Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast

Robert Anderson Jr. served more than 20 years in the FBI, overseeing criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, including the Edward Snowden investigation. After the FBI, he served as managing director for a global organization helping companies respond to and recover from thousands of data breaches, as well as evaluate M&A target companies for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The now Chairman and CEO of Cyber Defense Labs sat down...

Serial entrepreneur Todd Boyman has been a consumer of plant-based foods for more than three decades. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that his business passion and food passion would eventually combine in a new venture. Hungry Planet is a maker of plant-based meats with fewer calories and less fat than conventional meat and other plant-based options. In March of 2023, Todd spoke at the St. Louis Smart Business De...

Over 18 years and more than $15 billion in transactions, DGP Capital's Jack Chang has been advising businesses public and private on how to get the most out of their business when it's time to sell. He brought that experience to bear when he joined  us to talk about what sellers can do to make their business attractive to buyers, when they should start the process and who they can turn to for help as they work to maximize their dea...

Rob Hale thinks he's an unlikely person to listen to when it comes to dealmaking. After all, he became a billionaire and lost it all by the age of 35. But Rob rebounded from the failure of Network Plus to co-found Granite Telecommunications, which made him a billionaire again and eventually co-owner of the Boston Celtics. That failure and rebound yielded three essential business lessons that Rob shared with attendees at the 2023 Bo...

Human capital and corporate culture play a key role in most M&A transactions. In this episode, we talk to a different sort of business leader about asset management, team building and creating a winning culture — in a very literal sense.

Nic Barlage is CEO of Rock Entertainment Group and its many holdings, including the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. He oversees more than 500 full-time team mem...

Jumpstart Capital founder and Managing Partner Vic Gatto has been investing in early-stage health care businesses for nearly a decade. His organization — Jumpstart Foundry, Jumpstart Health Investors and Jumpstart Capital — works to bring innovation to what could be considered a timid but also complex industry. He talks about the formation and evolution of the venture capital firm, the opportunities he's seeing in these early-stage...

Carrie Thome left the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, where, as the Chief Investment Officer, she oversaw a $3 billion investment portfolio, to co-found NVNG Investment Advisors, an investment platform and network made up of a family of funds. The organization closed its Fund 1 in late 2021. Carrie talks about the organization, leaving WARF to launch it, her experience as a fund raiser and the progress NVNG has made since its...

Compelled by the invitation of Jesus to "love our neighbors as we love ourselves," Corner to Corner was founded by Will and Tiffany Acuff in 2011. The young couple wanted to create a relationship-centered nonprofit that focused on seeing neighbors in their low-income Nashville neighborhood flourish on their own terms. In partnership with the community, the first program was aimed at equipping those recently out...

Patrick Patterson went from the third person at what ultimately became Level Agency to its co-owner, sitting in the CEO seat for the first time. And shortly after taking over the business, he brought in PE partners — also a first — to help accelerate the company's growth with M&A-minded advisers who can help the agency accomplish its ambitions goals. Patrick talks about the management buyout, how he connected with his PE backers an...

While service providers such as hotels and restaurants were severely debilitated by the pandemic shutdown, others thrived. One such example is Reimagine Care, a Nashville-based in-home cancer care enabler. It’s taken cancer care from the clinic to patients' living rooms. Aaron Gerber, co-founder and former CEO of Reimagine Care, says the scope of what can be done for patients has greatly changed with tremendous...

After years of investing in early-stage companies in the SaaS, robotics, internet of things, health & fin tech spaces, Ven Raju has taken his talents from New York to Pittsburgh where he now heads Innovation Works as its president and CEO, while also holding the position of managing director of Riverfront Ventures. The two organizations have a symbiotic relationship — Innovation Works invests at the earliest stages of a venture whi...

Stephen Glicken is working to disrupt ticket sales as we know it with his company, Project Admission. It's a unique model that managed to survive the collapse of live events during COVID and continue to draw investor interest, gain market traction and land significant partnerships. Stephen talks about the business, its growth, fundraising, investors and what he hopes to be saying in the next five years about the company he launched...

Wellist is a consumer navigation company that started by helping to connect patients to services largely outside their care plan — connecting with an acupuncturist, a place to get a wig or someone to clean the house. The company has since opened up its offerings to employees, and in the process has been able to leverage the data it collects to help employers provide better support to their employees and reduce costs. Founder and CE...

Barry Sandweiss has co-founded 7 startups, including Lenders One, a company that became the largest mortgage-banking cooperative in the U.S., which he eventually sold. Now he's with Cultivation Capital, a VC firm in St. Louis, sitting on the other side of the investment table. Barry talks about his experience as an entrepreneur, how it's informed his approach to investing, the urge to use his experience to help others and how his e...

John Cerasuolo leads incredibly acquisitive companies. At ADS Security, he led the business through 45 acquisitions in a direct-to-owner model that relied on relationships and an internal team to buy-up companies. Now, with Leap Partners, he's hoping to do the same in the plumbing and HVAC sectors. Already the company he's launched is off to a fast start with 5 acquisitions already complete and a pipeline that could help him realiz...