Private Equity Value Creation Podcast

On this episode, Taylor McKinley and Chris Cassidy, partners on the investment and growth teams at Mainsail Partners, break down how 40-plus operators and a deal team work as one. Learn why engaging companies a year or more before investing helps win deals and how operating support gets factored into the investment thesis and diligence.

Hear why companies at $5–10 million of ARR need practical help rather than just more advisors, how to weigh where limited capacity goes across a portfolio after close and how a hands-on team of former CTOs can accelerate AI product development. Then learn what it takes to build this model at your own firm—letting portfolio needs dictate specialist hires, hiring people who have run the functions themselves and embedding collaboration in the culture.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Shiv Narayanan, Founder & CEO at How To SaaS, explains how AI platforms have changed the way buyers research and make purchase decisions, why being invisible to AI is a business continuity risk and what you can do about it.

Learn how platforms decide which vendors make a buyer's shortlist, why gated content works against you and why what customers say about you carries more weight than what you say yourself. Then hear how to measure your current visibility, find the gaps competitors are filling and build a roadmap that ties visibility to pipeline.

On this episode, Blair Garrou, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Mercury Fund, details the Mercury Method—a post-investment approach that borrows from private equity to lower loss ratios in early-stage venture. Learn how a 100-point operational hygiene audit surfaces the most urgent risks and how fractional executives fill weak functions until they hire their own replacements.

Hear how an in-house AI lab supports assessments and AI transitions across the portfolio, why building brand voice with a human first makes agent-written content work and how a $500 million portfolio company runs marketing with three people. Then learn why a formal liquidity program that starts two to three years before exit keeps companies ready to transact and why vertical software companies with real data moats, systems of record and deep industry expertise aren't going anywhere despite the SaaS apocalypse.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Jon Lange, Managing Director at THL Partners, unpacks how private equity firms decide when and how much operational support to deploy into a portfolio company, and why that decision is never one-size-fits-all.

Learn why the old software moat no longer holds up on its own, and what still makes a company defensible in an AI-native market. Then learn how AI is already automating work that used to take entire teams, from appointment scheduling to weeks-long demo production, and why the firms willing to stay humble about what they don't know yet are the ones pulling ahead.

On this episode, Jim Toth, Managing Partner at Riverside Acceleration Capital, discusses how an in-house operating team works with portfolio companies to drive growth. Learn how pattern recognition across hundreds of companies helps identify who's ready to scale, how tracking over 100 data points on every company can reveal which growth investments move the needle and why a structured, benchmarked assessment across sales, marketing and customer success decides exactly where to focus first.

Plus, hear why matching capital type to a company's stage matters as much as the size of the check, and learn a simple three-category framework for sorting AI's impact on a business.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Doyl Burkett, Managing Partner and Founder at Integrity Growth Partners, joins the show to talk AI-native deal sourcing. Learn how a two-person team can out-source firms ten times its size, and where that same system gets pointed once a company is in the portfolio.

Learn how to filter investments for AI risk using a simple framework of defensible moats, and see why the lower middle market may be where AI-driven sourcing creates the biggest edge.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Jesse Bendit, Principal at Apax Digital, joins the show to unpack how a private equity firm builds and funds a 30-person internal operating team without letting it become bloated. Learn why a pull model beats a push model for utilization, how staying concentrated in 15 to 20 investments per fund lets a team build real sector depth, and how that depth shows up during diligence, not just after close.

Hear why trust—rather than traditional SEO signals—is the new currency of visibility as search moves into LLMs. Plus, learn how to separate genuine AI risk from AI opportunity in a portfolio company, including why seat-based SaaS pricing is losing its power as a value proxy and how deep data and integration advantages can make AI a moat rather than a threat.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Dustin Ackerman, Managing Director at Future Standard, joins Shiv Narayanan to discuss secondaries and backing GPs, including how to turn existing sponsor relationships into a steady investment pipeline. Learn why focusing on portcos under $1 billion in enterprise value can mean less competition on price, cleaner cap structures and clearer exit paths, and how the GARP framework—growth at a reasonable price—separates real growth from margin sacrificed to chase it.

Hear how secondaries are split between LP-led and GP-led in today's market, and why repeat sellers are treating continuation vehicles as a portfolio management tool. Learn why exit activity in the middle market often stays more predictable than in the large-cap space, and how AI is reshaping due diligence and operational value creation across the portfolio.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Mike Esposito, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at Franchise Equity Partners, unpacks why multi-unit franchise investing has stayed an underserved niche in private equity, and what it takes to underwrite these deals well.

Learn how box economics—margins, rent and store format—separate the franchise brands worth backing from the ones that aren't, and why new-unit development, not same-store sales growth, drives most of the returns. Then hear how bringing data science and marketing discipline into overlooked "pre-moneyball" industries like car washes and garage door repair unlocks value most operators are leaving on the table.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Shiv Narayanan, Founder and CEO of How To SaaS, breaks down how to approach international and regional expansion as a growth lever, and why the first question you should be asking is: are we already capturing everything available in the markets we're in today?

Learn how to weigh the risk and investment required to expand geographically against other ways to grow, and why the right approach depends heavily on your business model and go-to-market motion. Then hear the spectrum of models companies use to enter new markets, from low-risk and opportunistic to full-scale localization or acquisition, and how to decide which one fits your business.