The Deal Table

His P&L was measured in lives, not dollars. Allen West commanded 650 soldiers in Iraq, then carried the same leadership system into Congress and into business.More on Allen West and this episode: https://www.thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/allen-westWest spent 22 years in the U.S. Army, commanded an artillery battalion out of Fort Hood, and advised the Afghan National Army in Kandahar. He then spent two years in Congress on the Armed Services and Small Business committees. Most of this conversation is him teaching.The five C's of leadership: courage, competence, commitment, conviction, character. Commander's intent broken into purpose, method and end state, and why an operation briefed that way survives the plan falling apart. Why the 100 percent plan always gets beat while the 65 to 70 percent plan wins. Why every company should run a weekly after action review, good, bad and ugly. Why the leader's job in an ambush is to get off the X and decide, and why refusing to decide is the worst option available.He is direct on what government owes a business owner, which is conditions and a level playing field rather than a definition of success. He is just as direct on quarterly earnings myopia, on why a company aiming at the 25 yard target loses to an adversary thinking in 50 to 100 year cycles, and on why the military is bad at helping veterans translate what they did into a resume a hiring manager can read.He still carries the worn 3x5 cards he carried as a battalion commander. Cool heads always prevail. Soldiers don't care what you know, they want to know that you care. Issues come with two recommendations. Leaders take responsibility, never credit.ABOUT THE GUESTLt. Col. Allen West (Ret.) is the executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union, founded by Ronald Reagan's attorney general Ed Meese. He served 22 years in the U.S. Army and led 650 soldiers in Iraq. Elected to Congress in 2010, he was the first African American Republican to represent Florida since Reconstruction. He is a former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, hosts the weekly Steadfast and Loyal podcast, and is the author of three books.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Intro04:05 The five C's of leadership08:23 Commander's intent, in three parts20:13 Get off the X and decide24:00 Why quarterly thinking loses33:58 The weekly after action review36:40 The perfect plan always gets beat51:39 What government owes small business1:13:09 Hiring veterans, and why it worksLINKSAmerican Constitutional Rights Union: https://theacru.orgSteadfast and Loyal: https://allenwest.substack.comGuardian of the Republic: https://amzn.to/4iMJO4rWe Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway: https://amzn.to/4xw3QnjThe Law, Frederic Bastiat: https://amzn.to/3UW2F2SDeal Table newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsdFOLLOW THE DEAL TABLEYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedealtablepodcastLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedealtablepodcastTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedealtableX: https://x.com/thedealtablepodProduced by Harper Belmont Media: https://www.harperbelmont.com/Sponsored by:Capital Southwest: https://www.capitalsouthwest.com/Security National Bank: https://securitynational.bankBlockchain.com: https://www.blockchain.com

"Private equity rarely loses." George Baker says it as a director of the company he founded, watching his own shareholder value climb. Lane Carrick, who sells founder-owned businesses to private equity for a living, pushes back: you think it's about the math? "I know it's about the math."George Baker Sr. is the founder of ParkHub, now JustPark, and the founder and managing partner of 2 the Moon Ventures in Dallas. He swept his father's commercial parking lots downtown at 12, founded ParkHub in 2010 to attack cash leakage in a $40 billion industry that had seen almost no technology, and built it into a B2B parking and mobility platform serving stadiums and airports. Jerry Jones was an early investor. LLR Partners put in $100 million of growth equity. More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions followed, then a merger with UK-based JustPark and an FTV Capital recap that moved Baker from chairman to director.The mechanism was boring and enormous: digitize the cash. Parking operators saw revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent. Inside the venue the transaction fell from over 20 seconds to under five, congestion dropped and food and beverage sales rose 19 percent. In 2014, reading the consumer window closing, he shut down his own reservation engine, called Ticketmaster, and rebuilt the entire company as B2B software. Growth ran 400 percent, then 300, then 200.What he gave up was not the money. "We were a band of brothers. I don't think I will ever have that much fun." He has not seen much private equity put weight on culture or job creation, and he does not believe founder culture survives the invitation. He has made peace with that, and he is specific about the trade: four years of school runs and family dinners after a decade of not being around.Also in this episode: why an operator turned investor now buys Texas consumer brands instead of software, why western wear is a $130 billion market, how he judges a founding team in a single conversation, and the advice he gives anyone entering a transaction, which is to write down what success looks like in one sentence, date it, and seal it in an envelope, because the deal will take two to three times longer than the LOI says.Hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick. Produced by Harper Belmont Media.CHAPTERS0:00 Intro1:40 Sponsors3:35 Sweeping his father's parking lots at 126:02 The problem statement was cash leakage18:29 Revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent20:07 Destroying his own business model21:12 Shutting it down and calling Ticketmaster21:39 Jerry Jones invests, then 400, 300, 200 percent growth22:20 EOS, traction, and a band of brothers23:26 A $40 billion market with zero technology28:28 Twenty seconds to five, and what it did to the venue30:06 More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions31:17 The JustPark merger31:52 The FTV recap, chairman to director32:27 Founders backing founders at 2 the Moon36:23 From parking software to boots and cookies39:12 Western wear is a $130 billion market44:20 "You think it's about the math?"44:49 "Private equity rarely loses"44:55 Can founder culture survive private equity?46:26 Contact tracing and reopening Live Nation47:07 The capital he had to give back47:41 Making peace with it not being his baby48:19 The trade: four years of school runs and dinners52:09 Write it down, date it, seal the envelope1:02:10 It is not the company, it is the entrepreneur1:03:40 Book recommendations1:07:03 CloseSPONSORED BYCapital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.comSecurity National Bank | https://securitynational.bankBlockchain.com | https://www.blockchain.com2 the Moon Ventures: https://2themoon.venturesThe Deal Table: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/Lane's book, The Optima Advantage: https://amzn.to/48nLElW

