Grew EV 10x in 5 Years
Ben Rudman knew he wanted to work in food before he knew what investment banking was. His first independent sponsor deal, Western Smokehouse Partners, started with ~60 employees in 2018. By the time it sold 4.5 years later, it had almost 700 employees across 4 facilities and enterprise value had grown ~10x.
More recent episodes
Working Under an Independent Sponsor Who Suddenly Passed Away
Former Chicago teacher G.R. Kearney transformed tragedy into opportunity, rebuilding his firm as Stacker Holdings—an employee-focused, EOS-driven private equity platform after his partner's sudden death.
Skipping $2m EBITDA Deals ("The Messy Middle")
Dan Tamkin of Resurgent Capital Partners shares his barbell strategy for lower-middle market PE deals, avoiding the "messy middle" to maximize returns.
Financing Add-Ons Without New Equity
Sam Turner built Advantos Group into a leading UK facilities maintenance roll-up through disciplined capital management, technology integration, and conservative leverage below 2x EBITDA.