Private Equity FunCast

First, she sketched a med spa roll-up on maternity leave. Then, several law firms said it couldn't be done. Now? She owns five practices. Cass sits down with her old pal from grad school, Amanda Blank, to discuss her path from finance to building Founders Beauty Group, a med spa roll-up where she leads both investing and operations. Amanda explains the MSO structure that makes owning medical practices possible, how she secret-shopped her targets, and why med spas are healthcare, not consumer (as her legal bills prove). Plus, Kodiak pancakes, a mentor with 20 identical business suits, and a karaoke dare.

He left private equity, took a 75% pay cut, and joined a 12-person startup that was still finding its footing. Now, Jon Apter helps oversee 1,600 employees as CFO of Accordion – a seat he's held for the last 11 years.  Jon sits down with Devin to explain what really keeps a CFO in the room with sponsors and boards. Drawing on two PE deals and 12 acquisitions, he shares what it takes to get a company exit-ready from day one, why the CFO's real job is equity value (not the budget), and why AI spend is about to show up in your QoE. Whether you work directly with CFOs, sit on the sponsor side, or are in banking or PE wondering about a move into the CFO seat – this episode will change how you think about the role. For more about Accordion visit accordion.com.

What does it take to move from banking to the buyside, and what do you have to figure out once you're there? Liz sits down with Katie Yuan, a private equity associate at Hg in London. They met in 2022 in JPMorgan's investment banking training in New York. Since then, both have made the move from IB to PE. Katie traces her path from studying economics at Cambridge, to two years in JPMorgan's industrials group, to investing in B2B software at one of Europe's largest tech investors. If you're a student or junior thinking about your next move, Katie shares: How she explored PE while still in banking, and why talking to people made the difference How she moved from industrials to tech without a tech background The best career advice she's received: you're in control of your career, so act like it What to do if you don't know what your goals are yet How she's building confidence in her own judgment, and why having an opinion is part of the job What it's like to sit in on board-level AI strategy conversations as an associate Plus: K-drama recs, a gochujang sausage pasta recipe, Swiftie credentials, and what 10-year-old Katie wanted to be.

We built our sourcing model around one goal: know every owner of every software company long before they decide to sell. Ken Fine, Affinity's CEO, joins us to explain why relationships and not process are the keys to deal flow, and how AI can make that scalable (and even more human). We talk about the old way and new of sourcing, how AI turns messy inboxes into usable intelligence, and why the real alpha in private equity is more about who you know than what you know. Ken spent his earlier career building and scaling venture-backed software companies before taking the helm at Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform used by over 3,000 venture and private equity firms, including ParkerGale.  You can learn more about Affinity here.  

Cass sits down with Brogan Magnarelli, Principal at Riverspan, to talk about her untraditional path into private equity — from point guard at Harvard to account manager at Boingo Wireless, to GE Healthcare sales leadership and finally PE business development.  Brogan shares why gathering skills at every step matters more than following a linear path, how her basketball mindset shaped her career, and why she tells anyone who'll listen: if you're the smartest person in the room, find another room. They also get into the "silver tsunami" of aging founder-owned businesses, what it's really like being a working mother in private equity, and why Brogan's 10-year-old self wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.