Podcasts about Golden Gate Capital

The 7 Principles of Successful Partnering in the Age of AI Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this engaging session, Vince Menzione reflects on his extensive career transitioning from direct enterprise sales to building massive channel ecosystems, while unveiling the seven core operating principles essential for modern partnering. Highlighting tectonic industry shifts—from the PC and Cloud eras to the current AI revolution—Vince explains how traditional playbooks are becoming obsolete and why adopting a growth mindset, modeled by leaders like Satya Nadella, is critical for survival. He delves into the rising importance of hyperscaler marketplaces and co-selling, urging leaders to cultivate adaptability (AQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), and mutual trust to thrive in this rapidly changing tech landscape. https://youtu.be/5n8dqiamnmE Key Takeaways Traditional industry playbooks are outdated almost immediately due to the rapid acceleration of AI and market changes. Implementing a “growth mindset” is a foundational operating principle that can transform corporate culture and drive massive valuation increases. Executive commitment and clarity of vision are mandatory for aligning an entire organization around successful partnering. Building a strong brand story and maintaining a maniacal focus on OKRs turns strategic vision into executed results. The technology landscape has experienced massive tectonic shifts from the PC era to the Cloud, Mobile, and now AI, requiring high adaptability (AQ). Mutual trust remains the non-negotiable foundation for any successful professional relationship or partnership. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Vince Menzione, growth mindset, Satya Nadella, channel building, tech ecosystem, tectonic shifts, AI revolution, co-selling strategies, hyperscaler marketplaces, organizational alignment, executive commitment, OKRs execution, AQ strategy, mutual trust, B2B technology Transcript [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Because I think we’re all paralyzed by AI and all the changes that are going on in our world, and playbooks are no longer good because they’re outdated the week after they come out. [00:00:12] Vince Menzione: We just came back from Ultimate Partner live in Bellevue, Washington, where we hosted incredible leaders for two amazing days. Come join us for this next session where we explore the tectonic shifts we’ve all been seeing. What a list. Oh my gosh. I gotta tell you, I was just going back this morning and, and looking to see first of all the number, the sheer number is incredible. [00:00:36] Vince Menzione: But look at, look at all these top executives. These are, these are like market movers. The game changers. These are people that are doing more in our world, in our ecosystem than most others. And we are very fortunate to have the representation from these organizations. From these leaders in the room, and we try to curate an event that is more than a, a sales pitch. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: We’re, in fact, we, we’re not a sales pitch. We’re all about, you know, helping you achieve more. And we try to frame that around operating principles. So, uh, a little bit of a roadmap lately. I mean, this started out like how did we get here in like, maybe five spots along the way. But, uh, for those of you who don’t know me and my background, and I’ve had an incredible career, I’ve been very blessed. [00:01:20] Vince Menzione: I did a startup that we grew from 6 million to 125 million. Went public on the Toronto Exchange. I’m still friends with the CEO, by the way. Helped, helped him grow and exit that company. Uh, I then followed one of the leaders there to go do a turnaround with Golden Gate Capital, and we took that and that’s where I built my first channel. [00:01:37] Vince Menzione: I went from doing enterprise sales as a direct seller, direct sales leader, VP to then going to building a channel. During nine 11, uh, this company was selling rugged notebook computers. Our biggest competitor was not a US company, and I spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill. I met with several congressmen and senators at a time when people did that, and they talked to each other. [00:01:58] Vince Menzione: And, uh, I built a channel. I got its a GSA schedule, and I understood. So I understood intuitively, even from that point in my career, how to move, how to shift from direct selling to building a channel, building a business around that. We became the growth engine of the company. One of my partners was one of the largest defense contractors, general Dynamics. [00:02:19] Vince Menzione: They had the big contract if you were selling to the US Army. And I knocked down the door basically and said, you got a partner with us. And that’s how we got the relationship established. And they wound up buying us for like 10 x what Golden Gate Capital had had spun us out for. And then Microsoft recruited me. [00:02:36] Vince Menzione: And for almost 10 years I was the GM of public sector partner strategy. And so I was, I was there and we’ll talk about Satya and other things, but I was there when we started the cloud. I was there when we pivoted the business from the old model and working with OEMs and trying to, to do things a different way to the cloud and co-selling and things like that. [00:02:56] Vince Menzione: And, uh, had a great experience. And then when I left I was like, oh, I’m just gonna go work for another big tech company. I started a podcast. I had a friend who said, you should do a podcast on partnering. You know a lot about this more than you probably think you do. And almost 10 years ago, I started a podcast in a spare bedroom. [00:03:13] Vince Menzione: And you know, it, it was, it built a following and there’s a lot of work, by the way, people, a lot of people do podcasts today. It was a lot of work for those of you. I congratulate anybody doing that. Uh, I went back inside for two years because I felt like I needed to go back into a big corporate environment. [00:03:29] Vince Menzione: And then I left during COVID and I learned a lot being at a big corporation about how hard it was to partner. Like it’s still hard. I don’t know how many people in the room feel this way. I know, I know the numbers are much better and Jay will talk through the numbers, but it’s not easy and a lot of organizations don’t understand it. [00:03:47] Vince Menzione: And that’s what we talk about here and we try to help people to achieve more and how to, how to get that