Growth Investor with GrowthCap‘s RJ Lumba

Delivering Long-Term Value in Private Equity: American Securities’ Michael Fisch

In this episode, we speak with Michael Fisch, Founder and CEO of American Securities.  Based in New York with an office in Shanghai, American Securities is a leading U.S. private equity firm that invests in market-leading North American companies with annual revenues generally ranging from $200 million to $2 billion. American Securities and its affiliates have more than $26 billion under management.

Originating as a family office founded in 1947, in 1994, American Securities opened its private equity investment activities to outside investors seeking attractive risk-adjusted rates of return.

Michael is a founder of American Securities and has been CEO since its inception in 1994. Before founding the firm, Michael was a partner in two private equity funds, a consultant in the Paris office of Bain & Company, and a professional in the mergers and acquisitions department of Goldman Sachs.

Michael earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where he is a Member of the President’s Leadership Council, and an MBA from Stanford University, where he has been a guest lecturer since 2006.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Leading One of The Largest Weight Loss Clinics In The United States: Found’s Sarah Jones Simmer

In this episode, we speak with Sarah Jones Simmer, CEO of Found, a company with a mission to make evidence-based, sustainable weight care accessible for all.

Prior to joining Found in 2021, Sarah was the COO of Bumble, where she was responsible for core strategy, international growth, marketing initiatives, and business operations, as well as the expansion of Bumble’s rapidly growing team.

She started her career analyzing equities and market conditions at a Los Angeles-based hedge fund with ~$5 billion AUM.

Found has raised over $130 million and is backed by WestCap, Google Ventures, Atomic and other notable investors.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Game Changer In Web Development: Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch

In this episode, we speak with Guillermo Rauch, Founder and CEO of Vercel, the frontend cloud that gives developers the frameworks, workflows, and infrastructure to build a faster, more personalized web.

Founded in 2015, the company has raised over $300 million dollars and is backed by GGV Capital, Accel, Bedrock Capital, CRV, and other notable investors.

Vercel unlocks developer potential and enables users to go from idea to global application in seconds. Vercel enables customers like Under Armour, Nintendo, The Washington Post, and Zapier to build delightful user experiences on the Web.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Harnessing The Next Generation: RIVET’s Eric Dawson

In this episode, we speak with Eric Dawson, Founder and CEO of RIVET, which channels the collective economic power of young people to fund their work as social innovators.

Young people control over $3 trillion of spending power and are hungry for authentic avenues to express their values.  Meanwhile brands are hungry to connect to young consumers.  Combine those two facts and add in the tremendous energy driving the youth social change movement and you have RIVET.

Prior to RIVET, Eric co-founded Peace First as a freshman at Harvard, leading it to become a global nonprofit that now supports over 13,000 youth-led projects in over 150 countries. As an Ashoka, Echoing Green, and Pop!Tech Fellow and best-selling author, Eric is a globally recognized expert on youth empowerment.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Uniquely Positioned in Venture Growth: Revolution’s Kristin Gunther

In this episode, we speak with Kristin Gunther, a Partner at Revolution Growth which has more than $1 billion in assets under management and backs category-defining companies.

Revolution is a D.C.-based investment firm founded by AOL cofounder Steve Case in 2005. Through its family of funds – The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Revolution Ventures, and Revolution Growth – Revolution partners with founders at every stage of the startup lifecycle.

Kristin brings over 15 years of experience in private equity, finance, and operations. Prior to joining Revolution, she spent five years at Perseus where she worked with portfolio companies and management teams on growth strategies, operating and finance matters, and exit planning.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Founder Focused Growth Investing: Serent Capital’s Kevin Frick

In this episode, we speak with Kevin Frick, Co-Founder and Partner of Serent Capital, a leading lower-middle market private equity firm focused on investing in high growth service and technology businesses.

Serent’s portfolio includes more than 60 founder-led, industry-changing companies that it partners with who are scaling up by using Serent’s toolkit of growth resources.

Kevin has a long track record of working with CEOs and their management teams to help their companies achieve their full potential, and has engaged on topics of strategy, organization, sales & account management, marketing and lead generation, product road-mapping, pricing, operations, and mergers & acquisitions.

Prior to co-founding Serent, Kevin was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led McKinsey's West Coast Private Equity practice. He has worked with over 100 companies in a counseling capacity with an exceptional track record of helping management teams achieve bottom-line improvements.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

The Enterprise 5G Revolution: Celona’s Rajeev Shah

In this episode, we speak with Rajeev Shah, the Co-Founder and CEO of Celona, the enterprise 5G company that enables a new generation of AI-powered business critical apps in the enterprise and helps organizations accelerate their digital transformation journey.

Before founding Celona, Rajeev was the VP of product management and marketing for Federated Wireless, where he launched the industry’s first and leading Spectrum Access System. Prior to Federated, Rajeev held multiple product management leadership positions at Aruba Networks, including creating its Cloud Wi-Fi business.

Taking advantage of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum, Celona’s solution architecture is designed to simplify and automate deployment of cellular wireless technology by enterprise IT organizations and managed service providers.

The company was born with the idea that a combination of 5G radio technology, edge computing and machine learning software will fundamentally change how organizations work and do business.

Celona is backed by Digital Bridge Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Norwest, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other notable investors.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Transforming Math Education: Cuemath’s Vivek Sunder

In this episode, we speak with Vivek Sunder, CEO of Cuemath, an online supplemental learning platform. Cuemath started in India in 2013 with a mission to transform the way children learn math.

The company started as an offline tutoring center with a small group of students but is now the world's leading online math education platform. Backed by marquee investors such as Google and Sequoia, Cuemath is present in 80+ countries today and is trusted by over 200,000 students for all their math needs.

Prior to working at Cuemath, Sunder worked for more than two decades at P&G and served as COO of Swiggy, an India-based food ordering and delivery platform. Sunder leads Cuemath’s mission to be a global math powerhouse with 21st century techniques and technology.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

At the Forefront of Automation Investing: THL’s Jim Carlisle

In this episode, we speak with Jim Carlisle, Managing Director of THL Partners, a private equity firm investing in middle-market growth companies across financial technology and services, healthcare, and technology and business solutions.

Jim is the Head of the Technology & Business Solutions vertical, the Automation Fund and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Leading a team to develop the firm’s technology practice and build leadership in its automation theme, Jim contributes thought leadership to THL’s Identified Sector Opportunity (ISO) platform and fosters a thriving culture through specialization and professional development opportunities.

THL has raised more than $35 billion of equity capital, invested in over 170 companies and completed more than 600 add-on acquisitions representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $250 billion.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

The Art and Science of Value Creation

In this episode we talk about value creation, which is critical to how growth investment firms consistently succeed in transforming their portfolio holdings into category leading expansion companies built for the long term.

Firms and groups such as Blackstone Growth, Great Hill Partners, Insight Partners and Vista Equity shared with GrowthCap on the Growth Investor podcast how they think about value creation and their approach to closely partnering with management teams to optimize key operational areas that are critical for rapid scale to occur.

I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to subscribe.