Private equity principals do not say this out loud: "We need to sell this company before something bad happens." Ralph Manning did it for years, not because the market was right, but because he could not see far enough into his own businesses to know what was hiding.Edward Crawford and Ralph Manning are co-founders and co-CEOs of Coltala Holdings, a permanent capital holding company in Fort Worth and Dallas. Since 2017 they have deployed more than $400 million across 24 transactions in aerospace, home health, water, and engineering. No fund sits behind it, so there is no seventh-year clock and no forced sale to raise the next one.What replaced the fear is the Coltala Enterprise System, a lean operating playbook out of Danaher and Toyota by way of Larry Culp, who took Danaher's market cap from $3 billion to $30 billion and now chairs GE Aerospace. The proof is their aerospace business. Lead times sat at 164 days. Two weeks of kaizen on three bottlenecks, one an $80,000 paint shop, brought it to 32 days. Every employee at every Coltala company, forklift operator included, gets a quarterly check from 8 to 10 percent of after-tax profits.Crawford came to private equity from the Peace Corps, where he built a 300-farmer coffee cooperative, and from naval intelligence in Afghanistan, where he earned a Bronze Star with SEAL Teams 2 and 4, by way of Goldman Sachs. He is blunt about the fit: "If you want a guy from New York who has a Harvard MBA who's going to tell you how great they are, then you can maybe go work with them. But if you want a real partner, we're your guys."Also in this episode: why mission and margin are not opposites, what mission critical means after the pandemic, how defense tech changed once Ash Carter stood up Unit X, the knower versus learner test they run on every founder, and why yellow lights never turn green. The last twenty minutes go elsewhere, to Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and the banana peddler who overthrew a government.Hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick. Produced by Harper Belmont Media.CHAPTERS0:00 Intro1:44 Sponsors2:59 Ralph in the hot seat4:46 Where the name Coltala comes from7:48 The nonprofit that was going under9:34 Why mission and margin are not opposites13:18 What "mission critical" actually means19:31 Unit X and Ash Carter23:21 Where founders hit the ceiling25:03 The Coltala Enterprise System26:25 The $80,000 paint shop26:47 164 days down to 3227:08 The best ideas come from the people doing the work29:39 Profit share for the forklift operator31:45 Meeting Larry Culp34:09 Process is speed, not bureaucracy37:23 Three credit cards to $400 million39:22 "We need to sell before something bad happens"40:47 No fund, so no forced sale41:27 Growth makes complexity, complexity kills growth43:05 Going deeper beats being a generalist44:26 The MRO moat, $1.2 million and three years47:44 The anti private equity pitch48:27 30,000 subscribers and fifty relationships49:40 They are Luke Skywalker, we are Yoda52:37 Knower mindset versus learner mindset54:19 If the seller wants top dollar, it is not for us59:58 "Yellow lights don't turn green"1:00:49 Peace Corps, intelligence, and ground truth1:03:19 Andrew Jackson goes to the gemba1:06:16 Seabiscuit and walking the track at 2 a.m.1:07:27 The Banana King of New Orleans1:11:39 Jim Collins on being in frame1:14:43 Jiu-Jitsu, do not white knuckle everything1:16:58 Give and Take, givers, takers, matchers1:18:07 CloseSPONSORED BYCapital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.comSecurity National Bank | https://securitynational.bankBlockchain.com | https://www.blockchain.comColtala Holdings: https://coltala.comThe Deal Table: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/Lane's book, The Optima Advantage: https://amzn.to/48nLElW

At 20 she was teaching high school Spanish. Today she runs Bank of America in North Texas and an $86 billion practice for foundations.More on Jennifer Chandler and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jennifer-chandlerJennifer Chandler holds two jobs most banks split between two executives: North Texas president, with roughly 14,000 colleagues, and head of the bank's national endowment and foundation practice, the largest outsourced chief investment office in the world at approximately $86 billion for family foundations, hospital systems, and college endowments.She finished the University of Texas in two and a half years and graduated at 20. Too young, by her own account, for a big institution, so she taught high school Spanish instead. Then Dean Witter took a bet on her, put her through an interview where a room of psychiatrists made her sell a pen over the phone, and sent her to the Twin Towers.The through-line is a claim most philanthropy executives soften, and she does not: capitalism and giving are one flywheel, not opposing forces. She is blunt about the rest of it too. Giving money away well is harder than making it, she says no roughly 90 percent of the time, giving is up while the number of givers falls, and sometimes the honest advice to a nonprofit is to merge or close. Her practical warning to anyone approaching an exit: set up the family foundation before the liquidity event, not two months before closing.Jennifer Chandler is the North Texas president of Bank of America and leads the bank's national endowment and foundation practice, which manages approximately $86 billion. A first-generation college student, she graduated from the University of Texas at 20 and began her career as a high school Spanish teacher. She is the incoming chair of the Dallas Regional Chamber.KEY MOMENTS00:00 I'm a big capitalist06:01 Which is harder, making or giving07:02 Why she started out teaching08:27 Selling a pen to psychiatrists10:14 The largest OCIO in the world12:38 Set up the foundation first18:09 Where the wealth transfer goes41:48 Saying no 90% of the time43:45 Giving is up, givers are down44:47 When a nonprofit should closeNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectBank of America: bankofamerica.comBooks from this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/booksLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest, Security National Bank and Blockchain.com.

Google's AI answers took 60 to 80% of the clicks businesses used to get. Rex Kurzius rebuilt his entire company around the thing that did it.More on Rex Kurzius and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/rex-kurziusKurzius founded Asset Panda in 2012 to solve the least glamorous problem in business, knowing where your stuff is. It now tracks assets for customers including Amazon, Toyota, Dyson and Carnival, and runs in 67 languages. Eighteen months ago he tore the platform down and rebuilt it around AI, and he calls that stretch the most stress he has ever endured.His framing is that the product went from a noun to a verb. It used to be a container you filled in. Now a movie studio asks it which props in inventory fit a 1901 to 1925 production, a utility technician asks which tools and training he needs before he leaves the yard, and an inspector photographs a generator instead of filling out a form. When he could not find a tool to replace the search traffic AI took away, he built a generative engine optimization studio in house, and he is about to sell it as a product.Then the part nobody expects from an asset tracking founder. His father was a German immigrant who named a bakery in Albuquerque after his two sons, Dan Rex Bakery, and died of a heart attack when Rex was 10. The family was nearly homeless and moved in with grandparents in Dallas. That older brother, Dan Kurzius, went on to co-found Mailchimp. Rex's daughter picked the name Asset Panda off a list as a kid and now works there as an account executive, alongside her brother who runs AI. He is blunt about the rest: career silos dissolve, he hires athletes rather than job titles, and if you are not replaced by AI you will be replaced by someone who uses it.Rex Kurzius is the founder and CEO of Asset Panda, the Dallas-based asset intelligence platform he founded in 2012, used by customers including Amazon, Toyota, Dyson and Carnival and running in 67 languages. Asset Panda reached number 104 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 with 3,552 percent three-year growth. He previously founded Timberhorn IT Solutions and sold it to the Ettain Group in 2015. He has been named to the D CEO Dallas 500 and was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.KEY MOMENTS00:00 We track endangered chickens06:16 Google's AI took 80% of the clicks07:27 "It's underhyped"09:46 A studio asks for 1901 to 192512:37 The survey that got the model wrong24:44 Building the tool nobody sold him25:46 His brother founded Mailchimp38:24 The most stressful 18 months53:13 "I call them athletes"01:05:37 Losing his father at 10Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectAsset Panda: assetpanda.comLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest, Security National Bank and Blockchain.com.

