Episodes
Jim talks with Paul Stansik about his experiences digging in on the sales and marketing function within our portfolio.
Published 11/11/22
In the latest episode of the Private Equity Funcast, Operating Partners Cici Zheng and Paul Stansik discuss the ICP - Ideal Customer Profile. As investors, we're frequently asking our portfolio companies - who is your ICP? Which ones are your best-fit customers, the ones that your product is truly the best fit for to solve their pain points? How do we avoid trying to be the dreaded "swiss-army knife" and being everything to everybody? In this episode we discuss why defining an ICP is...
Published 09/02/22
Jimmy is joined by David Cohen, Human Capital Partner at Kelso and Company. David has been working in the Human Capital / Private Equity space for over a decade and has helped shape the discipline across the PE industry. They break down the various ways that human capital can impact a portfolio business, including alignment to strategy, leadership effectiveness, talent acquisition, and org design. If there’s a word that defines today’s episode, it’s alignment. It is at the center of how both...
Published 08/17/22
In this episode, Jimmy is joined by Laura Queen, founder, and CEO of 29Bison, a Human Capital Consultancy focused on the PE space. Laura is also the author of the book “People Economics: Defining and Measuring the True Value of Human Capital” and is a genius at understanding how strategic human capital management contributes to the value creation process. They break down Human Capital Due Diligence – what it is, how it’s done, and why it’s the fastest-growing of all the diligence workstreams.
Published 07/11/22
Jim talks all things DevOps with Dave Mangot from Mangoteque.  Dave's philosophy is "Get Good at Delivering Software", and he has helped many well-known companies become "best in class"  We discuss the four keys that define a company's competence in software delivery; deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to recovery.  There's also a heated discussion about whether "the cloud" is cheaper than running your own data center.
Published 06/22/22
No prospect is going to buy enterprise software on impulse.  Prospects don't need advertising, they need help, help understanding that they have a problem, help in understanding their options for solving that problem, and help in working their way through an evaluation and choosing a solution.  Paul Stansik talks with Marcus Sheridan, author of "They Ask, You Answer" about these topics and more.
Published 06/08/22
Your company acquired another company - congrats! But what happens next? In this episode, Operating Partners Cici and Jimmy break down the Integration Management Office, or IMO. They discuss what it is and how they deploy it inside the portfolio to integrate recently acquired businesses into their acquiring entity. They discuss how they stand up the process, the key processes that need to be in place to make sure everything gets done, and how to make sure you don’t forget about the humans...
Published 05/31/22
Jimmy is joined on the show by Ted Bililies, Managing Director at AlixPartners, for what is now becoming a yearly ritual to discuss the results of the 7th Annual PE Leadership Survey. This year, the theme is all about the COVID-driven acceleration of trends that is propelling human capital to the forefront of the value creation agenda. They discuss the great resignation, how CEOs are now more fearful for their jobs than ever, and the rising important of talent recruiting, engagement,...
Published 05/04/22
On this episode of the Funcast, Operating Partner Paul Stansik is joined by CEO Elias Rubel, whose team at Matter Made works with B2B marketing teams big and small to help accelerate their revenue growth. If you've ever wondered how to organize a marketing team, the right way to interview a marketing leader, the foundation you need in place to launch an effective demand generation campaign, or what leaders of companies like Loom, G2, Dropbox, and other unicorns are doing to tune their inbound...
Published 04/13/22
It's the grand finale of our annual March Madness episodes -- the final four.  Cass versus Jimmy and Paul versus Cici for all the proverbial marbles for our favorite podcast!
Published 04/04/22
It's our annual March Madness show.  This year our intrepid Operations Team picks their 16 favorite podcasts.   Have a listen as Cici, Paul, Cass, and Jimmy along with Commissioner for Life -- Jim work their way down to a final four.  And play along at home with our survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FMP6J8V   The final four battle it out for supremacy on next Monday's episode.
Published 03/28/22
Sometimes the recipe for a good discussion is to simply pick an important topic, invite two smart people who disagree with each other, and then sit back and listen. Today Paul Stansik, Operating Partner at ParkerGale, is joined by Cory Bray (MD at ClozeLoop) and Nelson Gilliat (Author of Death of the SDR: And the Birth of Buyer Centric Revenue) to talk about how to get prospecting and growth right. In the course of a rousing hourlong debate, Paul, Cory, and Nelson cover the spectrum of...