mindset in the right place. But anyway, so. We started, we started doing the podcast after COVID, it took off. We did an event. Uh, there’s actually four of the five people that did partner. We called it Partner Mastermind. [00:04:06] Vince Menzione: We did an event about four years ago, uh, separately. And that led to Ultimate Partner. And it’s a long, the long history in the last four years of 10 events, like it’s been an incredible blast. And I want to thank each of you for being along this, this incredible ride with us as we continue to grow and expand. [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: We’ve been doubling every year for the last four years and um, I feel very blessed to be part of this. So I did wanna spend a minute with you on this. I don’t like the drain this slide, but I do wanna identify what I believe are seven operating principles of what makes successful partnering. And you know, you might say there’s eight, you might say there are other things I think about principles as opposed to tactics. [00:04:50] Vince Menzione: Tactics are transactional. They’re temporary and a point in time, and it’s how you respond and react to a situation. Principles are things you take with you, and that’s what we hope to do at Ultimate Partner. Take those things with you and then, then apply some of the things to the tactics that we need to have. [00:05:06] Vince Menzione: And so we talk about growth mindset. Uh, you know, depending on where you stand about Microsoft, these days, when this guy came in, stock was $36 a share. Okay. It’s in the four hundreds now. It was up to over 500 not long ago. He applied a different mindset. The first three things he did, Le got a copy of Carol Dweck’s book about mindset. [00:05:28] Vince Menzione: Growth mindset versus fixed mindset. Uh, he brought in Dr. Michael Vet, who’s a leading sports psychologist, like in, in the industry, who was the Seattle Seahawks sports psychologist. Mike’s been a podcast guest of mine. I’ve been to his studio. Um, and then he, we, he, he changed, he, he brought down, he took down the walls of the way Microsoft operated because leaders fought with each other. [00:05:51] Vince Menzione: They competed with each other for resources, for monetization, for everything. And he changed the mindset. Nobody’s a perfect CEO, but if I was to say to you who I think the best CEO of the last 10 years were, I’d give it to Saja Nadella, but it’s about mindset. It’s about changing or having the right mindset and applying that growth mindset to a successful partner. [00:06:12] Vince Menzione: Executive commitment, I talked about that. Other organizational will go nameless, but if you don’t, you can have the CEO down to the selling floor. Everyone needs to speak partnering, like in order to get it right in an organization. The whole company, the resources, the investments, the alignment, all has to align around partnering. [00:06:32] Vince Menzione: Executive commitment is incredible. Tony Saan took a small MSP to a half a billion dollar exit, took them to go, uh, Google Partner of the Year, seven straight years in a row. I think they’re eight this year. Uh, but Tony’s a good friend of mine. He is also been a guest on the podcast and, uh, somebody I’ve admired and worked with. [00:06:50] Vince Menzione: This is Dr. Michael Dravet. We talk about clarity, like once you get your mindset, once you get executive commitment, you then need to determine like how, what’s the vision? How do we drive success together? You need to turn, you need to know internally how to go do that. Then you lock arms with another organization and then you apply it to that partnership. [00:07:10] Vince Menzione: So that’s incredibly critical. Then, then you gotta do everything right? Like I always kid around about my days at Microsoft, we’d have these incredible meetings with leaders. They’d come meet with us at partner conference. I would literally go back to back for several days in the room. Slide deck after slide deck. [00:07:27] Vince Menzione: We’re high fiving at the end. [00:07:29] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna go do it [00:07:31] Vince Menzione: six months later. Crickets. Nothing happens, right? This happens a lot in partnering. Unfortunately, like we, we set up the right situation. We line everybody. We’re gonna go execute, we’re gonna drive results. You have to apply maniacal, focus, OKRs, everything to everything you do. [00:07:48] Vince Menzione: You need to apply. And by the way, you’re gonna hear from a lot of leaders here that do this type of work. So this is incredibly, uh, critical to success, brand and story. Like I wanna work with Microsoft. There’s gonna be probably 40 plus Microsoft leaders in the room, some of ’em sitting here and around the room. [00:08:06] Vince Menzione: How do you do that? Right? This is Ducks Raymond S. Good friend of mine at Point. I knew at point when they were just starting out. Scott Sackett is here. He’ll be up on stage. Uh, this man was expert on brand and story. Learn from people that are successful, how to be successful yourself, if you wanna be a top partner, if you wanna grow your business, whether you’re working with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or any of the other partners in this room. [00:08:30] Vince Menzione: You need to be very clear about your brand, articulate it well, and drive a story against that. And that’s really super critical for success. And then once we do all those things, we start driving a flywheel of success. Aaron Feiger and some of the other people in the room, Reese Barry, are gonna be talking about how they do that. [00:08:47] Vince Menzione: They will help these organizations be successful. Pick putting that stake in the ground and driving it. And then what happens is after you drive this incredible success, what does my partner do? My tech giant, the company I’ve been working with, they go change everything. The market changes, the dynamics change. [00:09:05] Vince Menzione: This thing in November of 2022 called AI Happens, Chad, GBT hits the market. How do I respond and react to that? I need to be adaptable. I need to drive an AQ strategy on top of my EQ and iq, and we’ll talk more about that. So these are the operating principles, and we lay it out as a, as a diagram. And by the way, you see mutual trust. [00:09:26] Vince Menzione: Trust has to be in every room without trust, you have no partnerships, without trust, you have no business success. Like you can get buy in business, you can get buy in life, but trust is foundational. And I was very blessed to have that like