Every buyer says culture is everything. No buyer puts culture in diligence. Tony Bridwell has spent 25 years inside that gap.More on Tony Bridwell and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tony-bridwellLane Carrick opens with the paradox he has watched his whole career on the sellside: every buyer says culture makes or breaks an acquisition, and no buyer ever builds a process around it. Bridwell ran people strategy for 60,000 team members across 1,600 Chili's and Maggiano's restaurants at Brinker International, then did the same at Ryan LLC.What follows is a working manual for the part of a deal nobody underwrites. Why toxicity only surfaces after the letter of intent. Why 3 percent of an organization moves 90 percent of its culture, and why it is never the 3 percent you would guess. What breaks the day the founder who was the de facto mission hands over the keys.Then Frank, the brilliant jerk everyone tolerates because he produces, and the four options: tolerate, isolate, eliminate, rehabilitate. All four carry a cost. Chasing Frank sent Bridwell into a doctorate, where the research turned out not to be about leadership at all. Roughly $60 billion a year goes into leadership development in the United States. There is no comparable number for followership.Dr. Tony Bridwell is Chief Talent Officer at The Encompass Group, where he leads the organizational consulting practice and the E3 Leadership Academy, and Adjunct Professor of Executive Leadership at SMU Cox School of Business. He was previously Chief People Officer at Brinker International and at Ryan LLC. He is the author of eight books, including The Follower Effect (Wiley, 2026), and is a living organ donor.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The deal that died 30 minutes out08:08 Culture never shows up in diligence11:10 Brint Ryan: tighten the lug nuts20:21 3% of a company moves 90% of it25:21 When the founder is the mission34:35 What you hear in the word follower38:41 $60 billion on leadership, zero here49:40 Tolerate, isolate, eliminate, rehab01:12:00 30% logic, 70% emotion01:17:57 Why he gave a friend a kidneyNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectThe Follower Effect: amazon.com/dp/1394375034The Courage to Be Disliked: amzn.to/45s5NpoMan's Search for Meaning: amzn.to/4xxm4VKWhat to Make of a Life: amzn.to/4gy5JdKDr. Tony Bridwell: drtonybridwell.comSouthwest Transplant Alliance: organ.orgLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest, Security National Bank and Blockchain.com.

A private jet is not a luxury purchase, it is a time-value-of-money decision. Here is what flying private actually costs, all in.More on David Henry and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/david-henryDavid Henry spent 18 years at CBS Radio in Dallas-Fort Worth, ultimately as senior vice president, before he started selling aircraft. He is not a pilot. He left after a student in the class he taught at SMU asked a question he could not answer: what happens to all those radio towers once phones are 5G?This is the most transparent conversation about private aviation economics the show has had. Real numbers, not brochure language. What a turboprop runs against a midsize jet. What Dallas to New Orleans costs round trip, everything in. Why ownership carries roughly $800,000 a year in fixed overhead before you buy the plane and before you burn a gallon of fuel. How charter, fractional and outright ownership actually compare, and why family offices keep choosing pay as you go over a five year fractional contract.Then the part nobody publishes. The operator who books your jet, quietly swaps it for a cheaper one and calls it a mechanical. The catering order that never made it onto the plane in Kentucky. The liability you take on when you let a friend just pay for the fuel and pilots. Why buyers sign NDAs to keep a tail number quiet, why someone once sat at Love Field with binoculars, and why charter became the anonymous option for executives who would rather not be tracked.David Henry is the founder and CEO of Vue Jet, a Dallas based private aviation brokerage and worldwide charter company that buys and sells aircraft and sources flights from thousands of vetted operators. Before aviation he spent 18 years at CBS Radio in Dallas-Fort Worth. He is a graduate of the SMU Cox School of Business and teaches a private aviation seminar, "Jets for Dummies," for Tiger 21 and R360.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Three ways to fly, and the real math05:20 What COVID did to private aviation08:42 Charter costs, turboprop to Gulfstream09:34 Dallas to New Orleans, all in10:58 The industry's gotchas17:01 The student who asked about 5G24:44 $800,000 a year before fuel32:28 The liability of lending your jet38:50 Tracking tail numbers to front-run deals50:21 The debit account modelNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectVue Jet: vuejet.comLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Security National Bank.

"If the president of the United States walks in the room, what's your ask?" Bill Bradley put that question to Kneeland Youngblood decades ago.More on Kneeland Youngblood and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/kneeland-youngbloodHe did not have an answer, and it reorganized his career. Youngblood practiced emergency medicine for 12 years at Parkland and Plano before leaving the ER to build Pharos Capital Group, a Dallas and Nashville private equity firm focused on middle market healthcare that has now completed 33 investments and manages more than $650 million.The turn came as a cold call to the emergency room. A nurse handed him the phone mid shift: Don Williams, the CEO of Trammell Crow, calling a doctor he had never met about a Texas tax policy committee. Youngblood took the seat, took the jet to Austin alongside the managing partner of Goldman Sachs in Dallas, looked around the cabin and understood that he had money and no leverage.What follows is the mechanics of access. How to build an actual thesis for why someone should hand you a board seat before you ever meet them. Why he turned down the chairmanship of the Texas Medical Board to sit on a tax committee instead. How value based care went from a market of zero to roughly $300 billion, and why he expects $2 trillion inside 15 years. And why he took "M.D." off his business card on purpose.Dr. Kneeland Youngblood is the founding partner, chairman and CEO of Pharos Capital Group. A graduate of Princeton and UT Southwestern Medical Center, he practiced emergency medicine for 12 years before moving into finance under the mentorship of Richard Rainwater, David Bonderman and Michael Milken. He has served on the boards of Gap, Starwood Hotels, Burger King, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Energy Future Holdings, Light and Wonder, the Milken Institute and Caltech, and has held mayoral, gubernatorial and presidential appointments including the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "What's your ask?"05:00 A family built on giving back11:43 The Princeton advice that reset it all20:52 Twelve years in the emergency room25:32 The Bill Bradley question27:32 The jet to Austin: "I had no juice"29:55 Rainwater, Bonderman, and Milken38:07 Founding Pharos, narrowing to health58:07 Value-based care: $0 to $2 trillion01:21:46 The greatest lie told to young peopleNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectPharos Capital Group: pharosfunds.comLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Security National Bank.

