HarbourVest CEO John Toomey on Middle-Market Co-Underwriting
The private equity co-investment market has split into two separate models: mega-fund syndication desks on one end and middle-market co-underwriting partnerships on the other.
Theme
Due diligence: what the top podcasts are saying.
What buyers and investors check before they write the check. 66 write-ups from 17 shows so far, the newest from November 2026.
66 write-ups17 shows
The short version
Acquirers and allocators now demand raw operational data and direct internal reviews during the dealmaking process. From secret-shopping medical clinics to auditing frontline managers and vendor contracts, successful due diligence prioritizes unvarnished reality and frontline truths.
Top talking points
Raw records beat packaged diligence files
Acquirers actively reject bespoke data rooms. Greg Holbrock demands existing operational logs for Winsupply acquisitions. Amanda Blank secret-shops clinical targets and Ted Bililies interviews departed executives to bypass polished pitch decks.
- Winsupply Runs Due Diligence Like an Audit M&A Science · Nov 15
- Secret-Shopping Med Spas Before the Close Private Equity Funcast · Oct 18
- Ted Bililies on Reverse Diligence and PE Exit Value Private Equity Spotlight · Oct 11
- Texas Teachers Re-Underwrites GP Portfolios Capital Allocators · Nov 1
Internal operators execute better than external advisors
Companies keep data room inspections inside the firm to maintain operational context. Nick Kokonas skipped external investment bankers and paid the internal executive team a success fee, while Commvault routes legal disclosures directly to internal engineering and security leads.
- Nick Kokonas on Selling Tock: How to Run a 3-Day M&A Sprint My First Million · Nov 1
- Meg Cavanaugh on Why In-House Teams Must Run Diligence M&A Science · Oct 25
- Why Sponsors Must Step Back from Founder M&A Diligence Private Equity Funcast · Oct 11
Corporate carve-outs require zero-based budgeting
Sellers rarely transfer existing vendor contracts intact, forcing buyers to justify every operational expense from scratch. Minor items like shared software licenses and arbitrary marketing allocations routinely threaten business continuity if deal teams overlook them.
- Kevin Gorman on Spotting Hidden Friction in Carve-Outs Private Equity Funcast · Nov 1
- Cooley's Diligence Road Map for Carve-Out Entanglements M&A Science · Oct 11
Most interesting insights
Partner Byron Deeter told Sameer Dholakia that Anthropic was the lowest-voted deal in his history at the firm, proving that top venture returns require backing unconsensus convictions.
From Why Bessemer Backed Anthropic After Passing on OpenAI, 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Oct 25
Lone producers frequently mask regional decay: a single rep closing $300,000 per quarter can hide five peers booking zero revenue under an ineffective manager.
From John McMahon on Why Sales Diligence Must Target Managers, Not Reps, M&A Science · Nov 8
Internal metrics inverted inside six months: firms that once celebrated employees with the highest token usage now audit those same users to halt unproductive API consumption.
From Why Quality of Earnings Reports Will Soon Normalize AI Spend, Private Equity Funcast · Oct 11
Blank found that mismanaging transaction announcements spooks clinical staff; providing advance heads-up and clear operational continuity converted clinic anxiety into the highest-performing revenue months the acquired practices had seen in years.
From Secret-Shopping Med Spas Before the Close, Private Equity Funcast · Oct 18
People quoted on due diligence
Latest write-ups
Why HarbourVest Put $5.5B Into Continuation Vehicles
GP-led continuation vehicles now represent roughly half of the entire secondary market, shifting from an emergency liquidity valve into a standard tool for active portfolio management.
Winsupply Runs Due Diligence Like an Audit
Winsupply runs a lean four-person deal team managing acquisitions across more than 680 wholesale distributor locations with an 80%+ success rate.
AI Speeds M&A Data Rooms but Cannot Draft Legal Terms
Winsupply oversees acquisitions across 680+ wholesale distributor locations with a corporate M&A team of four people, sustaining an 80%+ deal success rate.
Underwriting Anthropic and OpenAI: The Four S-Curves of AI
Late-stage foundation model rounds require massive market capture assumptions that clash with near-zero switching costs across major LLMs.
John McMahon: Forecast Accuracy Is Sales Manager Diligence
Sales forecast accuracy serves as the definitive diligence metric for judging sales leadership competence, proving whether front-line managers actively interrogate pipeline or pass unverified rep optimism up the chain.
Brijesh Jeevarathnam on Why LP Diligence Never Stops
The venture universe expanded from 500 to more than 4,000 firms, while Adams Street Partners data reveals that just 7% of portfolio companies generate all market returns.
John McMahon on Why Sales Diligence Must Target Managers, Not Reps
Enterprise software acquirers routinely misdiagnose sales slumps by firing bottom-quartile reps instead of auditing the frontline managers who hired and trained them.
Bill Perkins: How Trading Natural Gas Is Underwriting Insurance
Bill Perkins started as an entry-level clerk on the New York Mercantile Exchange floor before building his fortune trading natural gas derivatives in Houston after the market deregulated in 1995.
Kevin Gorman on Spotting Hidden Friction in Carve-Outs
Carve-outs force buyers into zero-based budgeting because corporate sellers rarely transfer existing vendor contracts intact, requiring each operational expense to be justified from scratch.
Nick Kokonas on Selling Tock: How to Run a 3-Day M&A Sprint
Nick Kokonas decided to sell Tock to Squarespace when pandemic growth peaked, knowing the company could not repeat a 200% annual growth rate the following year.
Texas Teachers Re-Underwrites GP Portfolios
The institutional assumption that an unrealized company held at cost automatically yields a 2x return at exit has collapsed under higher capital costs and slower distributions.
Shows covering this
M&A Science11Private Equity Funcast9Capital Allocators6How I Invest6Private Equity Spotlight6Dry Powder4The Infrastructure Investor Podcast420VC with Harry Stebbings3Acquisitions Anonymous3Fund Shack3Acquiring Minds2Karma School of Business2My First Million2TBPN2Invest Like the Best1No Priors1The Tim Ferriss Show1