grain ingrained in me as a young boy. Uh, so that’s our, that’s our operating principles. [00:09:48] Vince Menzione: Um, I’m working on a book right now. It’s almost done though. We’re, we’re talk, we’ll talk about that more, but that’s, that’ll be in the book. Um, and then we’ve been talking about tectonic shifts and I don’t know who said it first, Jay or, or me, but I know who you said it in the studio several years ago. [00:10:04] Vince Menzione: Jay’s been in our, our Boca studio many, many times. But we’ve been talking about tectonic shifts and Oh my gosh, right? So think about, I want everybody to think about this for a second. If you’ve been around tech for a while. We’ve gone through several, like these 10 year phases, the PC era, the cloud era, the well, the cloud. [00:10:23] Vince Menzione: We had client server, pc, client server, we had cloud, we had mobile, and now we hit ai. Those eras all took a period of time, right? They didn’t happen overnight. Like there was a trend like five, six years, seven years, maybe eight years, and then COVID happened, and I believe that COVID was the acceleration point because. [00:10:44] Vince Menzione: We were all forced to do things we didn’t do before. People went out and bought PCs that didn’t have them. Kids had to learn from home. Healthcare was administered tele telehealth, we didn’t do telehealth before. We had like 5% of the population to telehealth before that, uh, our work environment changed, right? [00:11:02] Vince Menzione: We were doing Zoom calls or teams calls back when I was at Microsoft Days, but the world started doing it. Our life started to change. That’s why being in the room places like this is so important. And so that really has accelerated everything. And this, you know, all these things have been accelerating over time and these are significant shifts. [00:11:22] Vince Menzione: We have the three leaders of the three marketplace organizations coming on stage here. Uh, the three hyperscalers, because marketplace went from, we were talking about it like, this is really cool. You need to go do it. A few years ago. So Microsoft lowering the rates on it, and then everything changed and then everybody started accelerating and it became the fungible token. [00:11:43] Vince Menzione: ’cause we used to, we used to partner, we used to take spreadsheets and put ’em up against each other and try to figure out deals and fax copies of deals that came in and say, we want credit for this one. And then Marketplace became a way to create a fun non fungible token. And really drive your success. [00:11:59] Vince Menzione: And so we have all the leaders that are running marketplaces in this room, by the way. So this is gonna be like the most incredible rich conversation. Co-selling. Co-selling is a, you know, a non-starter day. You have to co-sell it. People, we used to do vendor channel, which means I had somebody selling my stuff that’s not happening anymore. [00:12:19] Vince Menzione: And Jay, we’ll talk about the seven seats at the table. But this is all, these are all the things that have been changing. And of course, ai. I think that we are sitting here and I, I, I’ll share, and I’m stressing this, like this is, you need to be in this room because you’re gonna hear from leaders about what the next steps are. [00:12:35] Vince Menzione: ’cause I think we’re all paralyzed by AI and all the changes that are going on in our world and playbooks are no longer good because they’re outdated the week after they come out. So I need to, I need to follow this in real time. I think this is super important that you do, and it’s why we exist and it’s why this time is like no other. [00:12:53] Vince Menzione: I think, you know, we said maybe a generation, maybe it’s a lifetime in terms of the shifts that we’re seeing. So I, I kind of started here and I wanted to end here, uh, just because the light doesn’t go out. That’s what it’s all about. And this is it. This is it for me, right? This is my, my last run. I’m not gonna go work for a company after this. [00:13:16] Vince Menzione: I’m not gonna go into become a consultant. And I want this truly to be like special. And I want you to all feel like you’re part, you are part of it, and however much you wanna lean in and be part of it in the future, we want to grow this in the right way. I, I feel that we have an a unique opportunity. [00:13:34] Vince Menzione: Because we’re not a vendor, we’re not selling anything. I feel like we’re a platform. We’re that we’re that lighthouse and others can come in that are experts and I feel like more and more of ’em are showing up. And you know, the PDG guys did a great job today and others in the room and people that have been friends and supporting us for for years as on that sponsor slide. [00:13:56] Vince Menzione: And so we just want to continued this journey with each of you. Um, and so I want your feedback on what we’re doing. I want, I love your support. I love your passion. I love the fact that you’re still here in the room talking with, with or being here, listening to me today. Um, this is, that lighthouse is, you can see these pictures. [00:14:15] Vince Menzione: These are all family photos. Um, we go to that lighthouse, not because it’s a lighthouse, but uh, it happens to be like a landmark in our town. And, uh, it’s kind of cool. And actually the re Joe Namath has owns the restaurant across from the lighthouse, so we, we’ve got to see him a couple of times, which is kind of cool. [00:14:34] Vince Menzione: But I, I, I, I was posting this lighthouse when I started the podcast. And I was, yeah. ’cause that’s where I live and it’s my hometown. And I think about Dakota Rings and I think about other things. But, um, this is what matters. This is what matters is helping others. And we all are gonna need each other in this world because AI is gonna change our lives. [00:15:00] Vince Menzione: And dramatically it’s, I I think this is a once in a lifetime thing. But I think having people that you trust and being in the room with others where you can learn and grow and adapt, adaptability is so important. So, um, analog is the new digital as my, my good friend Gary V now says. And I think there’s this huge opportunity around what we do as ultimate partner to help everybody reach their pinnacle to everybody. [00:15:26] Vince Menzione: Be the ultimate partner. And I want to thank you for coming. I want your, thank you for your support, friendship, love. And, uh, you’re just an incredible group. Thank you. [00:15:41] Vince Menzione: Until next time, we’ll see you in person. Hopefully at our next event.

