ETA Insider Podcast

This special edition, live episode of the ETA Insider Podcast features Brian Vanderheyden, MBA ‘14, Founder and CEO of Glass Lake Holdings. When Brian joined the podcast in 2020, he was CEO of the Richmond Alarm Company, which he acquired in July 2017 out of his search fund. In this episode, recorded live at the Chicago Booth Harper Center in front of an audience of students and alumni, Brian discusses his recent exit, including the process of working with a bank and choosing between financial and strategic buyers. Brian also fields questions on life post-exit from the live audience, discussing his introspection process on his next steps and how to design his work/life balance through his next endeavor.

This episode features Mia Jackson, CEO of Vital Care Industries, a medical surgical supplies manufacturer. With a background in operations, supply chain, and finance, Mia discusses how acquiring Vital Care Industries combined her expertise with her passion for healthcare. In this episode, Brian interviews Mia on her career in entrepreneurship through acquisition, her advice to future searchers on how to strategically prepare to operate during the search, and the importance of building networks throughout the search process and as an operator.

Brian interviews Jason Pananos and Jay Davis, cofounders of the Nashton Company, on their careers in entrepreneurship through acquisition. Jason and Jay discuss how they developed a serial acquisition strategy, the benefits of long-term growth, and how their experience with ETA has informed how they think about investing today.

Addie Epstein and Ashley Quisol, principals and cofounders of Benton Place Partners, join Brian to discuss their journey into entrepreneurship through acquisition. Addie and Ashley share their search philosophy and highlight the importance of playing to your strengths, how to market yourself to business owners, and lessons learned from the ups and downs of searching.

Santiago Perez Teuffer, Managing Partner at Cerralvo Capital - a search fund investment firm based in Mexico City - discusses his journey into the world of ETA as well as his current work at Cerralvo as the firm approaches its third fund. The conversation revolves around the compelling future of ETA in new frontier markets in Europe and Asia, and Santiago shares his insights on navigating these international opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors - including the top countries for search fund activity and growth rate.

Graham Weaver, CEO of Alpine Investors, shares insights on navigating challenges, transformative hiring, managing key personnel changes, tough choices in leadership, and finding purpose in work. He reflects on the Great Recession, coaching importance, and talent recruitment, offering valuable wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Industry veteran David Dodson joins Brian to talk about his successful and varied career in the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition community. From his time as an early student of Irv Grousbeck to his multiple successful searches, acquisitions to his more recent time as an investor David’s stories are full of earned wisdom and success. David also details the importance of mentorship and how he has taken lessons learned in ETA to his non profit work.

Monica Weaver, MBA '07 talks through her first two years of leadership at TGI Direct, a company that manages direct mail in highly regulated industries. Monica shares her search story from raising and then closing a traditional search fund after two years to keeping her pipeline active and eventually acquiring TGI Direct through a self funded search. Along the way she details her success in building a strong relationship with the seller both in the acquisition process and also the first year operating. She also discusses her leadership style, the importance of listening and the crash course in HR that awaits new business owners.

Robert Graham talks through his busy roles first as the CEO of Pilar Health Group, a company he acquired through a partnered self funded search in 2018, and also as a Partner at Search Investment Group where he advises self funded searchers on diligence, deal sources and raising capital. During the conversation Robert provides insider perspective on the home health space and Pilar's growth strategy built on building a great company culture and acquiring business units with complementary services. He also talks through some misconceptions about self funded searchers and provides advice for future searchers.

Andrew Cousin joins to talk about his career as an ETA entrepreneur. His story is full of rich anecdotes from acquiring and building onto a woodworking hardware company in the early 90s to exiting that business and leading one of the largest search acquisitions in history at Circle Graphics. Andrew brings great perspective on how to view manufacturing businesses versus service businesses and growing new product categories within mature businesses. HIs interview is full of gained wisdom and entertaining tales of his interactions with the search community over the years.