Growth Investor with GrowthCap‘s RJ Lumba

A Healthy Dose of Optimism and Winning The Lottery in Business

In this episode we chat with two time entrepreneur Paul Schneider.  Paul and his co-founder have bootstrapped two different software businesses (The Isadore Group and Socious) to a successful sale.  Typically, when we hear of someone selling a software business, or any business for that matter, we think that person must have developed a super unique product or service, or that person got lucky by being at the right place at the right time, or that person had all the right connections. 

As you’ll hear from Paul, what’s made him successful is his mindset and belief in “making it happen”.  What propelled him early on in his career, was realizing he could manufacture winning the lottery…that is...through business. 

Paul also shares with us other aspects to what has made him successful including finding the right business partner, listening to customers, and evolving his sales strategy.

Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy the show. 

The Berkshire Hathaway of Growth Equity, SGE's Aspiration

In this episode, we chat with Ben Weinberg  and Josh Elser of Susquehanna Growth Equity, a leading growth equity firm founded in 2006 in affiliation with Susquehanna International Group.  Ben and Josh focus primarily on direct private company investments in the software space. 

We cover quite a bit of ground in this conversation, from the genesis of Susquehanna International Group, now a global financial powerhouse, and the entrepreneurial mindset that drives the organization to the founding of the growth equity practice and to the current dynamics at play in the growth equity market. 

Both Ben and Josh graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. We hope you enjoy the show. 

 

Retired Four-Star General, Stanley McChrystal, on Leadership

General Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after thirty-four years of service. He is a partner at the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm based in Virginia and a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. General McChrystal recently coauthored Leaders, which explores how various leadership styles can be effective depending on time and situation.  His previous books My Share of the Task and Team of Teams were both New York Times bestsellers.  We hope you enjoy the show.

Braemar CEO Richard Stockton on Luxury Real Estate Investing

Richard Stockton has always had a passion for real estate. After graduating from Cornell, Richard began his career in real estate centric roles at both PwC and Morgan Stanley. After a brief stint working for one of his former clients, he joined Braemar as CEO.

Braemar is one of the market's leading REITs focused on full-service luxury hotels and resorts. The company currently owns 13 properties around the United States, including the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, Hotel Yountville, and Bardessono Hotel and Spa among others. With a keen focus on growth in revenue per available room, Braemar is dedicated to expanding its portfolio of luxury hotels and resorts and delivering strong dividends and equity returns to its shareholders.

Managing Through Rapid Growth To Global Leader: Associa’s Patrick Brensinger

Like many great businesses, Associa comes from humble beginnings. John Carona founded the company in 1979 after taking out a loan against his wife’s Datsun. In the years following, the company has expanded beyond its Dallas Texas roots to provide association management services around the country. Today it is the global leader in association management serving over 5 million residents through 190 branch offices in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

NewSpring Capital’s Brian Kim and Lee Garber on Growth Equity and Buyout Investing

NewSpring Capital is a leading private investment firm headquartered near Philadelphia. Founded nearly 20 years ago and with $1.8bn in assets under management, NewSpring has backed over 140 companies since inception. We recently spoke with Brian Kim, a partner in technology growth equity, as well as Lee Garber a principal who leads the firm’s holdings strategy. Both Brian and Lee were 2018 Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investor awardees. 

Life Time Founder and CEO Bahram Akradi: Reinventing And Captivating The Fitness Industry

Bahram realized that something was wrong in the fitness and health club industry and set off to fix it. He started Life Time Fitness in 1992 with the goal of redefining the industry by employing a razor-like focus on the customer experience. With this founding principle, Life Time Fitness has grown to 140 locations across 39 major markets in the U.S. and Canada. Going beyond the confines of the traditional fitness club, Life Time is a "Healthy Way of Life" brand that has expanded into educational content, healthy food, fitness classes, sports competitions, and more. In 2015, Life Time was taken private by Leonard Green and TPG in a transaction valued at more than $4.0 billion.

Three-Time Olympian and Private Equity Pro Paul Teti on Leadership, Teamwork, and Charity

Paul Teti is a former member of the U.S. National and Olympic rowing teams. He competed in the Sydney, Athens, and Beijing Olympic games. In addition, over the course of his career, he won 10 national championships, three World Cup medals, and a Pan American Games gold medal. Now a Partner at Normandy Real Estate Partners, Paul leverages many of the skills he developed as a competitive athlete to excel in business. We chatted with Paul to learn more about what it takes to sustain a high level of performance over an extended period of time. We also discussed Paul's ongoing dedication to community engagement and giving back, including several of the causes and organizations he actively supports.

Thoma Bravo Scales Nintex With CEO Eric Johnson

With more than two decades of financial and operational experience at mid- and large-sized software companies, Eric Johnson joined Nintex as CFO in 2014. Alongside the company’s 2018 majority investment from Thoma Bravo, Eric was appointed CEO. In his new role, Eric sits at the helm of one of the leading providers of intelligent process automation solutions in the market. Since its founding in 2006, the company has experienced significant growth and currently serves more than 8,000 enterprise customers in over 90 countries around the world. We chatted with Eric to learn more about his leadership style and the Nintex growth strategy going forward.

IVP’s Roseanne Wincek and Her Journey to Growth Investing

On the heels of recent investments in MasterClass and KeepTruckin, we spoke with Roseanne about her professional journey, what makes a great investor, and how she rose to the top of a traditionally male-dominated field.