"It's projected we'll exceed Chicago as the third largest metro in the country by 2030." Ken Malcolmson gives the mechanics, not the brochure.More on Ken Malcolmson and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/ken-malcolmsonDFW Airport is third in the world by passenger volume behind Atlanta and Dubai and is midway through a $12 billion capital improvement project with a new Terminal F. Love Field went from a projected 8.5 million passengers to 18.5 million this year, with a $2.5 billion rebuild breaking ground in 2027. The convention center rebuild is $3.5 billion. Scotiabank came down to Charlotte or Dallas and picked Dallas for roughly a thousand jobs.He credits culture as much as cost. Ross Perot's framing of hard advantages against soft ones, and the soft one that closes deals: Goldman Sachs came in part because the chief executive's daughter went to SMU. Fidelity now has more employees in Dallas than in Boston, Wells Fargo built a $450 million campus in Las Colinas, and Dallas will be the only city in the country with three exchanges.He also names the weakness. Autonomy is the enemy: a 14 county region with 16 cities over 100,000 people that will not go to Austin with one voice. Plus the density argument, since almost all of the city's property tax revenue comes from downtown, Uptown and Preston Center, and the 2019 tornado that destroyed the Chamber's building and ended up funding an endowment.Ken Malcolmson is president emeritus of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, which he led until February 1. He spent his corporate career at Humana and serves on roughly nine boards, including the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas.KEY MOMENTS00:00 DFW's $12 billion capital project01:36 Passing Chicago by 203003:39 Ross Perot's hard advantages04:26 "Culture wins": Goldman and SMU11:56 Love Field: 8.5 million to 18.515:06 "We need to get used to more density"17:29 The $3.5 billion convention center30:20 "Autonomy is the enemy"48:36 The tornado that took the building54:06 Scotiabank picks DallasNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Two of the oldest names in cowboy boots, founded in 1900 and 1889, cost Thomas Gleason closer to $100,000 than $100 million.More on Thomas Gleason and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/thomas-gleasonHe never left the oil business. It still pays his bills, and it funded both brands: Olsen-Stelzer, founded in 1900 in Henrietta, Texas, which he bought in 2018, and Dixon Boot Company, founded in 1889, added in 2022. Neither came with a factory, meaningful inventory or a boot maker. He has never taken a salary from either one, and is now finishing a merger with a larger western boot company, stepping out of the chief executive seat and taking his first paycheck.The economics are refreshingly plain. Their alligator boot runs $5,500 top to bottom, and he says the identical boot from a bigger label sells for $16,500. The real edge is a three month turnaround on custom work when a Fort Worth competitor quotes 18 to 24 months. Western wear is a $60 billion industry growing 8 to 10 percent a year, and he expects the Taylor Sheridan effect to hold through 2029 or 2030 before it plateaus.Also here: the CEO candidate who took the offer letter back to his own employer, corporate boot orders as a channel, meeting Jane Seymour in a nearly empty airport club and putting her Open Hearts boot on sale inside a year, and Boots for Warriors, the nonprofit built around a boot maker in his 80s already making zippered boots for veterans with prosthetics.Thomas Gleason owns Olsen-Stelzer Boots, founded in 1900, and Dixon Boot Company, founded in 1889, and still runs his oil and gas business. A fifth generation Texan who started as a field landman, he founded Boots for Warriors, a nonprofit making custom boots for veterans with prosthetics.KEY MOMENTS00:00 He only wears his own boots now01:21 Oil and gas first, as a landman04:57 Olsen-Stelzer, founded 190006:31 Why custom boots do not scale11:43 The merger with a bigger brand21:13 Closer to $100,000 than $100 million32:21 $5,500 here, $16,500 elsewhere33:00 Three months against 18 to 2440:45 Boots for Warriors50:30 The Jane Seymour bootNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Jay Young learned the business gauging tanks by hand for his grandfather, then ignored his father's advice: never get in the oil business.More on Jay Young and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jay-youngHe is a fourth generation Texas oilman and the CEO of King Operating Corporation, and he is unusually direct about what has gone wrong along the way. "We took too much risk in the first two funds." Fund three does not wildcat at all. It is infield drilling only, in Panhandle fields where 7,000 wells have already been drilled and he knows where the oil is and is not.The model is ADD, acquire, develop, divest, lifted off a 2015 chairlift at Beaver Creek from an apartment operator. The proof it works: two horizontal wells outside Snyder, 40 percent sold down for $13 million in a little over a year. He also explains why 95 percent of oil promoters have no exit at all.The numbers land throughout. Wells that break even at $25 to $35 a barrel. A rig you can lock at $15,000 a day that becomes $25,000 the moment everyone wants to drill. Natural gas down from $13 to $2 and the AI data center plants that will burn it. And Texas Rangers ownership: $20 million for a board seat, two American League rings, and the million dollar a year cash calls that made him sell.Jay Young is the founder and CEO of King Operating Corporation, a Dallas oil and gas operator, and a fourth generation Texas oilman. He is the author of The Upside of Oil and Gas Investing, hosts The Jay Young Show, and was previously an owner of the Texas Rangers.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "There's so much oil out there"07:06 Gauging tanks: 1.67 barrels an inch07:53 "Don't get in the oil business"13:45 The Rangers, and the cash calls19:26 ADD: acquire, develop, divest23:34 Selling 40% of a well for $13 million27:10 "We took too much risk"34:37 Lock the rig before it doubles52:11 The AI plants will run on gas59:15 "It's singles and doubles"Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Preston Dunlap ran about $75 billion a year of Air Force and Space Force technology spending, and wrote the first government checks into SpaceX.More on Preston Dunlap and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/preston-dunlapHe was the first chief technology officer and chief architect for the US Air Force and Space Force, and he is the person who named Conventional Prompt Strike, still the Navy and Army hypersonic missile program. He now runs Arkenstone Capital, an industrial technology firm named for Tolkien's most valuable gem, the one buried deepest inside the mountain.The clearest thread is why the missile against drone math breaks. An exquisite solution built for one target falls apart the moment you take two coming in, then three, then fifty. He argues Ukraine and the Iran and Israel exchanges are not the same drone war, that the US is badly underutilizing cheap drones, and that the supply chain behind them is broken.For founders there are real numbers. Roughly $10 billion to $15 billion sits in the innovation organizations out of a near trillion dollar budget. Selling to the government means six people turning keys at once, and every one of them rotates out every 18 to 24 months. Space Force has gone from $19 billion a year to $35 billion or $40 billion, and total US government space spending approaches $70 billion of about $95 billion worldwide.Preston Dunlap is the founder and managing partner of Arkenstone Capital, an industrial technology investment firm. He was the first chief technology officer and chief architect for the US Air Force and Space Force, overseeing roughly $75 billion a year in research, development, acquisition and procurement.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why the US is the place to be in space07:56 The Pentagon as a boardroom10:45 First checks into Android and SpaceX15:53 One drone against a hundred21:46 The 2022 warning about China33:24 Naming Conventional Prompt Strike35:39 Project Maven, and Google walking out38:31 $10B to $15B of innovation money40:21 Six key-turners, 18-month rotations49:32 Bringing Starlink into the PentagonNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Randall Bryant was elected chair of DART on October 28. The next day, six member cities began moving toward withdrawal elections.More on Randall Bryant and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/randall-bryantThose cities represented 650,000 residents and about 33 percent of DART's general fund revenue, and he had roughly 120 days to keep a 13 city, $1.6 billion transit system from losing 30 percent of its revenue and its service. He had been on the board less than two years, with no transit experience at all.The negotiation is the substance. Cities wanted 25 percent of their sales tax back, a number produced by an Ernst and Young study behind House Bill 3187. DART countered with a guaranteed minimum of 5 percent rising to 10 percent over six years, for all 13 cities, built on a $42.5 million general mobility program that seven cities had never claimed. Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch rescinded and took the deal. His board passed it 14 to 1.He also lays out the consequences nobody was discussing. State law stops all five modes of service the day a city leaves. If light rail goes dark, decades-old environmental covenants put the region out of air quality attainment and the sanctions arrive as lane closures. Two thirds of DART riders are transit dependent, including his father, who is 90 percent blind.Randall Bryant is the chair of the DART board of directors and the youngest person to hold the seat. He grew up in Hamilton Park in Dallas and led the negotiation that kept the 13 member cities of the $1.6 billion transit system together.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The youngest DART chair02:50 Elected on October 28, then everything03:56 120 days, or lose 30% of revenue15:18 The ask: 25% of sales tax back22:10 The board passes it 14 to 124:05 If a city leaves, service stops29:16 75% of riders back, BART under 50%33:31 His father, 90% blind, rides DART51:26 Every $1 in transit returns $501:07:43 The EPA sanctions nobody discussedNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Chris Fisher climbed all 58 of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks in a single winter, in 72 days, beating the only other person who had ever done it.More on Chris Fisher and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/chris-fisherHe was aiming for 50 and had knocked out more than half in 17 days before food poisoning cost him the pace. Before any of it he lost his senior football season to a failed drug test, lost his best friend to an overdose, spent a year in and out of rehab, and quit hell week at BUD/S. The line he took from that: most limits are not real, they are learned.He is 30, has summited the eighth highest mountain on earth alone without supplemental oxygen or a Sherpa, and will not spend $45,000 on Everest because he would rather put it toward 100 unclimbed 6,000 meter peaks in the Andes. The economics of high-altitude climbing get a full airing: a commercial Everest package at $45,000 to $50,000 against $15,000 to $20,000 out of pocket with no guide, and close to a million dollars to chase all 14 eight-thousanders.He is also clear-eyed about who carries the load. Porters at $20 a day and Sherpas earning under $5,000 for a season of real risk, in a country where average income is near $1,000 a year. Plus how a record actually gets verified, and how a professional mountain athlete makes a living.Chris Fisher is a professional mountain endurance athlete and the founder of To The Top Media. He holds the winter speed record for all 58 of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks, set in 72 days, and has summited Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain on earth, without supplemental oxygen or a Sherpa.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "You're practically dying up there"03:14 The drive home that started it06:19 On pace for 50, then food poisoning08:14 How the record gets verified11:55 Making a living as a mountain athlete22:32 Everest at $45,000 to $50,00027:17 Sherpas paid under $5,000 a season34:36 "Most limits aren't real"40:00 Losing his best friend to an overdose51:39 All 14 without oxygen, and the mathNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Rogers Healy will tell you exactly what disqualifies a founder: showing up seven minutes late and not mentioning it. That is close to the whole test.More on Rogers Healy and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/rogers-healyHe built one of Texas's largest independently owned real estate brokerages, worked out that a service business cannot scale past the person selling it, and hired himself out of his own job. As he puts it, he cannot show Lane's house and show Ryan a condo at the same time.He now runs Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners, writing $2 million to $10 million checks into consumer brands one deal at a time. There is no fund. Every deal is raised as its own special purpose vehicle, which he cheerfully calls the hardest possible way to do this, across roughly 150 investments including Mosh with Patrick Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, Goat Fuel, Pathwater and Snaps.The diligence is mostly about people: present, responsive, kind, on time. He calls it a smell test and it has cost founders deals. Also in here: meeting Kevin Lavelle while mentoring undergrads in his mid-twenties and later becoming the largest investor in Harbor, why bad news is survivable and surprises are not, and building a pitch like a Disney movie.Rogers Healy is the founder of Morrison Seger Venture Capital Partners and of Rogers Healy and Associates, one of the largest independently owned real estate brokerages in Texas. He has made roughly 150 investments, each raised as its own special purpose vehicle, across consumer brands.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Selling the Schwarzenegger family03:49 Meeting Kevin Lavelle by mentoring06:42 Hiring yourself out of your own job14:36 A service business will not scale26:41 Pre-revenue or the last check in27:48 $2M to $10M checks, all one-off SPVs34:25 The Mosh bar deal37:32 Bad news survives. Surprises do not.41:45 "You were seven minutes late"53:05 Build the pitch like a Disney movieNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

His first season selling for the Mavericks, the team went 11 and 71. The next year, 13 and 69. He pitched Dallas on a 20 percent improvement.More on George Killebrew and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/george-killebrewNobody listened. Twenty-seven years later Mark Cuban's $280 million purchase sold at a $4 billion valuation, and George Killebrew had run sponsorship, ticket sales and arena revenue through all of it, including the American Airlines Center naming rights deal at $6.5 million a year for 30 years, the largest at the time.His real argument is that consistency, not championships, is where the money is: a top-five revenue team year after year in a market smaller than Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. He explains what a deep playoff run does to the cash register, why a sweep is actually bad for business, and why Cuban insisted on keeping $10 seats in the building. Also the 2011 run, Phil Jackson's last game as a head coach, and the lockout that arrived thirty days after the parade.Then two second acts. Being handed Major League Rugby as commissioner, where he added a shot clock and put names on jerseys and got called the devil for it. And pickleball, where Tom Dundon pulled him in, the association bought pickleball.com and Pickleball Central, 20 to 40 million people now play, and a franchise that went for $1 million recently sold for $16 million.George Killebrew is the chief revenue officer of the United Pickleball Association. He spent 27 years with the Dallas Mavericks, generating more than $500 million in sponsorship sales and earning 15 NBA awards, and served as commissioner of Major League Rugby.KEY MOMENTS00:00 What a chief revenue officer runs01:59 Cuban buys in at $280 million03:34 $290 million to a $4 billion exit07:44 The Lakers at $10 billion24:58 Sweeping the Lakers in 201126:10 Consistency, not championships28:25 $10 tickets and no price gouging30:33 11 and 71, then 13 and 6940:19 A shot clock, and being called the devil54:26 A $1M franchise sells for $16MNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

In February her co-founder called a light hurricane season. Not from a weather model, from the sun. Halfway through, there had been one storm.More on Katherine Monson and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/katherine-monsonHigh solar activity drives high stratospheric winds, and those winds shear storm cells apart before they can build. Katherine Monson is CEO and co-founder of Hale SWx, built on heliophysicist Scott McIntosh's discovery of the forces driving the solar cycle, published in Nature. She sells that forecast to satellite operators, airlines, farmers, miners and, increasingly, to people allocating capital.The commercial case starts with a single day when a solar storm took out a batch of satellites and cost SpaceX around $500 million. SpaceX was self-insured and absorbed it. Most companies cannot. She explains why sunspots only predict about four days out, what a model built on the physics rather than the statistics can do instead, and a long-range call locked in 2022 that is still tracking at a 0.8 skill score 22 years ahead.From there it gets practical: atmospheric drag deciding whether a $5 million satellite earns revenue for two years or eight, what altitude to fly and when to launch once you price FCC de-orbit liability, precision GPS in agriculture and mining, and radiation loads that make a fixed aircraft maintenance schedule the wrong tool for a moving problem. Plus her own path from wanting to be Secretary of Defense to selling physics to hedge funds.Katherine Monson is the CEO and co-founder of Hale SWx, a space weather forecasting company built on heliophysicist Scott McIntosh's Nature-published work on the solar cycle. She previously served as a fellow at the Pentagon and trained in negotiation with the Harvard Getting to Yes team at Vantage Partners.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why space hardware bankrupts companies03:50 Precision GPS and knowing each seed09:44 Published in Nature: how the sun works11:40 Avionics radiation and maintenance15:09 The storm that cost SpaceX $500M16:09 Drag: chicken broth or clam chowder19:10 Sunspots only predict four days out24:08 Calling a shot 22 years out40:10 A light hurricane season, called early51:13 What a company like this is worthNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Wyatt Smith spent his last day at Uber turning off the lights on Uber Elevate, the flying-car division he helped build and sell to Joby Aviation.More on Wyatt Smith and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/wyatt-smithHe now runs UpSmith, an AI company for the skilled trades, and his argument is that the technology everyone is worried about is the only lever big enough to move America's builder shortage. That shortage across manufacturing and construction peaked near 1.5 million people in 2021 and still runs around a million. The stated goal: a contractor with 50 trucks in the field doing $25 million a year, run from a laptop.The technical distinction he draws is between deterministic and probabilistic software. Bounded if-then automation could never solve booking a job, updating a record or chasing an open quote, but an agent whose marginal time cost is zero changes what is even worth solving. That is also the private equity thesis: roughly 50 percent gross margin, 30 to 35 percent operating margin, and what happens when you add $1 million of top line without one more person answering the phone.The Uber Elevate section is worth it on its own. Global helicopter production runs about 1,000 units a year against projected demand closer to 20,000, and FAA type certification is still the blocker. He also traces the path from a farm in Alabama to Teach for America to Silicon Valley, including the terms scrawled on a paper lunch bag at the sale barn that financed his father's first chicken houses.Wyatt Smith is the founder and CEO of UpSmith, an agentic AI company built for skilled trades businesses. He previously helped build and spin out Uber Elevate, Uber's aviation division, and worked at McKinsey and Teach for America.KEY MOMENTS00:00 A shortage of about a million people02:07 A pathway to 50x the productivity07:21 His dad, a lunch bag, and a credit line11:29 1,000 helicopters against 20,00018:49 Why value sits in the application layer23:42 Deterministic against probabilistic32:13 Why PE is buying every service business37:51 $1M of top line, nobody hired41:05 120 NDAs on a single trades deal01:04:32 A $50 million business from a laptopNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

SMU undergraduate applications rose 64 percent in a single year, then another 10 percent. The dean of Cox has a specific theory: the move to the ACC.More on Todd Milbourn and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/todd-milbournTodd Milbourn is six months into the job after 25 years at Washington University in St. Louis, and he runs the business school like a division of a holding company, including what he calls the taxes we pay to center. He is also blunt that higher education is not too big to fail.His case for Division I sports is not about sports. Sharing a box score with Stanford does more academic work than a ranking does, which is why it was a hard requirement in his deanship search. Around that: a school that is a net importer of IQ points, with more than two thirds of SMU students and closer to three quarters of Cox students coming from outside Texas, and 75 percent of Cox graduates taking a job in Dallas.The pressure is real too. Fewer children were born during the Great Recession, small colleges are folding, and students line up after class to ask whether the entry-level job will still exist. He answers that directly, with the Industrial Revolution as the comparison. Plus Y'all Street: Goldman on track to have more people in Dallas than New York, JPMorgan north of the city, Schwab's headquarters, and the exchanges following.Todd Milbourn is the 10th dean of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University, where he also holds the Tolleson Chair of Business Leadership. He spent 25 years at Washington University in St. Louis before moving to Dallas.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Is higher education too big to fail02:57 The ACC move as academic accelerant07:19 The university as a holding company12:52 "The taxes we pay to center"18:11 Student or employer: who is the customer21:49 Is the degree still worth it33:10 Will AI take the entry-level job49:16 Y'all Street and the new exchange54:33 Finance, real estate, and energy57:50 Applications up 64%, then 10% moreNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.This episode brought to you by: SMU Cox School of BusinessSponsored by Capital Southwest.

1,200 people move to North Texas every day. At 300 homes per subdivision, that is three new subdivisions a day, every day of the year.More on Scott Theeringer and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/scott-theeringerScott Theeringer buys and entitles the raw land those subdivisions get built on, and he explains why supply cannot catch up. A two to three year entitlement timeline before a single house goes vertical. Cities that burned through their entire 20 year infrastructure plans during the housing boom. And a grid that data centers are draining faster than anyone modeled.The demographics underneath it are the part people miss. The Texas Triangle of Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio is the fifth strongest economy in the country, holding 66 percent of the state's population and about three quarters of its GDP, and 87 percent of people born in Texas stay in Texas. That is the stickiest population in America sitting on top of the migration.He is direct on power: two to four year transformer backlogs, million square foot data centers drawing more than most cities, why nuclear is the only real answer and why you still need a blended grid. Plus how a family farm held for 70 years becomes approved lots that D.R. Horton and Lennar bid on, the seven day rule behind chronic homelessness, and a California entitlement that ended with a year spent watching flowers grow.Scott Theeringer is the founder and CEO of M&A DevCo, a Texas land development and private equity firm that acquires and entitles raw land for residential subdivisions across the Texas Triangle, and is building a data center strategy alongside it.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The Texas Triangle Land Fund02:41 87% of Texans stay in Texas03:45 How the pandemic ate every lot14:16 What entitlement actually means17:07 Inside a one gigawatt facility19:28 Why nuclear is the only answer23:16 1,200 a day, three subdivisions27:59 Seven days to hold, ninety to stabilize44:59 California, Texas, and a botany study48:22 China builds 30 reactors, America 2Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

A $14.73 personal check turned up in the quality of earnings review, and the seller nearly walked over it. JJ Barto explains why that happens.More on JJ Barto and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jj-bartoBarto is a partner at Broadwing Capital, a Dallas lower middle market private equity firm focused on first-time institutional capital: founders and families who spent 20 to 40 years building businesses doing $5 to $50 million of EBITDA in business services and niche manufacturing. His description of the firm is that they are sharp folks with really soft elbows.This is one of the most candid explanations of how lower middle market private equity actually works that a founder can get. Why 60 percent of businesses that go to market never transact, why 30 percent of signed letters of intent fall apart before closing, and why identity loss rather than money is the hardest part of selling a company you built.He walks through Broadwing's founder intention planning, a diligence process for understanding what the seller wants after the deal closes, and the delegation framework he sums up as a river without boundaries becomes a swamp. Plus who is really competing for these deals now, family offices against searchers against independent sponsors, and how tariffs and uncertainty move valuations.JJ Barto is a partner at Broadwing Capital, a Dallas private equity firm investing in lower middle market business services and niche manufacturing companies. He has more than 20 years of experience with privately held companies and started his career building log cabins in Colorado.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "Sharp folks with really soft elbows"00:47 What lower middle market means03:39 The private equity villain narrative05:37 Identity loss when you sell07:18 Founder intention planning10:13 A river without boundaries13:27 Searchers and the new buyer universe27:25 60% never sell, 30% of LOIs die30:39 The $14.73 check that broke a seller47:07 AI as a tool, not a strategyNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Major League Soccer folded on Dan Hunt's first day. His brother Clark said congratulations, you have been hired and fired on the same day.More on Dan Hunt and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/dan-huntThe Hunt family owns the Kansas City Chiefs and FC Dallas and bought into the Chicago Bulls at the beginning. Clark runs the Chiefs, Dan runs FC Dallas, and they speak at least five times a day. Dan also co-chairs the North Texas FIFA World Cup 2026 organizing committee, a bid he spent eight years working on.He lays out the business logic behind two stadium projects, one at $200 million and one at $87 million, why Arrowhead comes next, and why North Texas expects the largest economic impact of any 2026 host market, on the order of $2 billion. He is also candid about what sports gambling is doing to the integrity of the game.Then the family stories, which he says are not told anywhere. Why his parents owned the Bulls from the start and never met Michael Jordan. The night Pele came running across a room shouting his father's name. And getting his mother, the only woman to attend the first 57 Super Bowls, to Arizona when her health was failing. Their father Lamar Hunt presided over the NFL and AFL merger, named the Super Bowl, put $67,000 into the Bulls and founded two other leagues, all before he turned 36.Dan Hunt is the president and part-owner of FC Dallas and co-chair of the North Texas FIFA World Cup 2026 organizing committee. He is the son of Lamar Hunt, who founded the American Football League, named the Super Bowl and helped bring professional soccer to the United States.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The Taylor Swift effect on the NFL04:14 Two stadiums, $200M and $87M12:52 November 2001: the day MLS folded15:46 The eight-year fight for the bid23:42 The $2 billion economic impact27:12 Sports gambling in Texas33:24 Meeting Pele as a kid35:18 Why his father would not meet Jordan39:58 Norma Hunt and 57 Super Bowls46:58 The $67,000 stake in the BullsNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

A founder selling for the first time has done one deal. The private equity buyer across the table has done hundreds. That is a knife to a gunfight.More on John Willding and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/john-willdingJohn Willding is a corporate and securities attorney at Stinson who forms roughly 400 business entities a year, about 375 of them limited liability companies, and works across fund formation, private placements and founder-led M&A. Decades into his career he went back to school, and is currently in Georgetown's tax law program.He walks through what founders get wrong before a sale: why the quality of earnings work has to start long before there is a buyer, how an asset sale and an equity sale produce very different tax outcomes, and how Section 1202 of the tax code lets a founder exempt certain gain entirely. He also explains the four legs of a private equity fund from the lawyer's side.The tactical advice is the part most attorneys will not say out loud: draft the purchase agreement yourself, first, because whoever holds the pen holds the leverage. Also covered, the current deal landscape, what rate expectations do to timing, the Texas Stock Exchange, and the Clarity Act on digital assets.John Willding is a corporate and securities attorney at Stinson LLP and a US Army veteran. He represents entrepreneurs through recapitalizations and founder-led M&A, forms roughly 400 entities a year, and works on fund formation and private placements.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The current M&A landscape11:40 What private equity is doing now13:47 Rates, and what they do to timing18:22 The Texas Stock Exchange21:33 The Clarity Act and digital currency45:43 The four legs of a PE fund50:40 Section 1202: exempting founder gain59:30 Knife to a gunfight01:00:57 $5,000 of borrowed cash01:10:08 How to win an M&A negotiationNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Level at 3,000 feet in solid cloud on the way back to Dallas, one engine quit. Buddy Ozanne declared an emergency. Then the second engine quit.More on Buddy Ozanne and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/buddy-ozanneHe tells the whole story here, including what the tower said and the worn wire and droplet of water that caused it. He was a private pilot with 1,700 hours, an instrument rating and a multi-engine rating, until he lost his medical.The rest of the conversation is about inheritance in a broader sense. Ozanne took over his father's insurance agency in 1976, learned estate planning when the top marginal tax rate was 70 percent, and later moved the firm out of transactional sales into the fee-only registered investment advisor model well before that was normal.His framework is three kinds of capital a family passes down, human, financial and intellectual, and he argues the third is the hardest to transfer and the most valuable. Around it: why clients stay for communication rather than performance, why you do not need home runs to win, what the Tech Wreck taught him about fundamental research, and hiring people smarter than yourself.Buddy Ozanne is the founder and president of Probity Advisors, a Dallas fee-only registered investment advisor. He took over his father's insurance agency in 1976 and converted the firm to a fiduciary model, and he specializes in estate planning and multigenerational wealth.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Wealth is not just assets01:23 Taking over the family business in 197603:53 Estate planning at a 70% tax rate08:10 Switching to a fee-only model20:44 Hiring people smarter than yourself27:40 Human, financial, intellectual capital30:05 Transferring the intellectual kind34:55 Why clients really stay49:50 A cold front and a flight plan54:58 The second engine quits at 3,000 feetNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

Energy fell from 7 or 8 percent of the S&P to under 2 percent. Institutional capital vacated the sector and left a shortage behind.More on Jason Downie and Edward Herring and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jason-downie-edward-herringJason Downie and Edward Herring have spent twelve years investing into that gap. They are co-founders and managing partners of Tailwater Capital, one of the most active private equity firms in US energy and environmental infrastructure, running three strategies: a flagship fund that is mostly institutional, a non-operated program targeting a minimum 15 percent cash-on-cash yield, and a royalties vehicle funded largely by family offices.Their case is that AI and data centers changed the demand picture permanently, because that infrastructure has to run at 99.9999 percent reliability and renewables alone cannot deliver it. Family offices walked deliberately into the void that ESG mandates created, and the returns followed the scarcity of capital rather than the scarcity of hydrocarbons.They are specific about where the bottlenecks actually sit across upstream, midstream and power, why they avoid subsidies and hyper-leverage, what nuclear realistically contributes and when, and why five of the deals in their fifth fund are repeat relationships. There is also a good stretch on partnership mechanics, including the no yelling rule.Jason Downie and Edward Herring are the co-founders and managing partners of Tailwater Capital, a Dallas private equity firm focused on energy and environmental infrastructure. Founded in 2013, the firm runs flagship, non-operated and royalties strategies across the energy value chain.KEY MOMENTS00:00 AI, data centers, and reliable power04:08 Why institutional capital left energy05:32 The shale revolution, explained08:25 Capital scarcity and higher returns18:45 Target returns and risk discipline28:06 Family offices against institutions31:43 Policy risk, and avoiding subsidies39:27 Nuclear power, regulation, and reality45:24 Where the bottlenecks actually are52:58 "No yelling" and the rules they run onNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

