Demystifying Technology

Have you noticed unusual activity in the M&A market recently? Learn how the market has changed and which topics we now need to focus on as a result. Tune into our recent podcast discussing the 2021 Deal Points Study with Lisa Hedrick. Lisa, a partner with Hirschler law firm, is not only an M&A attorney but also leads one of the working groups responsible for the American Bar Association's Private Target Mergers and Acquisitions Deal Points Study. You might remember hearing Lisa on our podcast at the beginning of 2020. During that time, it was a seller-friendly market. What has changed since last we talked?

Would it surprise you to know the main currency in PE in addition to money is human capital? Curious what can be a deal breaker for both PE firm and portfolio? Listen to our CEO, and best selling author of the private equity book “Courage to Lose Sight of Shore”, Kelley Powell and Leon Brujis, Partner of Palladium Equity Partners discuss what backing a successful entrepreneur looks like.

It's that time of the year again. Curious to learn more about the new surge of developers and how that affects technology? Jim Milbery of ParkerGale joins Alan, Ryan and Cormac for another year of discussion around the new data results from Stack Overflow's 2021 Developer Survey. A few key takeaways from this discussion…

Every developer should have this in their toolbox. DbSchema, a database designer, gives a visual representation of your database. A database represents not only raw data, but the relationship between that data. DbSchema articulates this relationship in a visual and accessible manner that breaths fresh life into usually dull diagrams. This makes it easier for everyone, especially non-developers, to comprehend and contribute to what is seen as many outside, as a dark art. Thank you Dragos Pruteanu for creating a vital piece of software. It was great having you on the podcast.

Cybersecurity is not just about protecting the data. It is also making sure that your core systems are readily available at all times. Alan and Jim set US/Canada relations back 200 years while discussing the evolving state of cybersecurity with Dom and Christian of Cyber SC. Spoiler, this is no longer the domain of larger corporations. Our friends from north of the border discuss the importance of cybersecurity due diligence during the PE deal process, cybersecurity roadmap creation and fulfillment, the security crutches that companies lean on to their own detriment, and outsourced cybersecurity leadership. View on Medium View on YouTube

Are you a sucker for a good technology survey? We are too! Listen to hear what surprised us in our yearly review of the Stack Overflow developer survey.  Ryan and Alan are joined by industry expert, Partner of ParkerGale and fellow podcaster of the Private Equity Funcast,  Jim Milbery.

It scales with you, is easily manageable, and has incredible recovery capabilities, saving you time, money, and worry -- Alan and Ryan discuss Aurora, the MySQL and Postgres compatible database-as-a-service from Amazon AWS which has done wonders for managing and scaling databases in production.

Legacy is something that you leave behind with the expectation that you are paving a path for the success of others. So why do we fear the word ‘legacy’ when referring to code? Jim Headley sits down with Andrea Goulet of Corgibytes who explains that legacy code is not always something to fear, but something that can be built upon and improved. View on Medium

Would you like to get an insider’s view of the current M&A seller’s market? Lisa Hedrick, Partner at Hirschler and Issue Group Leader for the American Bar Association’s biannual “Private Target Mergers & Acquisitions Deal Points Study”, provides valuable insight into this extensive report’s most significant acquisition trends. Discover what this could mean for your business or portfolio companies. View on Medium

Is it a painful, manual, time consuming, or non-existent process for your IT team to trace a problem back to its source? In this podcast, Alan and Ryan discuss the importance of good logging practices and outline three litmus tests to evaluate if your enterprise logging system is heading in the right direction.

Ryan Burch and Alan Williamson talk about how you can utilize different types of messaging queues to decouple applications, with a focus on the three main players in AWS -- SQS, SNS and Amazon MQ. They then dive deeper into how to securely access these and other AWS services while your applications are running inside of AWS without having to pass around the equivalent of usernames and passwords. View on Medium

We all have fear. As he faces harsh criticism while writing “Dynamic Proxies in Java”, Dr. Heinz Kabutz says that there seems to be this perception in which we always have to look like we know what we are doing and that we have to have it right all the time. The key takeaway -- Accept feedback from people that you respect and do not allow negativity to determine your self-worth in your career. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year.  We are joined by Gretchen Perkins, of Huron Capital, as she discusses with Alan Williamson investment strategies for both the traditional buyout versus non-control equity. Gretchen goes deeper into how their Flex Equity fund helps business owners, who have no intention of selling, increase capital without debt. This is especially helpful for business owners seeking add-on acquisitions to accelerate growth and achieve their preferred valuation. View on Medium

Are you confident that your sales team has the knowledge to spot when deals will move with the appropriate velocity to get them across the line? Robin Green, President of Sandler Training, talks with Alan Williamson and Jim Headley about advising companies to develop methodology and data-driven sales processes as they expand. Robin emphasizes the three key ingredients needed in the recipe to increase sales — build better habits, reinforce positive beliefs and execute innovative strategies.

