Private Equity Value Creation Podcast

On this episode, Jonathon Ferguson, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at AshGrove Capital, explains how bespoke financing solutions for B2B software differ fundamentally from both direct lending and venture debt—and why underwriting on conviction rather than exit optionality changes how you structure a deal.
Hear how to think about valuing a software business as a lender, why proprietary data and vertical software have proved resilient as AI accelerates, and how performance-linked credit facilities tie capital deployment directly to growth milestones—with capacity that can grow organically as a company hits its plan.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Jonty Yamisha, CEO of Axxonsoft, draws on a career that has spanned private equity underwriting, operating partner roles and the CEO seat to explain what gets lost when investors, operators and portco leaders don't speak the same language—and how to close that gap.
Hear how the "what needs to be true" reframe transforms a top-down financial mandate into a shared problem-solving conversation, and why building a unified data taxonomy across marketing, sales and finance is the unglamorous prerequisite to any coherent value creation plan. Then learn how Jonty's three-factory model—delivery, customer success and go-to-market—uses the customer journey as connective tissue to align teams that otherwise default to blaming each other.

The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Tyler Newton, Managing Partner at Catalyst, makes the case for a disciplined approach to growth investing that sits between VC and buyout—and what operators and investors can learn from it.
Learn how to underwrite deals at the growth stage without relying on leverage or the power law—and why paying a fair price in the right sector matters more than finding the perfect company. Hear how to build a five-year plan that underwrites to multiple compression rather than expansion, and what it takes to win deals in a competitive market when you don't have proprietary deal flow.
From entry to exit, get a practical view of how to sequence leadership hires as a company scales, keep founders focused on three to five priorities per year, and build toward inflection points that open up multiple exit paths—from PE recap to strategic acquisition to IPO.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Christian Chauvet, Partner at Lee Equity, shares how vertical focus creates a structural advantage in healthcare and financial services investing—and what it takes to build and scale founder-led businesses in highly regulated, service-intensive industries.
Hear how a people-process-systems playbook drives organic growth across healthcare and financial services portfolios, why boots-on-the-ground referral networks are a critical and often underutilized growth lever in community care and why many founder-led businesses have attractive CAC economics but are systematically underinvesting in growth. Learn how AI is enabling providers and advisors to spend more time on high-value work—and how to think about tech enablement as a value creation lever rather than a technology roadmap item.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.

On this episode, Michelle Noon, Managing Partner and Founder of Clearhaven Partners, joins Shiv Narayanan to break down how investors and operators build enterprise value in software companies through true partnership, concentrated bets and operational depth. You'll learn why running fewer deals per fund changes the math on time, attention and alignment with management teams, and why intentionally entering investments with lower leverage keeps the latitude needed to operate.
You'll also hear a candid view of how AI is reshaping software investing—the case for building an internal Claude skills marketplace, the mental model of pairing incumbency advantage with an AI-first mindset and how to re-imagine functions like sales from a blank sheet without ignoring the realities of change management.
The information contained in this podcast is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice.