S1E14: Leveraging Private Equity for SMB Growth w/ Jeff Kadlic

In Episode 14 of Into The Storm Leaders, we're joined by Miami University's Chairman of the Entrepreneurship School Advisory Board and Founding Partner of Evolution Capital Partners, Jeff Kadlic.

This episode offers a different perspective than we've seen in others, informing some of the advantages of exploring private equity to scale a business, while directly addressing those of which it may not be best for. Kadlic explains that when he started Evolution almost 20 years ago, he noticed that smaller companies were often overlooked by the professional investment community. Larger private equity funds focused on companies with revenue over $35 million, leaving a gap in the market for smaller businesses. This realization led Kadlec to establish Evolution with a mission to invest in what he referred to as the "capital gap."

Links & Resources:

• https://evolutioncapitalpartners.com/about-us/our-team/jeffrey-kadlic/
• https://evolutioncapitalpartners.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-kadlic/
• www.cultureshoc.com
• www.eosworldwide.com

Quoteworthy Moments:

• 00:17:19 - "Taking away somebody's vision of themselves, not taking away, but trying to really help them self-reflect on who they are and really what their potential is, is tough business."
• 00:22:09 - "But even when I started my career, some of my early successes were, let's look at this in a different way."
• 00:27:10 - "Maybe sales isn't your thing."
• 00:31:59 - "My investors expect me to act."
• 00:34:23 - "But it's a responsibility of every leader."
• 00:37:50 - "Tension is good."
• 00:42:02 - "Just go."
• 00:42:39 - "Those are the two things that when the world is going nuts, if I do those two things, I'll be able to find my point north, so to speak, using a compass analogy." 00:47:54 - "The most frustrating thing for me is when we know something and we still fail to act on it."
• 00:53:31 - "And, and so what I see so much in life today and in business in particular is one is complete lack of accountability."
• 00:55:02 - "It's cube the data. Look at it, not just from the six sides, but see if you can crack that sucker open and look at it from this angle and this angle and this angle." 00:57:07 - "So maybe office supplies is one-to-one, but if I hire a salesperson, I want them to generate, for every dollar of expense, I want them to generate $3 of gross profit."
• 01:01:22 - "And so as I'm processing response to your question, it was really as a leader, allowing people to explore and grow, understanding that they're going to make a mistake and that you may have to go in and save their ass."
• 01:05:35 - "That cycle of making sure that people aren't afraid to fail, that's very hard to do."
• 01:07:09 - "Often, if people appreciate why you're doing it, the right people will come back with a better answer."
• 01:09:35 - "If you've never had to do the work, how are you supposed to know you're supposed to do it?"
• 01:23:16 - "If you are certain and have clarity around core values, be unapologetic."
• 01:25:57 - "The only way to succeed is to persuade people that your ideas are the best ideas."
• 01:26:49 - "Because once you enter into the private equity arena, you never go back."
• 01:29:23 - "Father time is undefeated, right?"
• 01:32:32 - "I mean, I got into this industry because the professional investment community overlooks this market."