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year.  How does a founder flawlessly navigate a competitive sales process? Jim Headley sits down with Brian Alas of Boxwood Partners, a boutique investment bank in Richmond, to share advice with founders for effectively conveying to potential buyers key business drivers and future opportunities.  It starts with understanding your numbers to accurately articulate your story, value, and succession plan in a deal process. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year.  When choosing a transaction advisory partner, it is important that the firm has a dedicated practice with people that possess a significant deal & industry experience. Sidney Glick of Cherry Bekaert, a full service accounting firm, offers a unique perspective about substantial changes over the last five years in the M&A space, specifically relating to financial and accounting due diligence. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year.  It is not always about valuation in a seller’s market - trust in a right-fit partner plays a key role.  Lisa Hedrick and Andrew Lohmann of Hirschler, a Richmond-based law firm, sat down with Jim Headley to talk about the legal trends and common pitfalls in the deal process for first-time sellers, the psychology of buying and selling, when in the process you should introduce legal representation, and the impact of reps and warranties on the process. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year.   In this episode, Jim Headley sits down with Liza Bowersox, recognized by the American Society of Appraisers as an Accredited Senior Appraiser and Vice President of Venture First to discuss how she approaches valuation for a company to become transaction ready. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. In this episode, Alan Williamson interviews Jack Surma of Tecum Capital, a PE fund prescribing mezzanine debt, minority equity, and control equity, named by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 50 Founder-Friendly Private Equity Firms. Amidst a highly competitive market for deal sponsors, Jack describes the relationship-focused capital provider mentality as first institutional capital in a deal -- and differentiation as a long-term partner. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. In this episode, Alan Williamson speaks with Jonathan Brabrand, Managing Director of Fahrenheit Advisors, Entrepreneur and author of “The $100 Million Exit:  Lessons for Every Business Owner” expected publication April 2020. How does a business owner know they want to sell? Is it worth investing in a second level management team before selling?  Jonathan shares insight into how he advises business owners on the necessary steps to become more attractive to private equity to sell their businesses. View on Medium

Programming language - why should I care? What is a typical development stack inside of a portfolio company? The MacLaurin Group looks at development stacks and discusses why the choice is so important. View on Medium

We talk with Kirk Pepperdine, co-founder of jClarity, a Java based performance tuning company that was recently acquired by Microsoft. Discover the evolution of jClarity and how bringing a structured performance model, using machine learning, for tuning language runtimes led to success and an exciting future with the most unlikely of Java bedfellows: Microsoft.

MacLaurin Group’s Intimate Conversation series continues with our guest Justin Marquardt, Principal at New Harbor Capital in our Part II of the discussion for learning about the process of deals in Private Equity.  Justin continues to share insights about the process — from deal valuation to determining when it makes sense to delay a deal.

You keep hearing that you shouldn’t store passwords in clear text.  Why though? What does that actually mean, and what are the risks? Jim and Alan discuss this thorny issue, provide some insights as to what-is-what and how you can easily rectify this. Once you’ve listened to it, you can head over and read a more in-depth article on the issue.  https://medium.com/maclaurin-group/what-is-clear-text-passwords-and-why-you-shouldnt-store-them-e61c604b1fb7

MacLaurin Group’s Intimate Conversation series continues with our guest Justin Marquardt, Principal at New Harbor Capital.  In Part I, Justin talks about the process of Private Equity Deals — from evaluating a Confidential Information Memorandum to turning due diligence into valuable strategy sessions.  Much of what happens with deals in P.E. is something not understood by founders who have not been through the process. Justin gives insight into what to expect once you have the opportunity to engage with a PE firm.

