The Minds Capital Podcast
Your connection to the growing world of independent sponsors and deal-by-deal private equity.
32x MOIC After 100 Investors Said No
Since Kevin Ramsier's last appearance on this podcast, his firm, Sier Capital, has closed a new infrastructure platform (where Minds Capital is an investor) and exited another business that generated a 32x MOIC over a 7-year hold. The same business started with 95% customer concentration and nearly 100 investors said no.
The $600M Bet on Independent Sponsors
Grant Kornman co-founded NCK Capital as an independent sponsor in 2013, then moved to the capital side with Align Collaborate in 2023. Align now manages $600m+ across 2 dedicated funds and writes $10-40m equity checks into sponsor-led LMM deals. Grant has watched the independent sponsor market evolve from both sides.
815 Independent Sponsor Deals Analyzed
Greg Brown is a Professor of Finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler and Founder of the Institute for Private Capital. On July 15, 2026, he published the first large-scale study of independent sponsor performance, covering 815 deals. Investor-reported transactions generated a 2.86x average gross TVPI and 29.3% gross IRR, outperforming matched non-IS PE deals by 0.73x TVPI and 11.4% IRR on average, with no statistically significant increase in downside risk.
When Equity Oversubscribes 2-3x
Sequoya Borgman is the first repeat guest on the Minds Capital Podcast. Since his last appearance, Borgman Capital has exited 1 company (4x+ net MOIC) and acquired 2 more (Minds Capital invested in the latest one, PCCD)
Funding Deal #2 From Exit #1
Ben Tiggelaar acquired Enable Dental in 2017, ran it for five years and exited in 2022. He later bought Datatel with his own capital, growing it from a $6m revenue MSP with 55–60% recurring revenue to ~$8m with ~90% recurring revenue.