Devin and Jim take a random walk down their reading list of favorite business and research books.  We mention some old favorites and some hidden gems and talk about ParkerGale's official reading club's August selection.

Summer Reading List

Hosted by Devin Mathews and Jim Milbery, partners at ParkerGale Capital, a middle-market private equity group.  This bi-weekly show is a lively discussion of the uses of technology to improve business operations for companies with less than $100 million in revenue.

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In this interview, Jim and Yuval Yeret discuss the implementation and challenges of agile methodologies within the private equity space. Yuval has extensive experience in product development, and he emphasizes the importance of principle-driven agility over rigid adherence to frameworks. While agile practices originated in software development, their application is beneficial across various industries and organizational functions. Companies often struggle with "agile theater," where companies follow agile rules without understanding the process. Effective agile adoption requires cross-functional collaboration, adaptability in strategic planning, and the ability to balance customer flexibility with engineering realities. Yuval shares examples from biotech and healthcare, illustrating how agility can extend to broader business operations. He also discusses the role of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) as strategic guides rather than rigid metrics. Finally, Yuval underscores the unique position of private equity firms and consultants in driving agile transformations through pragmatic, principle-based solutions.

Understanding the Agile/Agility Ecosystem

Product positioning expert April Dunford joins Operating Partner Paul Stansik to talk about the curse of product pessimism (and how to fix it), why most software companies struggle to create a winning sales pitch, and how better product positioning fits into an effective growth plan for an emerging tech company.

How to Avoid Product Pessimism + Build a Better Sales Pitch (With Special Guest April Dunford)

Ryan Milligan dives deeper into our investment in Big Band Software, joined by Big Band founders Kevin McArdle (CEO), Chris Reedy (Head of Acquisitions), and Jason Heath (COO). Throughout the discussion, the team covers what companies, founders and executives they target, where they think the opportunity lies, and how they aim to scale this consolidation effort.

Big Band Software

"Value Creation" - It's one of the most over-used terms in private equity today. What does value creation mean? What's wrong with how investors talk about their value creation approach? And how does ParkerGale think about its strategy for value creation? Operating Partners Jim and Paul get real about the PG value creation playbook - and have some fun along the way - in the latest episode of the Funcast. 

Getting Real About Value Creation in PE

We welcome back our friends Christoph and Peter from FLEX Capital in Berlin, Germany. Our conversation covers everything you would expect . . . how is the tech market holding up in Europe, how is deal flow, are deals getting done, are founders selling or holding on, where are valuations today compared to a few years ago, how is the fundraising market, what does competition for deals look like? We also cover the basics, such as what Christoph and Peter look for in a deal, what they will and won't do, and how that has changed over time. Here are their emails if you'd like to connect . . . pw@flex.capital and cj@flex.capital

Summer Reading List

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