In this episode, we speak with Randall Eason and Keoni Schwartz, Co-Founders and Managing Directors at Altamont Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on transforming and scaling lower-middle market companies through deep operational expertise and value-creation capabilities. Since its founding, Altamont has invested in over 45 companies across the industrials, business services, financial services, and franchising & multi-unit sectors, with more than $4 billion in capital under management. Randall leads investments in the industrials and franchising & multi-unit sectors. Previously, he was a Principal at Golden Gate Capital, and held roles at Bain & Company and Williams-Sonoma. He holds an MA in sociology and a BA in economics, Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford. Keoni leads investments in the financial and business services sectors. He was formerly a Principal at Golden Gate Capital and began his career as a consultant at Bain & Company and The Bridgespan Group. He holds a BA in history with honors from Princeton. Altamont was recently recognized by GrowthCap as a Top Private Equity Firm of 2025. I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode click to follow.

In Episode #116 of Geeks of the Valley, we sat down with Jared Stein, Co-Founder at Monogram Capital, a leading private equity firm specializing in scaling high-growth, human-centric consumer brands.Jared walks through Monogram's investment philosophy and why the firm focuses on companies with deep consumer resonance. He shares insights from leading investments in Chewy.com, Olipop, Genexa, and Planet Fitness, detailing how emotional connection, strong brand equity, and operational excellence drive sustainable growth. The conversation explores the evolving role of private equity in consumer markets, including the increasing importance of wellness, trust, and personalization in shaping investment decisions.Drawing on his background at Bain Capital, Golden Gate Capital, HGGC, and Goldman Sachs, Jared also discusses lessons learned from scaling category leaders, the role of strategic partnerships, and how to balance value creation with authentic brand building.Whether you're an investor seeking differentiated strategies, a founder building a consumer brand, or a strategist tracking market shifts, this episode offers a deep dive into the future of human-centric private equity.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today's episode is with someone who has experienced the growth and evolution of the credit space from different vantage points.We welcome Alona Gornick, a Managing Director, Senior Investment Strategist, and Co-Head of the Chicago Office for Churchill Asset Management, a firm with $50B committed capital that is a provider of financing solutions to middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Churchill is an investment-specialist affiliate of Nuveen, the asset manager of TIAA.Alona provides investment insights across the private capital spectrum to the investment community – and has a particular focus on working with the Private Wealth and Retail channels. She works closely with Nuveen's global distribution team to deepen relationships with and educate Churchill's investors and partners.Alona leverages her experience in capital markets, investor relations, and credit investing from working at the likes of Nuveen, Golden Gate Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management.Alona and I had a fascinating conversation. We discussed:The evolution of credit investing.The opportunities and risks in private credit. Are we in a private credit bubble?Why the product specialist role is critical for working with the wealth channel.The power of scale, particularly in private credit, and how it helps alternative asset managers win deals and invest.The strategic benefit of platforms and permanent capital.Thanks Alona for coming on the show to share your views and wisdom on private markets. We hope you enjoy.A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund SolutionsThis episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus Fund Solutions, a leading full-service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As private markets continue to move into the mainstream, the industry requires infrastructure solutions that help funds and investors keep pace. In an increasingly sophisticated financial marketplace, investment managers must navigate a growing array of challenges: elaborate fund structures, specialized strategies, evolving compliance requirements, a growing need for sophisticated reporting, and intensifying demands for transparency.To assist with these challenging opportunities, more and more fund sponsors and asset managers are turning to Ultimus, a leading service provider that blends high tech and high touch in unique and customized fund administration and middle office solutions for a diverse and growing universe of over 450 clients and 1,800 funds, representing $500 billion assets under administration, all handled by a team of over 1,000 professionals. Ultimus offers a wide range of capabilities across registered funds, private funds and public plans, as well as outsourced middle office services. Delivering operational excellence, Ultimus helps firms manage the ever-changing regulatory environment while meeting the needs of their institutional and retail investors. Ultimus provides comprehensive operational support and fund governance services to help managers successfully launch retail alternative products.Visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com to learn more about Ultimus' technology enhanced services and solutions or contact Ultimus Executive Vice President of Business Development Gary Harris on email at gharris@ultimusfundsolutions.com.We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.Show Notes00:00 Introduction to Ultimus Fund Solutions01:18 Welcome to the Podcast02:00 Guest Introduction: Alona Gornick03:45 Alona's Career Path and Experience06:59 Growth of Middle Market Direct Lending07:41 Changes in the Credit Landscape10:21 The Importance of Size and Scale in Private Credit13:27 Deal Structuring and Market Evolution14:46 Impact of High Rate Environment16:06 Private Credit Returns and Underwriting20:53 Investor Questions and Market Insights21:24 Educating Investors on Private Credit23:43 Private Credit in Wealth Portfolios24:09 Diversification Benefits of Private Credit24:24 Yield Premium in Private Credit26:40 Private Credit vs. Private Equity27:06 Exploring Private Equity and Private Debt27:24 Transitioning from Public to Private Credit27:49 The Role of a Product Specialist28:09 Balancing Risks and Benefits28:49 Relating to Advisors with Real Examples29:40 The Importance of Education in Allocation30:25 Diverse Viewpoints on Alternative Asset Managers31:48 Challenges in Access to Capital33:26 The Significance of Hiring Quality People34:12 Non-Traditional Backgrounds in Specialist Roles36:29 Patience and Commitment in Educating Investors39:13 The Hardest Part of Educating the Wealth Channel40:47 The Role of Structure in Education44:21 Concerns About the Future of Private Credit47:00 The Growth Potential of Private Credit49:38 The Most Interesting Alternative Investment50:15 The Opportunity in Private Equity Secondaries52:47 Private Credit Secondaries: A Nascent Space54:17 Primary and Secondary Considerations in Credit54:34 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

