Investors & Operators

Growing up in a challenging environment in Chicago The mentality of helping othersFailure is just part of the pathGet through difficult times as a family/couple The founding of Avante and fund raising during the financial crisis in 2009BIOIvelisse Rodriguez Simon is a Managing Partner of Avante Capital Partners. Based in Los Angeles, Ivelisse is responsible for identifying, executing and managing investment opportunities. She currently manages the fund’s portfolio and new deal activities. Ivelisse joined Avante in 2009 as a founding member of the firm.  Ivelisse has over two decades of middle-market debt and equity investment experience. Prior to Avante, she held positions at Palladium Equity Partners, Reliant Equity Partners and various investment banks including Salomon Brothers. Ivelisse serves on the board of several companies including Quest, LLC. Ivelisse is a longtime advocate and champion for women, minorities and the underserved and underrepresented. She holds leadership roles in several local and national non-profit organizations, including The Robert Toigo Foundation, The Hispanic Scholarship Foundation and Westside Family Health Center in Los Angeles. In 2019, the Robert Toigo Foundation honored Ivelisse with their prestigious Leadership Award recognizing her leadership in the advancement of diversity and inclusion in the financial industry. Ivelisse was also named to Mergers & Acquisitions magazine's 2020 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A. In addition, Ivelisse and her two sisters launched a philanthropic organization called We Will to support and empower underserved women and minorities in the areas of healthcare, education and financial literacy. Ivelisse graduated with honors from the University of Illinois and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives with her husband and three children in Los Angeles and enjoys taking adventurous trips with her family to far-flung places.

Growing up as a gymnast and learning what persistence and resilience meantHer influencer and growing up in an entrepreneurial family Characteristics of an entrepreneurWhat "no" really meansThe impactful, defining moments in her life, and having the courage to deviate from a planHaving a passion for something is a gift What schooling means and helping children find their passionWorking moms in finance and women in financeBIOChalk Point Capital LP is an opportunistic private equity investor focused on bringing creativity and sophistication to complex, off-the-run investment opportunities.

“Never get too high, never get too low”How to cut through the noise and the emotions? How to train yourself to see the opportunity, the good?Characteristics of a high-performer Energy draining activities vs. income producing activities Discipline strategies & tactics How to turn off your brain and have time for other things in lifeBIOCoach Dana Cavalea is the former Director of Strength & Conditioning and Performance for the New York Yankees. He led the team to a World Championship in 2009. That same year he was awarded the Nolan Ryan Award given to the top Strength & Performance Coach in Major League Baseball as voted by his peers.Coach is also the author of his new book, Habits of a Champion, Nobody Becomes a Champion By Accident. In addition to his on-field coaching, he works as a performance coach and consultant to Companies, Organizations, and some of America's Top CEOs, Executives, and Wall Street Fund Managers & Traders- helping them to optimize performance, productivity, and sales.

Some of the communication mistakes that financial institutions made during the 2008 crisis that we can learn fromHow to ensure businesses are communicating to employees that industrial/manufacturing jobs will be protected if employees are forced to quarantine/isolateHow investors are reacting to Middleground’s management of its portfolio companiesRecommendations to members of the “sponsor universe” to win favor with the public and governmentWhat should PE firms do to broadcast the positive impacts they are making in the communities/businesses they invest inBIOsMatt Kirdahy is a Partner at Water & Wall, an award-winning marketing and communications agency whose best work exists at the intersection of inspired thinking and your business growth. Matt was a journalist first and a communications and marketing executive second. There’s something to be said about having the same professional experience of the people to whom you’re approaching with your client ideas. While the traditional pitch-and-place priorities connected to the roots of the business have evolved into much more, his role still calls for those core media skills. His most re-watched movie is The Fugitive and when he’s not on the clock, he’s trying to make the most out of living in a city where the burgers cost as much as the t-shirts at J. Crew.***John is a Partner at MiddleGround where he is responsible for overall management of the firm and management of the Investment Team with Lauren Mulholland. John started his career as an hourly line worker at Toyota Motor Corporation and held numerous management and executive positions over an 18-year career. John made the move to private equity in 2007, joining Monomoy Capital as an Operating Partner. In 2010, John was named the Head of Operations and built out the Operations Group over the next six years with Scot Duncan. In 2016, John became a Partner. Throughout his career, John has worked on numerous transactions and served on the Board of Directors of nearly 20 businesses across both middle market and Fortune 100 companies. John is the only one of us who is a published author. You can buy his book “Toyota Kaizen Continuum: A Practical Guide to Implementing Lean” here. John really needs the extra $3.00 as he is saving up for a new boat. He has four children with his wife, Leslie, and is a proud grandfather. If you spend enough time with John, you know there are two things that are sure to happen: someone will ask him to share his “Elon Musk” story and he will convince you that you need to buy something special for your pet from his wife and daughter’s business, Southern Barker. Did we mention John is saving up to buy a new boat?!

