The Deal Podcast

60 Episodes

Reverse

From Oil Field Landman to Business Owner with Scott Rainey

2026-04-0841:21

Before Scott Rainey owned a safety consulting company, he was getting bit by dogs in North Louisiana — knocking on doors as a landman, trying to convince hostile landowners to let oil companies onto their property. That pivot into entrepreneurship wasn't clean. It nearly ended in bankruptcy. Here's how he got out, started over, and built something worth selling. Scott Rainey is the founder and President of Quest Safety Solutions, a safety consulting firm serving oil and gas service companies ...

Bootstrapped to VC-Backed: Scaling a Female-Founded Brand — Lauren Bercier

2026-04-0601:00:43

She spent thousands of dollars on wedding flowers she didn't even love — and watched them end up in the trash by the end of the night. That experience became the blueprint for a business that has now served over 60,000 weddings and helped couples save more than $100 million on flowers. Lauren Bercier is the Co-Founder and CEO of Something Borrowed Blooms, the leading silk floral rental company disrupting the traditional wedding flower industry. In this episode, Lauren joins hosts Joshua Wilso...

Access Granted: Inside the Hilton Family Office — Mark Miller

2026-04-0328:43

What if you could invest like the Hilton family — without having $100 million in the bank? Mark Miller has spent nearly 40 years making that possible, and in this episode, he pulls back the curtain on exactly how it works. The strategies, the philosophy, the network — and the surprising backstory of how the Hilton family fortune ended up in a foundation instead of the family's hands. Mark Miller is the Managing Director of the Hilton Family Office and CEO of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors, bu...

No Operator, No Deal — How PE Firms Find the Right CEO with Travis Hann

2026-04-0143:33

Some PE deals don't fall apart in due diligence — they fall apart because no one can find the right CEO. Travis Hann has built his firm around solving exactly that problem. If the operator doesn't exist — or can't be found — the deal doesn't happen. Travis Hann is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Pender & Howe, a fast-growing boutique executive search firm serving mid-sized companies and investors across North America. He also serves on the board of Kestria, the world's largest glob...

He Buys Companies Everyone Else Is Running From — Nate Moore

2026-03-3057:01

He only buys companies everyone else is running from — and he's been doing it for 20 years. Nate Moore has built a 700-person operation by acquiring distressed childcare and home care businesses, walking into chaos where others see dead ends, and turning them around through leadership, structure, and a relentless belief in people. Nate Moore is a serial acquisition entrepreneur and founder of Moore Consulting & Investment Group. For over two decades, Nate has operated at the intersection ...

Value Creation vs. Wealth Acceleration: The Family Office Framework

2026-03-2301:12:08

Most business owners confuse value creation with wealth acceleration — and it's costing them everything after the deal closes. This episode breaks down the family office framework that changes how you think about your business, your exit, and your legacy. Joshua Wilson sits down with Benjamin Domingue, founder of Family Office Partners, a multifamily office serving private business owners from pre-transaction planning through multi-generational wealth management. With over 15 years of experie...

Why Culture Kills More Acquisitions Than Bad Pricing — Scott Harkey

2026-03-2037:51

Scott Harkey put $750,000 cash down on an agency tuck-in — and turned it into $10 million in enterprise value inside his group. That's EBITDA arbitrage. And according to Scott, most independent agency operators grinding away at 17–25% margins have never once thought about it. This episode covers the deal math, the culture traps, and the billboard rollup opportunity most investors are completely missing. Scott Harkey is the founder of The Harkey Group, a multi-agency advertising platform with ...

How a Banker Evaluates Business Acquisitions (The 5 Cs Explained)

2026-03-1648:43

What does a banker actually look for before saying yes to your deal? Ben Smith, Market President at Red River Bank in Lafayette, Louisiana, pulls back the curtain on how banks evaluate business acquisitions, equipment financing, and commercial lending — and what business owners can do right now to set themselves up for growth. Ben brings nearly 25 years of banking experience, starting in credit review and commercial lending before becoming the market president responsible for growing Red Rive...

When to Sell: The $50K Angel Investing Lesson — Bubba Page

2026-03-1350:15

Bubba Page watched a $50K investment grow to $200K on paper — then passed on the chance to cash out. A year later, that company went bankrupt. His position went to zero. That one decision — and the hard-won wisdom that followed — reshaped how he approaches every deal today. He calls it the cookie jar rule: when someone passes the jar, you take a cookie. Bubba Page is a 5x INC5000 serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of Influence.vc — a venture capital syndicate on AngelList built ...

When to Order a Quality of Earnings — Elliott Holland

2026-03-1142:10

Most first-time buyers skip the QoE. Elliott Holland has spent 15 years watching that mistake blow up deals — and families. In this episode, he breaks down exactly when you need one, what it finds, and why the EBITDA number you're looking at may not be real. Elliott Holland is the founder and CEO of Guardian Due Diligence, a Harvard MBA, former private equity professional, independent sponsor, and one of the earliest self-funded searchers in the country. Known as the "King of QoE" on social m...

