Ep 10 Fireside Chat with Jeff Bistrong

Jeff is a partner at HKW and his primary role is to spearhead the firm’s Technology focus which includes evaluating and partnering with potential investment opportunities in the software and technology sector. Jeff is also a member of HKW’s Investment and Exit committees. Prior to joining HKW, Jeff worked at Harris Williams, where he founded and led the Technology, Media & Telecom Group, and was a member of the leadership team that grew the firm into a leading middle market investment bank. Early in his career, Jeff was an M&A banker at BancBoston Robertson Stephens and Tucker Anthony and has previous experience as a commercial banker at BankBoston and National Bank of Detroit. Jeff lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Outside the office he enjoys outdoor activities including skiing, mountain biking, and all water sports.===HKW is a middle-market private equity firm investing in companies with talented management teams in the US and Canada. HKW targets companies in the Technology, Health & Wellness, and Business Services sectors.

Melanie is a Founder and Managing Partner of Anagenesis Capital Partners. She is a member of the Investment Committee and is responsible for general management of the firm as well as originating, executing, and managing investments. Melanie serves on the Boards of various Anagenesis’ portfolio companies. In addition, she is also a Board member of the SBIA Board of Governors, Advisory Board member for the Kayo Credit Series and on the Board of The PIT Foundation.Melanie has over 23 years in the leveraged buyout market originating, underwriting, and managing senior debt, junior capital, and equity investments. Prior to founding Anagenesis, Melanie was a Managing Director and senior originator at GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services (HFS) where she was responsible for originating and underwriting financings for private equity led healthcare buyouts. During her nine years at GE, Melanie originated and closed over 48 new healthcare deals and many other participant transactions aggregating over $2 billion in deal volume. Prior to joining GE Capital, Melanie was a Director in the Private Equity Sponsor Coverage Team at Scotia Capital, where she originated and underwrote numerous domestic and international leveraged buyouts in various industries.In 2006, Melanie established The PIT Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit foundation, to provide education to children in Kenya. In 2009, Melanie was nominated by her peers and selected to receive the Gerald L. Phillippe Award in recognition of her extraordinary record of volunteer service. She was one of only nine recipients selected in 2009 for this recognition from over 300,000 GE employees around the world. In 2012, Melanie was nominated and selected for the GE Women in Commercial Program.Melanie received her BS from York College with a dual degree in Economics and Finance with a minor in Accounting.Anagenesis is an investment firm focused exclusively in the healthcare industry. Anagenesis partner with established healthcare businesses to deliver tailored financing solutions and strategic guidance to support their business needs and facilitate accelerated growth.

Join us this week for a case study with Britt Terrell, Managing Director at Backbone Capital Advisors, and Owen Hughes, an investment banking associate at Harris Williams' technology group. Before separating from the Navy and joining Harris Williams, Owen was an investment banking intern with Backbone Capital Advisors.Owen and Britt shared their experience of successfully transitioning from Navy SEAL to finance/helping transitioning veterans. ===Backbone Capital is a capital raising advisor to private equity groups, independent sponsors, operating companies, and other investment professionals, and advises its clients on a variety of lower- middle-market financing transactions including leveraged acquisitions, minority investments, refinancing, recapitalization, working capital, and capital for growth.Backbone has more than 30 years' expertise in arranging financing across the full capital stack including asset-based, senior cash flow, unitranche, second lien, mezzanine and minority/structured equity transactions. They have considerable experience in more challenging and special situations.Through their broad network of capital sources, they maintain active relationships with hundreds of commercial finance companies, banks, private and public debt and equity funds, and family offices. Backbone works with both domestic and international capital providers for large and small deals, with average deals ranging from $10 million to $50 million. They easily accommodate deals outside of this range as well.

Jeffrey Kadlic spent the first 10 years of his career making private investments in an institutional setting. Early success was achieved in large part to an entrepreneurial mindset within a corporate culture. While practicing as an institutional investor, working in and around dynamic small businesses, he recognized that growing small businesses needed more than just an influx of cash to scale operations. Leveraging corporate practices within an entrepreneurial setting, in addition to the capital, was the best way to achieve great performance.Connected by their passion for growing small companies, in 2005, he and partner, Brendan Anderson, co-founded Evolution Capital Partners, focused exclusively on advising and investing growth capital in Second Stage Companies.Jeff enjoys being spending time with his family, being physically active, playing golf and reading a good book. Jeff is also very active with the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, a non-profit that conserves a natural area, connects people with nature and inspires environmental stewardship. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio with his entrepreneurial wife, three sons, one daughter, and a vicious Maltese named Peanut.===Since 2005, Evolution Capital Partners has helped numerous entrepreneurial businesses transform and scale their organizations. As a team of investors, partners, and employees, our primary passion and motivation is to inspire entrepreneurs and their small businesses to grow and thrive under any economic circumstances.In 1995, after starting out their careers as lenders to small businesses, Brendan Anderson and Jeffrey Kadlic took their experiences in two seemingly different directions. Brendan began by buying and managing small businesses, while Jeffrey turned to professional funding and mezzanine investing. Ten years later, the two entrepreneurs co-founded Evolution Capital Partners with the purpose of inspiring entrepreneurs to create “evolutionary businesses,” businesses that have a lasting impact on the management, employees and communities in which they operate.