We go deeeeeeeep in this episode about the life of an entrepreneur, managing crisis, losing a child, and finding hope through taking action.Jason is a serial entrepreneur, has been a board advisor to 50 companies, and coaches CEOs. He is also the founder of ChooseLife.org, which he started in 2018 after losing his 14 year old son to suicide. Their goal is to end teen suicide by 2030.***FULL BIOJason is the co-founder of National Services group. NSG is the majority owner of College Work Painting and Empire Construction and Painting. College Works employs college students to paint residential homes across the USA. Operating in thirty states, CWP employs over 2,000 people at the peak of its season every year. CWP is the largest exterior non-franchise residential repaint contractor in the country. Empire operates across the western USA and works with HOA, apartment and commercial clients to fulfill their reconstruction and painting needs. Empire employs over 400 people year round.As a serial entrepreneur, Jason has also been an owner in other businesses over the last 25 years. A few of them include: Platinum Capital, a leading national mortgage bank; Codeit Computing, a software firm with offices on the east and west coasts which did business with the likes of Cisco and the United Nations; New Image, a Home Depot installation partner covering over 900 stores nationwide. And there are others.Extra CreditJason has been a Vistage member for 18 years as well as a member of YEO, YPO and currently WPO This has put him on the board of advisors for over 50 businesses ranging in size from a few million in sales to well over a billion.BalanceIn the last ten years, Jason has earned his Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He has also competed in Ironman races around the world, competing in seven 70.3 Ironmans, as well as two full books, and is currently working on his sixth screenplay. He enjoys playing guitar, cooking and spending time with his wife of 25+ years and children.

What is Grasshopper Bank, who it serves and how it is differentDramatic story of fundraising and starting a bankTips for starting a bankHer WHY Her unconventional upbringingChallenges and mistakes, and what she learned from them Women and diversity How COVID-19 is impacting and will impact our way of work and life***Bio:Judith was on the founding executive team for Square 1 Bank in 2005, responsible for venture capital services globally. Square 1 successfully went public in 2014 and was later sold to Pacific Western Bank. She previously worked at Imperial and Comerica. After 35 years in banking, Judith knew it was the time to make significant changes in the commercial banking industry. Her strategy was to build a bank from scratch providing both a modern technological framework and intuitive user experience for the digital entrepreneurs Grasshopper serves.Grasshopper is a digital bank serving founders, their companies, and the investors supporting them across the innovation economy. They make banking simple, secure, effortless and transparent.

Dan spent 14 years as a U.S. Navy SEAL working with the most elite individuals there are. Among those elite few, he saw how effective leadership and teamwork enabled his teammates and himself to accomplish any mission, no matter the odds. After leaving the military, he saw how those same principles, and the lack thereof, affected an organization's ability to accomplish their own missions. As a coach, he is devoted to bringing that knowledge and experience to you through leadership development programs and coaching. His goal is to enable you and your team to operate at the highest level.As a Navy SEAL, he led cross-functional teams in complex operations across the world, designed and implemented three-year training programs for foreign nation special operation forces, managed million dollar budgets, and worked with foreign military and governments to develop local real estate projects for security purposes. After leaving the military, he was partner and VP of Operations at DebtMaven Inc., a debt-financing startup as well as a consultant to companies in various industries.

1843 Capital is an early-stage VC fund focused on cyber, enterprise software, and “Silver Tech.” It invests in companies with at least one female founder.Tracy Chadwell, Founding Partner, has over 19 years experience in venture capital and private equity. She has 6 years of experience investing in early stage companies with a female founder through her personal entity Coyote Capital.Tracy was Partner of a growth capital fund - Baker Capital which had more than $1 Billion under management. As a frequent speaker and startup competition judge, Tracy has developed a broad network in the female founder community. She is a member of Women in VC and Private Equity Women Investor Network. A trusted board member, she serves on the boards of Marstone and Sachs Insights.Her philanthropic work includes the Advisory Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Executive Advisor for the Echoing Green Foundation and New York Institute of Technology. She acts as a mentor for both Techstars KC and Monarq.She is an attorney and earned her JD at Loyola University of Chicago. Tracy speaks conversational Japanese and restaurant French.

This episode will change your perspective on life, work, and family, especially during this difficult time.Bio:Homeless and raised on the streets of Honolulu, Dash sold Hawaiian leis to tourists from 5 years old to help feed the familyArrested at 11 years old for shoplifting food. When the cops looked for his mom, she was in jail for prostitutionAt 13, he was adopted by the Wong family15 years in Navy Special Operations (SWCC), including 9 years at DEVGRUSurvived battle with lung cancer in 2017, leaving him with one lungAfter leaving the military in 2019, he traveled the country interviewing veterans for 10 months in a VW bus with his wife, 2 young kids, and a dogHe’s now a Regional Sales Manager at Kill Cliff and lives in Colorado

The entrepreneurial journey is rarely...ok, never...a linear path. Phil Hurley’s Slim Chillers (low calorie alcoholic popsicles) took 6 years before their products hit Costco’s shelves, became a top selling product, got covered by an influential blogger, and then sales skyrocketed.Throughout 2019, Slim Chillers was always behind the demand and every nickel was going into inventory, machinery and growing the business. They needed money to pour fuel on the fire...in comes Caprice Capital to provide $7M of growth financing.Check out this episode to learn about Phil’s journey building Slim Chillers and the process he went through with Caprice.And, yes, Slim Chillers are available during the quarantine.