launch of its 15a-6 chaperoning line of business, introducing the UK investment banking sector to Finalis’ tech-enabled regulatory compliance solution.

Join Finalis CEO Fed Baradello and his Pencils Down guest, Mathew McConnell, the company’s new International Business Manager, as they discuss how non-U.S. boutique investment bankers can gain efficient and expedited access to US capital markets via Finalis’ platform. And, conversely, how bankers on the Finalis platform can potentially access deals and funders in the UK and, eventually, across the EU.