It's News Day Tuesday and the MR Crew is back from the long weekend! But first they speak with Luke Goldstein, writing fellow at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent reporting on Red Lobster's bankruptcy & the DOJ filing a lawsuit against LiveNation. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel's military cruising past Biden's Rafah red-line with no repercussions, revelations around Israel's decade-long war against the ICC, obstacles to international aid to Gaza, Trump's struggles with law and libertarians, the UAW's Mercedes push, WaPo's burying of Sam Alito's conspiracy-brain, US internet infrastructure, labor action, and pandemic preparedness, before watching Human Rights Watch founder Aryeh Neier charging Israel with genocide. Luke Goldstein then joins, diving right into the ongoing DOJ attempt to break up the gauging god that is LiveNation, touching on the myriad recent events that have pushed LiveNation's monopoly to the fore before walking through the long process by which they went from a mere concert promotion platform to a major controller of every step of the concert going process before you enter the venue, featuring a merge with Ticketmaster sponsored by the Obama Administration's Rahm Emmanuel. Next, Goldstein looks to the recent bankruptcy of Red Lobster, and the Private Equity rig job behind both the financial collapse and the lies about why it happened, first walking through the supposed “endless shrimp” fiasco that (very much didn't) lead to Red Lobster's turmoil, before tackling the much-less entertaining reality of Golden Gate Capital buying up the company, selling all of their land to recoup their costs, and immediately signing onto outrageously priced permanent leases. Sam and Emma also touch on Rashida Tlaib's incredible condemnation of Joe Biden's support for Israel's genocide, and watch British Commentator James Whale (not a fictional stereotype, we swear) completely his unabashed shamelessness in the face of a pro-Palestinian Black woman. Ad in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma watch Trump's lawyer Alina Habba on why it's unfair that jurors are allowed to listen to news, Rep. Crocket dissects the corrupt GOP control of the federal judiciary and the inaction of the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee that led to it, and RFK tactfully discusses the horrors of institutionalized slavery, like mask mandates. The Good Liars stir some conflict at the Libertarian National Convention as Donald Trump makes a controversial appearance, which provides many other highlights, Thomas from Central Ohio reconnects with Emma, Tom from Virginia grapples with our electoral choices come November, and Nikki Haley shows of her Zionist bona fides, plus, your calls and IMs! Check out more of Luke's work here: https://prospect.org/topics/luke-goldstein/ Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com: https://fans.fm/majority/join Check out Aryeh Neier's interview on CNN here: https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/05/26/gps-0526-icc-charges-against-israel.cnn Join Sam on the Nation Magazine Cruise! 7 days in December 2024!!: https://nationcruise.com/mr/ Check out the "Repair Gaza" campaign courtesy of the Glia Project here: https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/rebuild_gaza_help_repair_and_rebuild_the_lives_and_work_of_our_glia_team#!/ Check out StrikeAid here!; https://strikeaid.com/ Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the ESVN YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/esvnshow Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! http://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: http://majority.fm/app Check out today's sponsors: Fast Growing Trees: This Spring Fast Growing Trees has the best deals online, up to half off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to our show get an ADDITIONAL 15% OFF their first purchase when using the code MAJORITY at checkout. That's an ADDITIONAL 15% OFF at https://FastGrowingTrees.com using the code MAJORITY at checkout. https://FastGrowingTrees.com code MAJORITY. Offer is valid for a limited time, terms and conditions may apply. Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech @BradKAlsop Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on Youtube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com/ The Majority Report with Sam Seder - https://majorityreportradio.com/

Alona Gornick serves as a Managing Director, Senior Investment Strategist, and Co-Head of the Chicago Office for Churchill Asset Management. In her role, Alona provides meaningful investment insights across the private capital spectrum to the investment community, with a particular emphasis on the Private Wealth and Retail channel. Alona joined Churchill in 2017 as an Originator, developing relationships with leading private equity sponsors to source and structure high-quality deal flow for the platform. Prior to joining Churchill, Alona spent 14 years in various investment, capital markets and investor relations roles at leading organizations, including Nuveen (Churchill's parent company), Golden Gate Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management. Alona earned her B.A. in Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steven Wolfe Pereira, the CEO and Co-Founder of Encantos, and award-winning bi-lingual edtech company (which I invested in). Encantos is rethinking education through a mix of physical and digital tools grounded in play. Steven is one of the top rated voices on LinkedIn, named by Adweek as one of the "50 Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing, Media and Tech". He has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Datalogix (acquired by Oracle), Neustar (acquired by Golden Gate Capital) and Quantcast. We talk about storyteaching, inclusion, innovation as well as how to unscale and subscribe.

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: This podcast episode is sponsored by Belvo. Instantly access and enrich all financial data from multiple accounts through a single platform to better understand and serve your customers. From lending to smart saving, Belvo will help you create what your users need NEWS HIGHLIGHT Starling Bank withdraws its application for an Irish banking licence signalling a shift in its international expansion strategy. Starling Bank told its 2,000 employees on Monday that it had ended a four-year process aimed at launching a retail bank in Ireland. Link here. FINTECH NEWS #crypto Plaid adds read-only support for leading crypto exchanges to its data network. While Plaid previously integrated with large exchanges on an ad hoc basis, the move is an indication that the company sees crypto as important to its growth. Link here. #donedeal Last week, €1,344m was raised across 22 FinTech deals. BNPL Unicorn Klarna raised a €761m Venture round cutting their valuation to $6.7bn from $45.6bn, followed by wefox which raised a €380m Series D with a combination of debt & equity, and finally congratulations to Smart Pension who raised a €46m Growth round. Link here. Pico receives a $200m investment. The New York-based FinTech, a provider of technology services, software, data and analytics for financial markets, has secured the strategic investment from Golden Gate Capital. The new funds will be used to pursue M&A opportunities and improve the firm's infrastructure and data offerings, as well as expand its market coverage. Link here. WealthTech XP mobilized US$ 7.9B savings collected in the last quarter. The Brazilian company raised R$ 43 billion in 'net new money' in the second quarter, a 44% growth compared to the previous quarter and a sign that the brokerage is going through the stock market implosion better than market sectors expected. Link here. #expansion Zimpler enters Norway as part of their international expansion. Following Sweden, Finland, Germany, Estonia, The Netherlands, Latvia and Lithuania, Norway becomes the eighth market to offer Zimpler's account-to-account payments solutions. Link here.

Today on Subscribing to Wellness we are joined by Jared Stein, Founding and Managing Partner of Monogram Capital. After graduating from the Stanford GSB, Jared spent several years at Golden Gate Capital before starting Monogram. Jared sits on the boards of County Archer Provisions, Genexa, Olipop, and Foxtrot. Episode Fun Facts: 1) Jared recently led Olipop's Series B alongside a stacked group of celebrity investors including Camila Cabello and The Jonas Brothers. 2) Jared is a San Diego native and has a huge passion for health and wellness. 3) The Monogram portfolio stretches across branded products and real estate operators such as Dig, Planet Fitness, and Foxtrot. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/subtowellness/support

On this week's episode of The HPScast, Colbert Cannon sits down with Managing Director at HPS, Anders Fisher. The Harvard undergrad and Stanford postgrad shares how he started his career at private equity firm Hicks Muse in their London office and later moved to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital in San Francisco.  Fisher also describes what it was like starting his own firm, Tålamod Asset Management in 2008, before joining HPS in 2018 where he and his team continue to grow their investing strategy.Check out Anders's Best Idea, The Cicero Trilogy, written by Robert Harris here. Also be sure to check out Colbert's Best Idea, the Coen brothers Academy Award winning film, No Country For Old Men here.  

