Issue No. 37Week ending Sunday, September 13, 2026434 episodes · 1825 articles
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John Maldonado

John Maldonado appears in 2 full episodes we cover on Dry Powder. Below is what each conversation covered, with a key takeaway per article. Every quote in the articles is verbatim and timestamped to the source video.

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2 episodescovered
12 articleswith timestamped quotes
Private EquityDry Powder

Where AI Is (and Isn’t) Creating Value

Host Hugh MacArthur convenes leading private equity investors from Vista, Hg, Advent, CVC, KKR, and Apollo to evaluate where artificial intelligence is driving real value versus where it remains in experimental stages. The discussion explores proprietary enterprise data architecture, peer benchmarking to drive operational adoption, AI-powered investment committee tools, leadership culture, and practical portfolio-wide rollout strategies.

  • David Sambur, co-head of private equity at Apollo, structures AI deployment across three clear tracks: portfolio operations, investment evaluation, and internal firm productivity. Read →
  • David Toms, partner at Hg, avoids top-down sponsor mandates by using executive ego and peer collaboration to drive operational improvements across dozens of B2B software assets. Read →
  • Advent International tracks more than 80 AI initiatives across 30 North American portfolio companies, spanning early pilots, full rollouts, and commercial products. Read →
  • Pete Stavros reports that across roughly 250 portfolio companies, AI serves as an incremental operational lever rather than a core thesis for underwriting buyouts. Read →
  • In January 2020, CVC CEO Rob Lucas took the firm's entire leadership team to Singularity University to study exponential technological curves. Read →
  • Less than 1% of enterprise data has been absorbed by large language models, explaining the massive gap between corporate experimentation and working production systems. Read →
Sep 6 · 6 articles · Listen ↗
Private EquityDry Powder

Exits, AI and Asking 'What’s Next?' w/ Advent International's John Maldonado

Advent International Managing Partner John Maldonado joins Bain's Hugh MacArthur to discuss navigating longer holding periods, harder exit markets, and GP-LP alignment. Maldonado explains how Advent uses AI across portfolio operations and internally in its investment committee, while outlining the core cultural principles that keep the firm focused on alpha generation.

  • Advent International introduced an AI tool to serve as an active, non-voting observer inside its investment committee meetings. Read →
  • Market seams decay rapidly once competitors identify them, forcing buyout firms to abandon playbook repetition in favor of continuous subsector discovery. Read →
  • Advent International requires deal teams to interview tier-one strategic acquirers during initial underwriting, testing whether those corporates would buy the finished asset years later. Read →
  • Top-tier private equity assets still clear at peak multiples, while all other assets face protracted, price-sensitive buyer negotiations. Read →
  • Advent International runs over 80 active AI initiatives across 30 North American portfolio companies, shifting away from open-ended pilot tests toward concrete operational mandates. Read →
  • Institutional limited partners at a recent industry conference described their relationship with fund managers as "fraying" over conflicting incentives. Read →
Aug 23 · 6 articles · Listen ↗
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