Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
Jon Apter, CFO of Accordion, joins Devin Mathews to discuss his career transition from investment banking and private equity into leading finance at a fast-growing sponsor-backed services firm. He explains how to struct…
- Accordion CFO Jon Apter notes that sponsor-backed companies are overspending on compute and software tokens, turning AI deployment into an immediate margin drag rather than an ins… Read →
- Accordion CFO Jon Apter argues that tracking more than 10 KPIs dilutes executive focus, advising teams to isolate only the metrics that move enterprise value. Read →
- Accordion completed 12 add-on acquisitions by shifting founder relationship management entirely away from private equity deal teams to internal operators. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
Devin Mathews sits down with Ken Fine, CEO of Affinity, to discuss how relationship intelligence and AI are transforming deal sourcing in private capital. They explore why private equity should adopt venture capital's r…
- Junior private equity associates and VPs routinely burn two to three hours every Monday manually logging meetings, notes, and pipeline updates into legacy systems. Read →
- Ken Fine argues that standard enterprise CRMs fail private capital because manual data entry starves the software of real relationship context. Read →
- Ken Fine, CEO of Affinity, argues that the true atomic unit of value in private dealmaking is the relationship graph, not process speed or manual CRM data entry. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
PitchBook's Andrew Akers joins Devin Mathews to discuss the quantitative research behind 'Diminishing Returns to Scale' in private equity buyout funds. They explore how structural capital consolidation, career risk, vol…
- Institutional allocators routinely favor marquee buyout brands over higher-returning middle market funds to shield themselves from career risk. Read →
- In a study of nearly 10,000 private equity transactions, zero buyout deals returning 10x cash-on-cash came from funds larger than $1 billion. Read →
- PitchBook forecasts global private equity assets under management to reach nearly $9 trillion by 2030. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
Devin Mathews speaks with Justin D’Onofrio, Managing Director at Accordion, about how private equity-backed CFOs and FP&A teams should approach budgeting for artificial intelligence. They discuss why unmanaged experimen…
- Uncontrolled experimentation has driven software budget blowouts across private equity portfolio companies, forcing finance teams to treat artificial intelligence as capital deplo… Read →
- Variable token consumption breaks traditional enterprise IT budgeting because model queries do not follow predictable, fixed-seat SaaS contract pricing. Read →
- Private equity sponsors measure AI returns by tracking revenue per head over time rather than cutting existing payroll. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
Devin Mathews and Paul interview Lee McCabe, founder of Claymore Partners, about the structural shift required in private equity as multiple expansion and cheap debt disappear. They explore how operating partners can bu…
- Static 100-day plans and 100-page value creation decks collapse quickly because underwriting assumptions rarely survive the first 90 days of operational reality. Read →
- Middle-market portco leadership teams often cannot connect commercial spend to revenue: McCabe points to target CEOs spending $500,000 monthly on marketing who cannot show what th… Read →
- Ninety-nine percent of private equity websites operate strictly as investor pitch decks for LPs, completely ignoring the founders and executives who drive deal flow. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
Devin Mathews (ParkerGale) and PitchBook's Steven Buibish discuss the H1 2026 US private equity market, highlighting a 'false start' to the year. They delve into sector shifts from software to 'HALO' assets, the conundr…
- PitchBook's Steven Buibish projects evergreen funds will double from $100 billion to $200 billion in the next year, emerging as a primary growth engine for private equity capital. Read →
- Middle market add-ons still dominate by volume, making up 75% of all PE deals by count, though only 40% of the total value, as firms actively build out platforms. Read →
- US private equity buyout multiples held firm at 12.5x EBITDA in H1 2026, matching 2021 peaks, despite a drop in deal volume and tighter debt markets. Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
This episode features Sam Levy, Head of Go-to-Market Strategy and Execution at NetSuite, discussing his career path from a college telemarketer to leading a $4 billion GTM organization. Sam and Devin Mathews explore the…
- Sam Levy, who leads NetSuite's $4 billion Go-to-Market organization, makes a bold forecast: 90-95% of future CEOs will emerge from sales or marketing backgrounds. Read →
- Sam Levy, NetSuite's Head of Go-to-Market Strategy, argues that rapid revenue growth often "exposes the cracks" in a sales organization, making targets feel harder to hit even whe… Read →
- Sam Levy, head of Go-to-Market Strategy at NetSuite, highlights the dilemma of high-performing “lone wolf” sales reps: their productivity might be tolerated if their disruptive be… Read →
Private EquityPrivate Equity Funcast
This episode discusses the increasing push to allow retail investors, particularly through 401(k)s, to invest in private assets. Nizar Tarhuni from Pitchbook provides data and insights on the historical context, the eme…
- Don't confuse “semi-liquid” with actual liquidity. Funds like Blackstone's BCR offer structured exits, typically allowing redemptions of only about 5% of your investment on a quar… Read →
- Upcoming mega-IPOs like SpaceX could generate an unprecedented $1.5 trillion in value, matching the entire VC industry's IPO output from 2015 to today. Read →