The End of Financial Engineering and Why AI Won’t Save You - Lee McCabe, Claymore Partners

Most private equity returns over the last decade were not driven by operators. They were driven by cheap debt and multiple expansion. That playbook is breaking.In this episode, Lee McCabe, partner at Claymore Partners, explains what actually drives value creation now and why most lower middle market businesses are far less prepared than they think. At Claymore, Lee works directly with private equity firms and their portfolio companies to drive value creation across marketing, data, and technology.Before that, Lee led digital and growth initiatives at companies like eBay, Expedia, Facebook, and Alibaba, giving him a unique perspective on how digital and now AI actually show up inside real businesses, not just pitch decks.We cover: Why most businesses do not actually understand how they make money  How KPI laundering and broken data lead to bad decisions  Why AI is mostly a distraction for unprepared companies  The real value creation playbook: data, systems, marketing, then AI  How to think about CAC, conversion, and net profit per lead  Why CEOs, not tech, are usually the biggest bottleneck  How searchers and independent sponsors should adapt in a post multiple expansion world Send us Fan MailSupport the showFind us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and YouTube.