Published 03/24/22
Jim and Attorney Peter Halprin from Pasich, LLP discuss the ins and outs of Cybersecurity Insurance and Litigation. We cover a wide range of topics with a focus on what private equity leaders need to know about these issues, including: why private equity leaders should treat attacks as inevitabilities, how cyber insurance can provide breach response support and financial protection against cyber risks, and how companies may be able to find coverage under other policies for cyberattacks,...
Published 03/10/22
In this episode, Cici Zheng talks with April Dunford, a positioning consultant, speaker, and author on how she helps growth stage companies with positioning. They discuss the difference between product messaging and product positioning, how to "fix" positioning problems, and why founders, PE firms, and portfolio companies should even care about positioning in the first place.
Published 03/03/22
In this week's episode, we are talking with Pam Lang, CEO of Xcelerated Data, a company that focuses on fixing data quality problems leading to better decisions in your marketing organization.   Pam explains compiled lists, hotlists, the differences between consumer lists and business lists, and SIC codes versus NAICS codes.  
Published 02/17/22
Jim, Cici and Jimmy discuss community building within our portfolio. We cover everything from organizing small teams across our companies to ParkerGale's approach to "summits".
Published 01/12/22
It's our annual predictions show for 2022 with your original hosts, Devin and Jim. With the glut of other pontificators doing their usual prognostications, we've decided to shake things up a bit and focus on resolutions, or rather our anti-resolutions.
Published 01/05/22
Devin walks us through three (yes 3!) new additions to the ParkerGale team. We're calling it the Platform Team and it includes a Head of Community, a Head of Origination, and a Head of Research. Listen to hear a brief description of each role and if you are interested (or know someone who is) email your resume to devin [at] parkergale [dot] com and ryan [at] parkergale [com] with "Community" "Origination" or "Research" in the email title. We will send you a detailed job description so you can...
Published 12/27/21
It's our annual holiday episode, with your original hosts -- Devin and Jim. While the debate over "Die Hard as a Christmas movie" is settled (it is), there are still plenty of things to discuss this holiday season, so come have a listen.  
Published 12/24/21
Jimmy is joined by Tim Schumm, CEO of Lucas James Talent Partners to discuss The Great Resignation. Just about everyone has been impacted by this personally or professionally in some capacity, but mid market businesses can feel this even more acutely. They discuss the macro trends that are driving this phenomenon and then share what the most create mid-market companies are doing to win the war for talent.
Published 12/17/21
We’re hiring! ParkerGale VPs Ben and Nori join Jimmy to discuss the Investment Associate role at ParkerGale. They discuss Associate responsibilities, core values, and what makes the job unique (including, but not limited to, great office snacks). Please share with interested friends or colleagues.
Published 12/15/21
Jimmy is joined by Eric Green, co-founder of WPD Management, a Chicago-based real-estate and property management company, to discuss the recent transformation that Eric guided WPD Management through. They discuss Eric's founder's story and how he built the business, the realization that he needed to extract himself from the day-to-day operations, and how over a 18-month period, he deployed the ParkerGale People Ops playbook, empowered his team, and transformed his business. Jim joins in on...
Published 11/19/21
Jimmy is joined by Amanda Lannert, much lauded CEO of Chicago-based Jellyvision, to discuss how Jellyvision is transforming their culture as we emerge from the grips of the pandemic. They discuss how COVID impacted Jellyvision's business, how she has embraced the mantra "purpose, and not presence," how they are re-thinking company communication, and what her team is now doing to invest in meaningful relationships.
Published 11/03/21
ParkerGale Operating Principal Paul Stansik is joined by Zorian Rotenberg, former head of Sales, CRO, and now a PE growth advisor. Zorian and Paul share their approach to diagnosing and addressing typical growth problems, how sales teams can use simple math to set better pipeline targets, and what sets great CROs apart.
Published 10/29/21
Jimmy Holloran and Paul Stansik share the lessons they’ve learned inside the portfolio from the last 2+ years working on teams, talent, and culture. They cover how to get the most out of your next team offsite, what great management training has in common, how to make hiring and performance management more human, and how ParkerGale thinks about fostering cultures that last.
Published 10/21/21