Steven Wolfe Pereira, the CEO and Co-Founder of Encantos, and award-winning bi-lingual edtech company (which I invested in). Encantos is rethinking education through a mix of physical and digital tools grounded in play. Steven is one of the top rated voices on LinkedIn, named by Adweek as one of the "50 Most Indispensable Executives in Marketing, Media and Tech". He has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Datalogix (acquired by Oracle), Neustar (acquired by Golden Gate Capital) and Quantcast. We talk about storyteaching, inclusion, innovation as well as how to unscale and subscribe.

Jon and Warren discuss how powerful knowledge is and how important it is to be continuously learning. Warren Shaeffer is a 2x company co-founder, a 2x human co-founder, and a 1st generation American. He's currently the CEO and Co-founder of Knowable, a venture-backed audio platform whose mission is to unlock billions of hours of learning time in order to help more people achieve their potential. He started Knowable to solve his own problem: he wanted to learn new skills, but couldn't find the time for video courses. Prior to Knowable, Warren was the CEO and Co-founder of Vidme, a video platform that grew to over 25 million monthly users (acquired by Giphy), and the COO and Co-owner of SocialEngine (acquired by Room214). Prior to becoming a tech entrepreneur, Warren worked as an investor at Golden Gate Capital, where he helped launch a billion-dollar credit fund, and as an investment banker at JPMorgan in the technology and media group. Warren is a graduate of Harvard where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon, and currently splits time between Portland and LA with his partner and two toddlers. Warren enjoys storytelling in all its forms, and occasionally performs live stories for The Moth. He also recently performed stand-up comedy for the first time at an open mic. He was nervous but did get some laughs Connect with Warren: https://twitter.com/knowablefyi https://www.instagram.com/knowablefyi/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/warrenshaeffer/ https://www.facebook.com/knowablefyi Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon’s Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!

An interview with Warren Schaeffer, Founder of Knowable. A bit about Warren: Warren Shaeffer is a 2x company co-founder, a 2x human co-founder, and a 1st generation American. He's currently the CEO and Co-founder of Knowable, a venture-backed audio platform whose mission is to unlock billions of hours of learning time in order to help more people achieve their potential. He started Knowable to solve his own problem: he wanted to learn new skills, but couldn't find the time for video courses. Prior to Knowable, Warren was the CEO and Co-founder of Vidme, a video platform that grew to over 25 million monthly users (acquired by Giphy), and the COO and Co-owner of SocialEngine (acquired by Room214). Prior to becoming a tech entrepreneur, Warren worked as an investor at Golden Gate Capital, where he helped launch a billion dollar credit fund, and as an investment banker at JPMorgan in the technology and media group. Warren is a graduate of Harvard where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon, and currently splits time between Portland and LA with his partner and two toddlers. Warren enjoys story telling in all its forms, and occasionally performs live stories for the Moth. He also recently performed stand up comedy for the first time at an open mic. He was nervous, but did get some laughs. Connect with Warren: Warren on LinkedIn Warren on Twitter Knowable on Twitter Knowable on LinkedIn Join our community of likeminded entrepreneurs and get involved in the discussion over on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebusinessownersgroup/ Have a question you want answering on the show? Email us at: startupdiary@nbs.fm Amazon links to the gear we use to podcast: Zoom H6 Handy Recorder: https://amzn.to/2Jp14uA Audio-Technica AT2020 Cardioid Condenser Microphone: https://amzn.to/2UqvDq1 Adjustable Mic stands: https://amzn.to/2wNODFI Simple Pop filters: https://amzn.to/3arhONJ XLR Cables: https://amzn.to/2UpMVDs SD Card: https://amzn.to/2UFCzhQ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

CEO Charlie Gottdiener gives an update on Neustar, which was taken private two years ago by PE firm Golden Gate Capital in a deal worth $2.9 billion. 

The Yale endowment is considered as one the best institutional investors. In 2018 it earned a 12.3% return, beating the average endowment return in 2018 at 8.2%. For 2019 they are allocating 49% to illiquid / alternative assets (VC, leveraged buyouts, real estate, natural resources). I'm somewhat surprised to see that real estate only takes up 19% of their alternative assets and not more. Their real estate return in the last 10 years was also an anemic 2.7%. In contrast, they've had a lot of success with venture capital (165% in last 20 years. Given Yale's endowment at a whopping $29.4B, how and what can the everyday investors learn from them and the super rich? It’s true that they’ve grown the endowment from about $6.6B to 29.4B in the past 20 years. That’s impressive considering that the endowment is the single greatest source of cash for the university programs. Tuition is second. First of all, there are numerous ways to make money. I have some first hand visibility into the Yale endowment and where they invest. The Yale Endowment is a major investor in a private equity firm called Golden Gate Capital. They were the firm that was funding my buy-out of IBM’s microprocessor division in 2004. From my exposure to family offices, and other “old money” over the past while, I can share what I’ve learned. I believe that their goals are different from the average investor. First of all, they are more concerned with preservation of capital than rate of return. They also employ sophisticated consultants to evaluate their investment decisions. The line between late stage venture capital and private equity is quite blurry. I don’t believe Yale is investing in early stage startups. These are late stage startups where the capital requirements are larger. These businesses are proven and need funds to scale up. This is not that different in the world of private equity. Generally speaking, private equity firms make low risk bets on re-engineering businesses and executing business turn-arounds. David Swensen is the chief investment officer at the Yale Endowment. He outlines his investment philosophy in his book entitled Pioneering Portfolio Management. In that book he divides the portfolio into five or six roughly equal parts and investing each in a different asset class. Central in the Yale Model is broad diversification and an equity orientation, avoiding asset classes with low expected returns such as fixed income and commodities. He also maintains a low cash position. He maintains a low exposure to traditional wall street equity investments, and a high exposure to alternative investments that are not readily marketed. That’s why he’s investing directly in funds like those of the Golden Gate Capital Group. These firms have some of the most sophisticated money managers involved. For example, they routinely use the services of Bain Consulting. This is the consulting division of Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital Group. I can say from first hand experience that these folks It’s no surprise that Bain consulting recruits heavily each year at Yale University. They have developed a way of looking at the investment world that is different from most. They realize that these are businesses that need to be run, and they know how to run successful businesses. In your question you mentioned that the real estate performance of the Yale Endowment was surprisingly low. But remember that the measurement notes in the article you referenced is over a 10 year period. Note that the fund would have experienced significant losses from 2008-2012, and these deficits would have started to be recovered only starting in 2012.

