Making M&A Boring (And Why That's a Good Thing) with Leon Brujis

Dec 1, 2025

Leon Brujis, Partner and Co-Head of U.S. at 65 Equity Partners, shares insights from over 20 years in private equity. He discusses why the best companies resist being sold and the benefits of non-control investments in founder-led businesses. Leon emphasizes that disciplined, 'boring' investing consistently outperforms flashy deals, and he details a five-point framework for negotiating term sheets. He also highlights the importance of building relationships with founders and how cultural adaptability influences successful deal-making.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Founder-Led Companies Drive Alpha

Founder-led companies outperform CEO-led companies by a large margin and preserve executional fire.
Leon Brujis invests minority capital to capture that founder-generated alpha while adding governance and capability.

ADVICE

Use Pull, Not Push, Value Creation

Offer resources and introductions rather than imposing playbooks on founders.
Let founders pull help when it fits, so value-creation ideas must stand on their merit to be adopted.

ADVICE

Underwrite The Relationship First

Underwrite the relationship with founders before underwriting the company itself.
Spend 1–2 years building conviction because non-control investments rely on trust and alignment.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Leon Brujis, Partner and Co-Head of U.S. at 65 Equity Partners

Leon Brujis shares how his firm is redefining private equity through non-control investments in founder-led businesses. In this conversation, Leon breaks down why the best companies are never for sale, how immigrant adaptability translates to investing success, and why boring, disciplined deal-making consistently outperforms flashy transactions. He also walks through his framework for negotiating term sheets and building relationships that span years before cutting checks north of $200 million.

Things You'll Learn

Why non-control "partnership capital" allows PE firms to capture the alpha of founder-led companies that outperform by 3x
How to structure competitive fundraising processes that balance relationship-building with deal tension—without talking to 60 firms
The five-point framework for negotiating term sheets: value, structure, governance, strategy alignment, and exit planning

____________________

This episode is brought to you by S&P Global.

Today's episode of M&A Science is brought to you by S&P Global Market Intelligence. If you're in corp dev or PE, you know the pain — good private company data is hard to come by. Everyone's still chasing clean, reliable, up-to-date data. I started out using CapIQ Pro for public comps, but didn't realize until recently how deep their private company coverage has gotten. Over 58 million private companies, global reach, and actually usable for real deal work. This isn't surface-level. You get real metrics — ownership, financials, funding rounds, even asset-level insights. So if you're still toggling between a dozen tools trying to piece together the picture, maybe it's time to stop guessing and start sourcing better.

Learn More Here: https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/solutions/products/private-company-data?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=MAScienceH225

__________________

Buyer-Led M&A™: The Framework is Now Available

Traditional M&A is broken. Buyers chase auctions. Sellers control the process. It's reactive, inefficient, and exhausting.

After 300+ episodes of M&A Science, I've taken insights from the world's top corp dev leaders and distilled them into a practical framework for taking control of your M&A pipeline—how to source deals directly, build relationships earlier, and stop being auction-chasers.

If you'd like to build a proactive M&A program that founders actually want to engage with, you can grab your copy. https://dealroom.net/resources/ebooks/buyer-led-m-a-tm-the-framework __________________

Everything You Need to Learn Modern M&A — In One Membership

Access proven templates, frameworks, and real operator insights — all designed to help you learn faster, make smarter decisions, and run Buyer-Led M&A with confidence. Sign up now with promo code "FOUNDER" for 50% off at checkout. https://www.mascience.com/membership

__________________

Episode Chapters

[00:01:00] From Engineering to Wall Street – How Leon's immigrant journey led him from Lehman Brothers to 20+ years in private equity

[00:05:30] The Immigrant Advantage – Why cultural adaptability creates flexibility in deal-making and relationship management

[00:10:00] The 65 Equity Model – Non-control investments in founder-led businesses generating $20-100M EBITDA

[00:16:00] Pull vs. Push Value Creation – Why partnership capital relies on influence, not mandates

[00:24:00] Underwriting Relationships First – Spending 1-2 years building conviction before writing $200M+ checks

[00:33:00] Crisis of Comfort – Getting comfortable being uncomfortable as the key to growth in business and life

[00:43:00] Making M&A Boring – Why consistency and discipline beat motivation and excitement every time

[00:48:00] Term Sheet Negotiation Framework – The five buckets that matter: value, structure, governance, strategy, and exit

[00:56:30] Running a Competitive Process – How to balance broad outreach with targeted relationship-building

[01:01:00] The Craziest Thing in M&A – When deal fever overtakes discipline and creates the next crisis

__________________

Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.