Jim welcomes the CEO of Master Storytelling and former host of Planet Money, the always-entertaining Adam Davidson. We explore the importance of crafting a compelling and memorable narrative for companies to effectively communicate with various stakeholders, including investors, management teams, and customers. We take a detour to delve into the challenges of generic messaging, the significance of being distinct and memorable, and the role of storytelling in aligning and coordinating actions within a company.
Jim talks with Paul Stansik about his experiences digging in on the sales and marketing function within our portfolio.
It's our annual holiday episode, with your original hosts -- Devin and Jim. While the debate over "Die Hard as a Christmas movie" is settled (it is), there are still plenty of things to discuss this holiday season, so come have a listen.
Devin and Jim talk about macro and micro events for 2019 including; the global economy, the U.S. economy, politics, the tech market and the implications for private equity in the new year.
Jim and Devin talk about the one or two characteristics that can blow an otherwise terrific executive out of the water. It's Bill Simmons' 90/10 rule -- only better!
A lengthy discussion with Alan Williamson on the "perfect technology stack". In today's environment do you HAVE to be running on Linux, or is Windows Server just fine for some shops? C# or Java? Java or Ruby on Rails? Should you be getting rid of all of your old perl and PHP code? Is this the end for relational databases? AngularJS or jQuery?
Jim interviews FunCast Bracketology Commish, Ryan Milligan in preparation for next week's "Final Four".
Devin and Jim talk about Nassim Nicholas Taleb's gem, "Fooled by Randomness"
Jim and Devin talk restaurants and cuisine with Chicago's own Chef John Caputo.
Jim and Devin talk shop with Troy Henikoff from TechStars Chicago.
Devin and Jim introduce their new firm, Parker Gale Capital
Devin and Jim discuss succcession planning for founders.
We sit down with a real life Associate from a real life private equity fund. Removed from his natural habitat and placed in captivity in Chicago, Kevin Fitzgerald shares with us what he did to get the job, what he does on a daily basis and where he's taking the experience next (hint: it's in Cambridge, MA).
Jim and Devin discuss the vaunted venture "pivot" and its applicability, or lack there-of in the private equity business.
Jim trades programming barbs, tips and opinions with the guru of application development, Alan Williamson.
Bring out your debt! We've talked a lot about funding options for owners of mid sized companies but we haven't covered debt yet. Well, here you go. A detailed conversation with Ian Larkin, founder and Managing Partner of Maranon Capital. Ian describes why you should look at debt in a business like a parfait sundae (seriously, he does!) and what all those layers mean to you as an owner. He talks about the aversion most business owners have toward debt and why they might want to change their minds a little. Then at the end we kind of ramble on about things that have nothing to do with debt, private equity or fancy deserts.
It's our Christmas Spectacular! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there in the podcast ether!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners!