🎥 Hg's Chris Kindt - AI's transformative role in value creation for private equity

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today’s episode provides a fascinating window into the world of private equity value creation and how AI can help transform both portfolio company and investment firm processes and operations to create value.We sat down in New York with Hg Partner and Head of Value Creation Chris Kindt to dive into how he spearheaded the growth of the firm’s in-house value creation efforts and has built a high-performing team to meet the evolving needs of portfolio companies.Chris brings 15 years of experience in architecting and driving value creation to bear, with 11 years of experience at Hg and another 8 years as a consultant at BCG and Parthenon.Chris and his team are responsible for driving value across a portfolio of 55 companies that represents over $180B in enterprise value and would represent the second largest software company in Europe after SAP if it were a conglomerate.Chris and I had a thought-provoking discussion about value creation and the impact of AI on investing and operating companies. We discussed:* How to build a high-performing value creation team.* Where value creation has the biggest impact.* How AI is transforming investment processes.* How Hg has become an “AI-first” investment firm.* Where AI will have the most impact in a company today and why agentic AI is transforming certain roles and processes within companies.* How professionals can generate the most leverage from utilizing AI — without having cognitive decline.* Why prompting and prompt engineering is so critical in the age of AI (and how you can use your weekends to perfect prompt engineering).* How a management team can buy into AI and why the current time period represents an interesting opportunity for incumbents, particularly for those building mission-critical enterprise software.Thanks Chris for sharing your expertise and wisdom on company building and AI. We hope you enjoy.Note: This episode was filmed in August 2025.Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work - writing and podcasting about the convergence of private markets and private wealth since December 2020.Clip #1: What does it mean to be an AI-first culture?Clip #2: How do you think about AI as a part of value creation in portfolio companies?Clip #3: The impact of AI on software engineers.A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund SolutionsThis episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus Fund Solutions, a leading full-service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As private markets continue to move into the mainstream, the industry requires infrastructure solutions that help funds and investors keep pace. In an increasingly sophisticated financial marketplace, investment managers must navigate a growing array of challenges: elaborate fund structures, specialized strategies, evolving compliance requirements, a growing need for sophisticated reporting, and intensifying demands for transparency.To assist with these challenging opportunities, more and more fund sponsors and asset managers are turning to Ultimus, a leading service provider that blends high tech and high touch in unique and customized fund administration and middle office solutions for a diverse and growing universe of over 450 clients and 1,800 funds, representing $500 billion assets under administration, all handled by a team of over 1,000 professionals. Ultimus offers a wide range of capabilities across registered funds, private funds and public plans, as well as outsourced middle office services. Delivering operational excellence, Ultimus helps firms manage the ever-changing regulatory environment while meeting the needs of their institutional and retail investors. Ultimus provides comprehensive operational support and fund governance services to help managers successfully launch retail alternative products.Visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com to learn more about Ultimus’ technology enhanced services and solutions or contact Ultimus Executive Vice President of Business Development Gary Harris on email at [email protected] thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.Show Notes00:00 Message from Our Sponsor, Ultimus01:18 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast02:10 Guest Introduction: Chris Kindt05:57 Value Creation at Hg07:15 Pre-Investment and Diligence Process08:11 Management Team Collaboration09:16 Areas of Impact in Value Creation11:50 Building a Cross-Functional Team13:17 Scaling the Value Creation Team13:51 Systematic Problem Solving16:31 Measuring Value Creation21:07 AI in Value Creation21:37 Internal vs External AI Applications23:07 AI First Culture23:46 Effective Use of AI Tools25:36 Prompt Engineering27:41 Experimenting with AI Agents28:07 Choosing the Right AI Models28:55 Strengths of Different AI Models29:29 Transformative Impact of AI30:09 Skills Needed for AI Integration30:22 The Role of AI in Work31:01 Philosophical Questions on AI and Talent Development32:21 Building Grit in the Age of AI33:18 Maintaining Discipline with AI34:15 AI as a Value Creation Lever34:42 Operational Efficiency and AI35:40 Emergence of Reasoning Models36:03 Agentic Frameworks in AI36:41 AI’s Impact on Engineering Efficiency37:50 Partnerships and AI Agents38:42 Challenges in Implementing AI39:42 AI Immersion Strategy Days42:26 Organizational Agility and AI43:11 AI in Fund Administration43:55 AI and Market Adaptation44:53 AI in Investment Strategies46:07 AI and M&A Strategies47:25 Developing AI Products In-House48:12 Vertical Expertise and AI49:55 AI Fatigue and Disillusionment51:07 Building AI Products and Incubators51:58 AI Product Platforms and Talent52:48 Future Waves of AI Impact54:55 Globalization and AI56:38 Long-Term Value of AIEditing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant. Join over 13,300 Substack subscribers & followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield Oaktree, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hightower, Focus Financial, Cerity Partners, and more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit altgoesmainstream.substack.com