Mark is a Partner with River Associates Investments, LP. From 2005-2010, he served on the Global Board of Directors of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and was the Chairman of ACG Intergrowth 2008. Mark oversees new acquistion origination, fundraising and transaction financing efforts for River Associates. In this capacity, he initiates and maintains relationships with deal sources (investment bankers, business brokers and other intermediaries), potential fund investors (limited partners) and senior & mezzanine debt sources.===River Associates is a management friendly private equity firm focused on change-in-control buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and family succession transactions involving lower middle market (EBITDA $3-12 million) companies. The firm was founded in 1989 and has since initiated over 95 investments in a variety of businesses. River Associates is opportunistic as to industry and will invest in companies located throughout the US & Canada. The firm is currently investing its seventh fund with $285 million in committed capital, the limited partners of which are comprised of family offices and nationally recognized institutions, pensions, endowments and insurance companies. Please see www.riverassociates.com for details and contact information. 

The Academy Investor Network is a syndicate of U.S. Service Academy Graduates that invest in i) veteran-led startups and ii) civilian startups in the Government Technology sector. Check out their website: https://academyinvestor.com/. Emily McMahan is an entrepreneur and leader based in the Washington D.C. area. Emily is currently the Director of Programs at the Common Mission Project, where she is creating an international network of mission-driven entrepreneurs solving the critical challenges of our time. Previously, Emily founded and served as the Executive Director of Capitol Post, an incubator for military veterans to start and grow businesses. Capitol Post was also the home of Bunker Labs DC, a chapter of the national 501(c)(3) network of military veteran entrepreneurs dedicated to helping the military-connected community start their own business. Before starting Capitol Post, Emily was a partner and CFO at a successful startup technology firm serving the federal government. Emily holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Patriot Boot Camp based out of Boulder, CO.Sherman Williams is an experienced advisor and investor with extensive experience in the healthcare technology industry. He also has experience investing in frontier technology, logistics, and marketplaces. Sherman has now participated in over 15 venture investments from the Seed - Series A level. Prior to becoming a full-time investor, he gathered six years of investment banking experience (M&A) at Greenhill, William Blair, and Chardan. Prior to his career in finance, Sherman was a Naval Intelligence Officer. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy. Sherman resides in New York City.

Graham Weaver is the founder of Alpine Investors and spends nearly all his time helping develop the strategy, direction and priorities of the firm. Graham has been in private equity for over 20 years, starting Alpine in his dorm room at Stanford Business School. Graham holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelors of Science in Engineering from Princeton University, where he graduated with highest honors and was captain of the national championship lightweight crew team. Alpine Investors is a private equity firm based in San Francisco focusing on software and services. $1.3B AUM across 6 funds === Alpine Investors is a people-driven private equity firm that invests in software and services. Their PeopleFirst™ philosophy guides everything they do. They work with, learn from, and develop exceptional people, to create a virtuous cycle of financial and operational wins that, in turn, contribute to greater personal fulfillment. Alpine Investors has been recognized by Fortune as one of the top companies to work for in the finance & insurance industries and one of the top companies to work for in the Bay Area. Alpine has also been recognized by Grady Campbell as one of the top 50 PE firms of 2020.

Starting with 100 members in Jan 2019, Sam Jacobs has built a 1,400-person, invite-only global community of revenue leaders, charging $100-200/month. He’s also host of the Sales Hacker Podcast (25,000+ downloads).Before Revenue Collective, Sam helped companies scale from just north of $0 in revenue to just shy of $300M. He gets growth. He gets community. ====BIO FROM LINKEDINRevenue Collective is an exclusive membership for growth operators dedicated to providing support, assistance, education, and career growth to our Members. We come together to ensure CROs, CMOs, COOs, and CCOs perform better in their roles, earn the title and compensation they desire, and achieve their professional goals. We are a global organization with official chapters in New York, London, Denver, Toronto, Boston, Indianapolis, and Amsterdam and more chapters coming online in the next few months and years.For the past 15 years, I have helped companies scale from just north of $0 in revenue to just shy of $300M. During that time, I’ve developed deep operational expertise with particular emphasis on go-to-market strategy and execution mainly with SaaS and recurring revenue businesses. I've been a commercial operator at GLG, Livestream/Vimeo, The Muse, and Behavox.We created Revenue Collective based both on my personal experience and the experiences of my friends, partners, and colleagues in the high growth community.Membership is invitation-only and you must be nominated by an existing Member. If you'd like to learn more, feel free to reach out.I also host the Sales Hacker Podcast. My friends and relatives tell me it's pretty good.

Dan is a Partner and serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the Investment Committee for Comvest’s direct lending strategy. He is responsible for originating, structuring, and managing investments.Prior to joining Comvest, Dan was a Senior Director with Dymas Capital Management, where he served on the Investment Committee and was instrumental in the formation and growth of the firm from its start-up phase to an established middle-market finance company. Prior to getting his MBA, Dan began his career with Arthur Andersen and Heller Financial’s Corporate Finance Group.Dan received an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

David Meltzer shares specific advice for big transitions and navigating uncertainty in business with participating vets, followed by Q&A. *****In his early 20s, David Meltzer quickly rose to the top of his game in the business world, becoming a millionaire. David lectured around the globe and saw rapid success in every business project he touched. But something was missing, and in his 30s as a multimillionaire, he went on a rapid downward spiral that ended in bankruptcy. It was only then that David realized, in order to revive and thrive, he needed to codify what had made him successful in the first place. He has since emerged to realize even more rewarding heights of success in business and life.David Meltzer has created a platform that uses four overarching principles—gratitude, empathy, accountability, and effective communication—and these principles have allowed him to communicate and mentor everyone from college students to c-suite executives. These four principles in everyday practice allow David to live by his mission to “make a lot of money, help a lot of people, and have a lot of fun.”