Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast
Smart Business Dealmakers interviews the entrepreneurs doing deals, the PE, VC and family office players investing in them, and the M&A advisers making them happen. Topics include raising capital, buying and selling companies and managing a liquidity event.
Episodes
In a deal, the gap between a signed Letter of Intent and a successful integration is paved with complexity and nuance. In the middle market, the big picture strategy is rarely what kills a deal — it's the mechanical friction of working capital, the structure of earnouts and the human element of post-close management.
Greg McGuire, Senior Manager of Transaction Advisory Services at Louis Plung & Co., dives deep into the te...
Every deal lives or dies by the people at the top. While financial diligence sets the price, leadership diligence is crucial to unlocking deal value. Craig McCall, president of MCG Human Capital Solutions and a corporate psychologist joins the pod to talk about how aligning talent and culture better ensures sustainable enterprise value. From spotting the leadership red flags that erode value post-close to mastering the first 90-day...
Negotiating mistakes in M&A, on either side of a deal, can strip value and hamstring the opportunity for long-term post-deal success. So, avoiding the most common mistakes at critical junctures is immensely important.
Bill McComas, co-founder of the law firm Jensen & McComas, drops by to talk about the top M&A negotiating mistakes from both the buy and sell side, what they can do to a deal, and how to avoid them.
For most business owners, the first time they sell their company is often the last. With only one chance to maximize the value that will be leveraged during life after business, it's important to get it right. Mark Jensen, a member at Jensen & McComas, offers an overview of the arc of an M&A deal — from assembling the deal team to the day of close. He offers tips on what to do and what not to do, and how to deal with ...
For business owners thinking about their exit, the choice often seems limited to selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. But there's a third option, ESOPs, that secures their legacy and rewards the very people who helped build the company. Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld's Andy Rudolph, Marc Hirschfield and David Dalesandro take a deep dive into Employee Stock Ownership Plans to break down how this unique succession ...
Regardless of what uncertainty exists in the market or from where it originates, deals continue to get done. However, doing deals during more turbulent times takes some strategic maneuvering. Riveron's Alex Shahidi, Transaction Services Leader, Jeff Bernstein, Equity Capital Markets Leader, and Ryan Gamble, Tax Advisory Leader, explore the current deal environment, and the factors affecting public and private dealmaking. They talk ...
It was supposed to be a great year for M&A in the government contracting sector. New SBA rules were expected to drive GovCon sellers to market as they raced to beat the rules' implementation. But then the Department of Government Efficiency happened, which sought to cut government budgets, something that threatened to negatively affected many GovCon businesses since, as the name implies, government contracts are key to their va...
At this year's Baltimore Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, an expert panel provided actionable insights to mitigate risks and maximize opportunities for both growth and divestiture in an increasingly complex time of tax policies and tariffs. Paragon Biosciences' Peter Buzy, Evergreen Advisors Capital's Stephen Prichett and First National Bank's David Valentiner and Mac Tisdale headlined the panel, moderated...
One area of complexity in a buy-side M&A transaction is commercial insurance. Given all the potential liabilities, hidden risks, industry-specific needs and coverage gaps, knowing what to look for during due diligence is critical to maximizing post-deal value. On this episode, Brian Stovsky, senior vice president and practice leader for the Oswald Companies and Unison Risk Advisors Mergers & Acquisitions Practice, and Joe C...
At the 2025 Dallas Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, Zenwork Founder & CEO Sanjeev Singh shared the entrepreneurial journey that led to a nine-figure private equity minority investment. From launching Zenwork with his wife to scaling the business and bringing on a PE partner, Sanjeev discusses the challenges, pivotal moments and strategies that fueled Zenwork's growth.
There are many myths about ESOPs — that they're complicated or that once within its structure a company owner loses control, or that banks won't lend to them. David Solomon, a member at Levenfeld Pearlstein and head of the firm's Employee Stock Ownership Plan practice, is here to bust those myths. In this episode, David sets the record straight on what an ESOP is — and what it isn't.
What happens when a publicly traded company transitions to become privately owned? During the midday Fireside Chat at the Boston Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, two CFOs share firsthand insights on the realities of life as a public company, the strategic considerations behind their respective sales to private equity firms, and what the transition process entailed. Cassandra Hudson, CFO of StackAdapt ...
A letter of intent, often referred to as an LOI, is essentially the first formal document in a sale process between a buyer and a seller. It not only establishes the intent of two companies to move forward into a sale process, but it sets some terms for the process that sellers should carefully consider. Tony Montanaro, transaction advisory partner with Louis Plung & Company, talks about LOIs and what sellers need to know about...
Kicking off this year's Boston Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, we explore innovative strategies, regional growth and the transformative power of public-private collaboration in shaping the future of Massachusetts and the Boston region. In this panel, moderated by Smart Business Chief Content Officer Dustin Klein, Timberline Construction CEO Steven Kelly and Commonwealth of Massachusetts Chief Digital Officer Janak Joshi explo...
Things seem to be looking up for the St. Louis economy. And with positive national economic trends expected to continue, the city seems poised to build on its momentum.
At the 2025 St. Louis Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, Dustin Allison of Greater St. Louis Inc., Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge of St. Louis Lambert International Airport and John Manetta of Bank of America joined Bank of America St. Louis President Marilyn Bush to ana...
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