Is the Classic Buyout Model Still Working?

[This episode originally aired on March 1, 2021] We consider a critical question from Bain & Company's Global Private Equity Report. 

 On April 24, I joined the Spotlight On podcast for a conversation about the future of private equity. Naturally, we talked about the game-changing promise of generative AI, but I also sounded a note of caution. While we’ve seen remarkable enthusiasm and activity in deal sourcing operations and portfolio management, what we haven’t yet seen is the kind of deep impact that many are talking about and predicting. There’s progress along many fronts but no silver bullet in sight just yet.What you’re about to hear is a lightly edited excerpt of our conversation, in which I offer my latest thinking on how to navigate this experimental phase, including how we’re using generative AI here at Bain. I’d like to thank my host, Nick Barton of the Barton Partnership, for such a thought-provoking exchange.

Amid a turbulent year, is the industry poised for more of the same or a sudden turnaround?Read Bain's 2025 Midyear Private Equity Report here. Register for Bain's Private Equity Midyear Report 2025 Webinar on July 16 here. 

[This episode originally aired on December 7, 2023] Today on the show, I have a lively conversation with Ashby Monk, the executive director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long Term Investing. Ashby studies the inner workings of pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations —  in short all of those LPs that sit somewhere in between the public and private sectors.“That means that they are optimizing for things that are not entirely evident to just the casual observer,” Ashby says.In this episode of Dry Powder, I ask Ashby to take us inside the $140 trillion universe of long-term investing and help us understand what exactly these organizations are optimizing for.If you'd like to stay up to date with my weekly series on LinkedIn, follow me here.

This past December, I joined the M&A Science Podcast for a wide ranging interview about my 30 year career at Bain and the evolution of the private equity industry.  My host did a superb job of walking us through the pivotal moments when the industry was forced to reinvent itself.  In this current moment of uncertainty, the interview serves as a timely reminder of how quickly the industry can change — and is often forced to. What you're about to hear are a few excerpts from that interview, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.I'd like to thank my host, Kison Patel, for the opportunity to share this timely conversation with our audience, and if you'd like to listen to the full interview, you can visit the M&A Science Podcast here.

A 30-year veteran shares why the secondary market’s growth continues to surprise him.

We ask a leading provider of NAV loans about the enthusiasm and the skepticism around a growing trend.

In the second of our two-part series, we ask the Co-CEO of Hamilton Lane how they’re  building an analytics engine that can serve both institutional and individual investors. 

Hamilton Lane's Co-CEO takes us inside the rapid buildout of private market infrastructure.

In part two of our infrastructure series, we take a closer look at which sub-sectors are heating up, and how opportunities across energy and tech are converging.