Bloomberg Markets with Carol Massar and Cory Johnson.u0010u0010GUEST:u0010David Wilsonu0010Stocks Editoru0010Bloomberg Newsu0010Discussing his "Stock of the Day" Bob Evans Farms (BOBE). Bob Evans Farms Inc.'s shares are headed for their biggest one-day gain since January after fiscal first-quarter results were well received. Revenue beat analysts' average estimate in a Bloomberg survey after coming up short last quarter, when the foodmaker sold its restaurant unit to the private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Bob Evans' full-year forecasts were in line with projections.

Bloomberg Markets with Carol Massar and Cory Johnson.u0010u0010GUEST:u0010David Wilsonu0010Stocks Editoru0010Bloomberg Newsu0010Discussing his "Stock of the Day" Bob Evans Farms (BOBE). Bob Evans Farms Inc.'s shares are headed for their biggest one-day gain since January after fiscal first-quarter results were well received. Revenue beat analysts' average estimate in a Bloomberg survey after coming up short last quarter, when the foodmaker sold its restaurant unit to the private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Bob Evans' full-year forecasts were in line with projections. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Welcome to Episode 4 of the “Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor” podcast. This is Part 2 of a 2 part interview with Bryan Shinn, CEO of US Silica.  US Silica (http://www.ussilica.com) is a NYSE-listed $643 million revenue producer and distributor of commercial silica through two segments: 2/3 of revenues derived from Oil & Gas Proppants Segment - in essence as sand to prop and maintain fractured openings in oil and gas fracking applications. 1/3 of revenues derived from Industrial & Specialty Products (ISP) - for glassmaking, building products, filtration and chemical applications to name a few. In this Episode 4 in the Leadership Lyceum, Bryan will share his experience over his seven-year tenure at US Silica - first as head of Sales & Marketing for the Company and then as CEO and leading the company through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during his first year as CEO.   In Part 1 we focused on his moving from head of Sales & Marketing and then to President and CEO where he set the new strategy and transformed the Company through the IPO to the delight of his private equity investors Golden Gate Capital (http://www.goldengatecap.com). Our conversation in Part 2 covers his leadership through the downturn in their Oil & Gas segment.  He will also share insight into his leadership as a CEO and advice for those aspiring to be a CEO. More about US Silica: Ticker USLC.  http://www.ussilica.com More about Bryan Shinn: http://www.ussilica.com/about/management-team Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes: https://t.co/a70rtSiQnW or SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thomas-linquist Follow Leadership Lyceum on:          LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-linquist-682997          Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum              Email us: Linquist@leadershiplyceum.com Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically.  Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. Program Guide  Part 2 of 2 Bryan Shinn Interview 0:48        Introduction to Part 2 and Bryan Shinn, CEO of US Silica 1:56        Experience of Operating in a Downturn 11:40      Break 12:31      Approach to Customers in the Current Environment 15:15      Break 15:35      Approach to Leadership as CEO – 5 Key Areas of Leadership Focus 22:05      Break 22:30      Advice for Aspiring CEOs 31:08      Wrap Up and Conclusion of Episode 4   Biography on Bryan Shinn Bryan A. Shinn has served as president of US Silica since March 2011 and as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors since January 2012. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Shinn was senior vice president of sales and marketing from October 2009 to February 2011. Before joining US Silica, Mr. Shinn was employed by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1983 to September 2009, where he held a variety of key leadership roles in operations, sales, marketing and business management, including global business director and global sales director. Mr. Shinn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware. As a result of these and other professional experiences, Mr. Shinn possesses particular knowledge and experience in operations, sales, marketing, management and corporate strategy that strengthen the board's collective qualifications, skills and experience.   Your host Thomas B. Linquist is a Partner at leading global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Over his 15 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 25-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.  Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically. Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. Copyright 2016 by The Leadership Lyceum LLC

Part 1 of 2 Interview Leading an IPO with Bryan Shinn, CEO of US Silica  Welcome to Episode 4 of the “Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor” podcast.  This is Part 1 of a 2 part interview with Bryan Shinn, CEO of US Silica.  US Silica (http://www.ussilica.com) is a NYSE-listed $643 million revenue producer and distributor of commercial silica through two segments:  2/3 of revenues derived from Oil & Gas Proppants Segment - in essence as sand to prop and maintain fractured openings in oil and gas fracking applications.   1/3 of revenues derived from Industrial & Speciality Products (ISP) - for glassmaking, building products, filtration and chemical applications to name a few.   In this Episode 4 in the Leadership Lyceum, Bryan will share his experience over his seven-year tenure at US Silica - first as head of Sales & Marketing for the Company and then as CEO and leading the company through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during his first year as CEO.   In Part 1 we will focus on his moving from head of Sales & Marketing and then to President and CEO where he set the new strategy and transformed the Company through the IPO to the delight of his private equity investors Golden Gate Capital (http://www.goldengatecap.com). Our conversation in Part 1 ranges from his transition to CEO, establishing a new culture, and his leadership through the IPO in early 2012.  He will share advice, best practices and lessons learned from the IPO.     More about US Silica: Ticker USLC.  http://www.ussilica.com  More about Bryan Shinn: http://www.ussilica.com/about/management-team  Subscribe to the podcast at iTunes: https://t.co/a70rtSiQnW or SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thomas-linquist  Follow Leadership Lyceum on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-linquist-682997  Twitter: @LeaderLyceum https://twitter.com/LeaderLyceum  Email us: Linquist@leadershiplyceum.com  Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically.  Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. Program Guide  Part 1 of 2 Bryan Shinn Interview  1:04       Introduction to Part 1 and Bryan Shinn, CEO of US Silica 2:04       Introduction to US Silica 3:11       Interview: Process of Becoming CEO - From SVP of Sales & Marketing at US Silica 4:30       Development Toward Becoming CEO.  Leadership in Setting Vision and New               Strategic Direction 6:58       Developing Oil & Gas Organization from Scratch 8:08       Break  8:37       Transformation of Organization and Establishing a US Silica Culture: Five Tenets to Culture 11:10     Ensuring a Low Political Culture 13:10     Open Door Policy Between Management and Board of Directors 15:18     Potential Acquisition Targets - Using US Silica Stock as Currency 17:10     Break 17:27     IPO Experience: Advice and Reflection 20:02     Experience of IPO and Public Company Leadership Requirements 21:12     PE Ownership: Influence on Disciplines and Preparation for Pubic Ownership 22:30     Compliments to Golden Gate Capital, US Silica’s PE Owner going into the IPO 23:42     Shining Moments/Memories of the IPO 26:25     Specific Preparation for the IPO Transaction - Communications and Soliciting Investor Advice 28:59     Looking Back: Areas of Improvement in Approach to the IPO 30:35     Wrap Up/Preview of Part 2 and Conclusion of Interview with Bryan Shinn   Biography on Bryan Shinn Bryan A. Shinn has served as president of US Silica since March 2011 and as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors since January 2012. Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Shinn was senior vice president of sales and marketing from October 2009 to February 2011. Before joining US Silica, Mr. Shinn was employed by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company from 1983 to September 2009, where he held a variety of key leadership roles in operations, sales, marketing and business management, including global business director and global sales director.  Mr. Shinn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware. As a result of these and other professional experiences, Mr. Shinn possesses particular knowledge and experience in operations, sales, marketing, management and corporate strategy that strengthen the board's collective qualifications, skills and experience.   Your host Thomas B. Linquist is a Partner at leading global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. Over his 15 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of industrial clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and boards of directors.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 25-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago.  He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search career, he has interviewed thousands of leaders.  Please subscribe to the Leadership Lyceum at iTunes which will enable future content to come to you automatically. Rate us and spread the word among your fellow executives and board colleagues. Copyright 2016 by Dinosaur Productions LLC  

In this episode of China Money Podcast, guest Eric Solberg, founder and CEO of Asia-focused private equity and wealth management firm EXS Capital, talked to our host Nina Xiang. He discussed how he is preparing to invest in China's property sector in its downturn, and why he thinks there are attractive investment opportunities in the Chinese steel sector. Read an excerpt below, but be sure to listen to the full episode in audio. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for free in the iTunes store. Q: You resigned from Citigroup Venture Capital International Asia in 2007 and started EXS Capital. What was your consideration behind that decision? A: In early 2007, private equity deals in Asia were very expensive. The average public market PE multiple was 60 times. CVCI has raised a US$4.3 billion global emerging markets fund at that time. As all partners, I was required to invest a very large portion of my net worth, in fact, Citi was going to loan me a lot of money, so that I can make a large personal investment in this fund. But I was concerned that valuations were too high. So I resigned. I withdrew all my money from the fund and sold my Citi stock at US$54, which went all the way down to 97 cents. That turned out to be a lucky decision. Q: What happened to that fund? A: In my understanding, the fund invested very aggressively in 2007 and 2008. That fund was sold recently to a much smaller group. I am no longer involved in that fund, but my guess is that the fund didn't lose a lot of money, also didn't make a lot of money. It did get investors the type of performance they were hoping for. Q: Give us more background on EXS Capital. What does the name stand for? A: It's a play on the initials of my and my son's name, which is Xavier. But we call it "excess" capital, because we think everybody needs "excess capital"; it's our private joke. Essentially, we believe that the volatility in the Asian markets makes the typical closed-end, finite life private equity funds difficult. So if you can have either permanent capital, or can do this on a deal-by-deal basis, we think Asia is the best place to do private equity. Q: Your firm did try to raise an evergreen fund, but it wasn't successful? A: We did try to raise a permanent capital vehicle around 2011. At that time, investors are putting a lot of money into domestic Chinese or Indian funds. There weren't the appetite for that new type of vehicle. Some day, we may go back to that idea now that we've built a longer and stronger track record. But in the meantime, our deal-by-deal basis approach has given us a great deal of flexibility. Q: Chinese private equity firm Capital Today is planning to raise a private equity fund with a 28-year fund life. What do you think will be its biggest challenge? A: Frankly, I don't think that's a right way to do it. Taking a standard private equity fund model, and just making the fund life very long, doesn't solve the problem. If you look at more sophisticated evergreen funds such as Golden Gate Capital and General Atlantic, they have rolling mechanisms to allow investors in and out, and to periodically realize investments. That more creative approach is a better solution. Q: Can you tell us more about a deal you did in China, which was a buyout of a distressed shareholder in a Chinese residential project called Project Byblos? A: We were working with a developer who had a single project with a 3900-unit residential project in Southern China on the coast. This developer was originally financed by a Southeast Asian group, which got into trouble after the global financial crisis. The developer saw this as a good opportunity to buy out this Southeast Asian group. We raised some money for the developer, and structured the deal to give incoming investors minimum IRRs (internal rate of return), as well as sharing the upside with the developer. That worked out well.

KeyBanc Capital Markets senior equity analyst Brad Ludington discusses the California Pizza Kitchen deal with Golden Gate Capital.

Lee Helman of Financo and Stuart Rose of Tully & Holland discuss the sale of J. Jill by Talbots to Golden Gate Capital.

Lee Helman of Financo and Stuart Rose of Tully & Holland discuss the sale of J. Jill by Talbots to Golden Gate Capital.