It takes nerves of steel to start a deal during COVID and exit it during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and today’s guests pulled it off.
On this episode of Deal-By-Deal, host Greg Hawver is joined by Evan Gallinson of Merit Capital Partners and Jonathan Schilowitz of MFG Partners to present a case study of a successful relationship between an independent sponsor and a capital provider.
Evan and Jonathan, who recently partnered on a successful transaction, take listeners on a deep dive into the highs and lows of their transaction. Given that they started the deal during the uncertainty of the pandemic, they found that the relationship they built beforehand was key to maintaining trust and open discussions throughout the process.
This deal will not be their last partnership. Evan and Jonathan share that they have a few more things in the works right now.
Meet Your Guests
Name: Evan Gallinson
Title: Managing Director at Merit Capital Partners
Speciality: Evan joined Merit in 2005. He previously worked in Investment Banking with BMO Capital, William Blair & Company, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisor work for middle market companies in a variety of industries.
Connect: LinkedIn
Name: Jonathan Schilowitz
Title: Partner at MFG Partners
Speciality: Prior to founding MFG Partners, Jonathan was a senior investment professional at Partners Group, where he was focused on investments in the industrial sector.
Connect: LinkedIn
Acquired Knowledge
Top takeaways from this episode
- How “independent sponsor” came to be. In 2006, Merit Capital found they were doing a lot of great deals with sponsors who didn’t have capital of their own. To bring everyone together, they coordinated a Fundless Sponsor Conference, which was well received, with one important piece of feedback: “don’t call us fundless.”
- Existing relationships help overcome challenges with new deals. There are challenges with any deal. Having past experience and rapport in successfully navigating deals, particularly in the context of remote communication during the pandemic, can be extremely helpful.
- Your metrics can signal your exit. Even when you have a whole playbook to keep growing a business, the market might send you different signals.
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