As leaders we must understand both the Maker’s Schedule and the Manager’s schedule.  A small interruption has the potential to completely derail progress of a development team, impacting clients and your business. Most leaders have never been trained to run a meeting or to understand the impact of what seems to be a small interruption.  Yet, leaders are asked to run meetings every day. In the previous episode on the debate of the Manager’s Schedule vs the Maker’s Schedule  Jim Milbery of ParkerGale and Alan Williamson of MacLaurin Group have friendly banter with Kelley Powell. They strongly suggest meetings are not the problem, rather it’s the leadership and how a meeting is run.  Who are we kidding? They are quite blunt about it all.  Cameron Herold, author of ‘Meetings Suck’, has written a book on the subject and joins the debate to teach leaders how to use focused, time effective meetings to grow your business. Cameron goes in depth about the importance of training your leaders and employees how to run a meeting, the types of meetings you should have, who should attend, and when to have them.  Cameron has written a wonderful immediately actionable handbook for leaders to help turn something that most loath into one of the most valuable elements to a business.   Hear Cameron, Jim, Alan, and Kelley as their friendly banter continues on a topic every employee should be better trained and informed on for both introverts and extroverts alike.  When done right, effective meetings make us all and our companies better.

Moving to a CI/CD style release process is becoming popular, what is it and when does it make sense?

We welcome Kristina Heinze of ParkerGale onto the show. Our hosts Jim and Kelley talk with Kristina as she offers insight into how she selects founders to invest in.

On this week’s Demystifying Technology episode, Alan and Ryan discuss version control, the bedrock of any software engineering team.  Life has no form edit-undo, but your software department can!

A CTO is no different from any other leader in business in that they need to have the same skills to motivate and inspire to get the best out of their team.  The role of CTO is one of the most exciting and varied roles at the executive level. Alan Williamson and Jim Headley share experiences supporting private equity clients and their portfolio companies to recruit for the right CTO to lead and inspire through periods of high growth.

Are you are a CEO/CFO curious if you need a Chief Technology Officer (CTO)? Are you are an inspiring CTO ready for the next step in your career?  The role of CTO has many meanings with the responsibilities ranging dramatically from company to company and company size. The role of CTO is one of the most exciting and varied roles at the executive level.  Alan Williamson and Jim Headley share experiences supporting private equity clients and their portfolio companies to recruit for the right CTO to lead and inspire through periods of high growth.

We were honored to have some time with Jim Milbery, founding partner of ParkerGale Capital, a private equity firm that specializes in growing founder-led companies, to discuss how the world looks from their side of the desk. https://maclaurin.group/

Storing data seems a rather trivial task these days given the sheer amount of storage options available.  However, that doesn't mean you don't have to give consideration to the type of data, ownership, security and aging properties.  Alan talks with Jim and Jeff on the sort of things you should be mindful of. https://maclaurin.group/

You've probably heard the fancy term, Business Intelligence, and we would wager more likely than not you are already doing some form of BI without even realizing.  Alan probes Jim on this episode to help those get a real start in the world of BI without having to blow the IT budget. https://maclaurin.group/

SalesForce eh?  That is that tool for tracking sales leads isn't it?  In the beginning maybe, but SalesForce had a vision way beyond just helping sales team.  Jim and Alan jump into what SalesForce is and why it is a popular choice in the P/E space. https://maclaurin.group/

As of May 25th, 2018, Europe is dealing with a new data privacy reality affectionately known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  What does it mean for us here in the USA?   Well, quite a bit as it happens.  In this weeks episode, Alan quizzes Jim on the subject, as he been spending a lot of time getting into the details, as it is coming up more and more with the companies we help. For more information, you can read Jim's article on GDPR.

Serverless computing is a term you have been hearing about, or if you haven't, then you probably will start hearing it.  In this episode, Jim talks with Alan on the overall concept and discusses the benefits such a paradigm can bring to an organization.  They also go through the areas to which serverless is not terribly suited for.

You can't deny that the two horses in the cloud race are Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure, with AWS significantly out in front.  But is there that huge a difference between the two?  In this episode Jim and Alan sit down with Stefan Bauer, MIS Manager for Elephant Auto insurance who is responsible for their data warehousing and business intelligence both on-prem and in-cloud.  Stefan is a veteran of both Azure and AWS architectures (having previously authored a book on AWS RedShift).  Stefan discusses both cloud offerings, dispelling some myths along the way.

Business Intelligence, or BI, is a phrase that is often branded around but few understand the true power that it can deliver to an organization.   Jim Headley and Alan Williamson take a look into the world of BI, breaking down some of the misconceptions.

If you have ever wondered what a technical due diligence is all about then this is the episode for you.   Listen to Jim Headley and Alan Williamson talk through the in's and out's, what to expect and how not to fear what some believe is an interrogation.

Welcome to the introduction of the MacLaurin Demystifying Technology podcast series.   Let Jim Headley and Alan Williamson take you through what will be coming up in this series dedicated towards making technology accessible to CEO's, CFO's, Private Equity and Investment houses.