What an Investigative Journalist Notices That Most Deal Makers Miss

2026-03-0945:07

What does an investigative journalist notice that most deal makers miss? Adam Daigle of the Acadiana Advocate has spent 15 years covering business, M&A, and economic development across Louisiana — and his pattern recognition for spotting winners and losers might be sharper than most investors in the room. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson and Jude David sit down with Adam Daigle, business journalist for the Acadiana Advocate, to explore what investigative reporting and de...

From Brazil to Rebuilding Downtown Lafayette

2026-03-0750:38

From tennis courts in São Paulo to building one of Lafayette, Louisiana's most ambitious mixed-use hotel developments — Gus Rezende's story is one of grit, community, and hard-earned entrepreneurial wisdom. Gus Rezende is the co-founder and managing partner of Social Entertainment, a Lafayette-based holding company with 300+ employees, 12 Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations, restaurant concepts including Central Pizza, real estate investments, and the highly anticipated Hotel Lafayette — a groun...

90% of Family Wealth Is Gone by the Third Generation — Here's Why

2026-03-0634:27

90% of family wealth is gone by the third generation — and it's not bad investments doing the damage. It's governance failures, the hard conversations nobody has, and the failure to pass down the values and stories that created the wealth in the first place. In this episode, Tim Brown breaks down what actually separates multi-generational family offices from those that quietly fade back to shirt sleeves. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Tim Brown — family offi...

What 18 Months Before Your Exit Should Actually Look Like

2026-03-0437:57

Most business owners are leaving money on the table — not because they're running a bad business, but because they can't prove how good it is. In this episode, we break down exactly what buyers look for and how to build a business that commands top dollar. Joshua Wilson sits down with Mark Sims, a former Chief Information Officer and Head of Strategy & M&A at Scott's Miracle-Gro ($4B company), who now helps businesses transact, transition, and transform through his consulting firm Con...

"God Whispers" — How Faith Led to a Life-Changing Exit

2026-03-0201:49:09

What does it look like when faith and dealmaking become the same story? Brandon Robinson — a practicing CRNA turned multi-unit Planet Fitness franchisee — shares one of the most remarkable entrepreneurial journeys you'll hear on this show. Brandon built a portfolio of Planet Fitness locations in Louisiana from a standing start, backed by nothing but a $777,000 landlord contribution, a business partner who said yes without hesitation, and an unwavering conviction that God was guiding every ste...

The 5 Dimensions of Private Equity Most GPs Ignore

2026-02-2751:44

What if most private equity firms are using AI completely wrong — and leaving massive IRR on the table because of it? Mohamad Chahine has sat in nearly every seat in the deal ecosystem: corporate engineer at Schlumberger, MBA consultant, PE deal team member, operating partner, and now PE tech founder. In this episode, he shares a rare practitioner's perspective on value creation, the trust curve, and why the PE library desperately needs more voices from people who've actually done the deals. ...

The Art of Venture Capital: How VCs Value an Idea

2026-02-2547:11

From sugar cane fields in New Iberia, Louisiana to investing in the next frontier of space technology — Theo Williams' path to venture capital is unlike anything you've heard. If you want to understand how early-stage VC actually works, this episode is required listening. Theo Williams is a Partner at Creations VC, a venture capital firm focused on dual-use space technology across data infrastructure, advanced energy, metals and manufacturing, and defense. Before Creations, Theo led portfolio...

Platform vs. Tuck-In: The Private Equity Playbook Explained

2026-02-2439:18

Most business owners spend years building something great — and almost no time thinking about what comes next. The buyers on the other side? They think about this stuff every single day. In this episode, Joshua Wilson sits down with co-host and Kin Capital Partners co-founder Jude David — an M&A attorney turned acquisition entrepreneur who has closed hundreds of transactions and built a portfolio of a dozen companies from the ground up with his own capital. Jude pulls back the curtain on ...

How He Timed His $230M Exit — Then Did It Again

2026-02-2301:03:30

He sold his company for $230 million right before oil prices collapsed. It wasn't luck — it was a board meeting. Thomas Chance joins The Deal Podcast to share what 30+ years of building, selling, and starting over actually looks like from the inside. Thomas Chance is a serial entrepreneur, engineer, and Louisiana native who built CNC Technologies into the world's largest privately held offshore survey company — 600 employees, 10 offices worldwide, $25M EBITDA — then sold to Oceaneering in 201...

He Represented Grammy Artists. Now Doing Reverse Mergers On Wall Street

2026-02-2026:07

What do Grammy-winning songwriting credits, merchant cash advances for the Latino community, and a reverse merger into the OTC markets have in common? They're all part of Yoel Damas' story — and it's one you won't forget. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Yoel Damas — entertainment attorney, Grammy-credited songwriter, and now CEO of a publicly traded revenue-based finance company targeting underserved communities. Yoel breaks down how a chance conversation led...

#box-pro-ellipsis-177572656308664{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}The Deal Podcast