"On top of the world Monday morning, and lost it all Monday night." Tracy Curry was 21 with a number one record when a car accident took his voice.More on Tracy "The D.O.C." Curry and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tracy-doc-curryHe spent 35 years waiting for it to come back. It now looks like AI will bring it back for him, reconstituted from old stems in partnership with Howard University's new AI and Black Music department. He wants to release a record in his current voice first, to make the case that this voice is powerful and beautiful too.The D.O.C. wrote for N.W.A and Eazy-E and co-founded Death Row Records with Dr. Dre, shaping the sound of an era while, as he puts it, experiencing success through other people. He is direct here about why it never felt like his, and about the 35 years in between that nobody asks about.What he is building now is in southern Dallas: Dreams Experience Academy, a school organized around gaming, music, the creator economy and software development, where attendance is the price of admission. He is also a minority owner of Radcliffe Football Club and is working on a documentary.Tracy Curry, known as The D.O.C., is a rapper and songwriter who wrote for N.W.A and Eazy-E and co-founded Death Row Records with Dr. Dre. He lost his voice in a car accident at 21. He now runs DOC Cares and is building Dreams Experience Academy in southern Dallas.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The accident, and surviving it at 2100:59 "Go from number 1 to 0"04:21 Why he built a school05:52 Attendance as the price of admission12:28 "It felt like it wasn't my success"18:17 The school's four verticals19:42 Using AI to rebuild the old voice21:18 The documentary, and the Dre scene40:36 "I wouldn't change a single thing"59:35 Happiness over the prison of wealthNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectDOC Cares: doccares.org/Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

There are 4,400 public companies in the US. Nicole Chambers says about 1,700 of them would not qualify to list on the Texas Stock Exchange.More on Nicole Chambers and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/nicole-chambersThe point, she argues, is not exclusivity. It is cleaning up a market that shrank from more than 9,000 public companies in the 1990s to 4,400 today while exchanges elsewhere in the world grew. She explains what a duopoly does to pricing and responsiveness when both incumbents win half the time by default, and what listing standards are actually for.Chambers is global managing director of the Texas Stock Exchange, which has Form 1 approval from the SEC and is targeting a 2026 launch, backed by BlackRock, Citadel and Charles Schwab. She spent nearly 17 years in capital markets, most recently as senior managing director of listings at Nasdaq.Also covered: Delaware against Texas corporate law and why companies are reconsidering where they incorporate, the talent migration out of New York, what it takes technically to build a trading engine and market center from scratch with about 100 people, and why she reads Y'all Street as Wall Street made accessible rather than a joke about Texas.Nicole Chambers is the Global Managing Director of the Texas Stock Exchange, a new national securities exchange backed by BlackRock, Citadel and Charles Schwab. She spent nearly 17 years in capital markets, most recently as senior managing director of listings at Nasdaq, and is an SMU graduate.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The public company problem05:32 9,000 public companies then, 4,400 now07:42 What a duopoly does to issuers08:19 Why TXSE exists16:38 Delaware alternatives for companies27:18 BlackRock, Citadel, and Schwab32:29 About 100 people building an exchange43:35 Why 1,700 companies would not qualify50:03 The DFW Airport comparison01:00:18 The launch timelineNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectTexas Stock Exchange: txse.comLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

"Yellow lights don't turn green." Ken Hersh built a $20 billion energy firm on acting on the small warning instead of explaining it away.More on Ken Hersh and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/ken-hershHe co-founded NGP Energy Capital Management in 1988 and grew it past $20 billion under management across multiple funds, deploying more than $12 billion and generating a 30 percent annualized return over 27 years. From 2016 to 2025 he was president and chief executive of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.The method is the interesting part. He backs operators rather than assets, and he thinks probabilistically in a business where most exploration carries roughly a 30 percent chance of success, which makes a deterministic spreadsheet worse than useless. He screens hard for the documented biases that destroy returns: groupthink, escalation of commitment, recency bias.He also tells the Richard Rainwater story and explains what Rainwater's actual magic was, why first-day panic is a sign you are in the right job, how to read integrity in a management team, and what feeding the ducks means when liquidity appears and everyone else is waiting for a better price.Ken Hersh co-founded NGP Energy Capital Management and built it into a natural resources private equity firm with more than $20 billion under management. He served as president and chief executive of the George W. Bush Presidential Center from 2016 to 2025 and wrote The Fastest Tortoise: Winning in Industries I Knew Nothing About.KEY MOMENTS00:00 How he changed energy private equity01:17 Why first-day panic is a good sign07:47 Partnering with Richard Rainwater11:30 The simple equation that built NGP13:30 Backing operators, not assets19:10 Humans are terrible decision-makers21:17 Yellow lights do not turn green27:24 How to evaluate people and integrity40:57 Feeding the ducks while they quack47:53 Base hits over spreadsheet heroesNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectThe Fastest Tortoise: amzn.to/4i9ZU5HLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

"This guy just made $100 million doing plumbing supplies." Michael Sarner's team wires those checks to founders, and it still tickles him.More on Michael Sarner and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/michael-sarnerSarner is the CEO of Capital Southwest, a publicly traded business development company that has grown from $285 million in cash to $2 billion in assets. It lends to lower middle market companies doing $3 to $15 million of EBITDA, usually as the debt in a leveraged buyout, and carries roughly $1.3 billion of market capitalization.His core argument is a risk one. Lower middle market loans with real covenants, monthly reporting and 3 to 4 times leverage produce better risk-adjusted returns than upper middle market paper running at a true 7 times, and he calls banks competing at 3.5 times the height of irrationality. Monthly reporting is not paperwork, it is an early warning system.For any owner thinking about institutional capital, the checklist is the value here: positive cash flow, bench strength underneath the founder, no customer or supplier concentration, financials that survive scrutiny, and a three to five year plan. Also covered: what rescue capital actually is, and why "if you get hit by a bus" is a genuine underwriting question.Michael Sarner is the chief executive of Capital Southwest, a publicly traded business development company in Dallas that lends to lower middle market businesses. Under his leadership the firm has grown from $285 million in cash to roughly $2 billion in assets.KEY MOMENTS00:00 What a BDC actually does07:25 Why lower middle market is safer08:35 The typical deal: $3M to $15M EBITDA12:10 Bank competition and irrationality16:40 Covenants as an early warning system19:06 What rescue capital really is21:58 Being the first institutional money in39:10 True leverage: 3.5x against 7x51:41 "$100 million doing plumbing supplies"55:15 Roll-ups and what founders build towardNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectCapital Southwest: capitalsouthwest.comLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

"This isn't a 5-year thing. This is a 2 or 3 months from now thing." Lane Kasselman thinks AI agents are about to start settling in crypto.More on Lane Kasselman and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/lane-kasselmanThe argument is mechanical rather than ideological: when a machine pays another machine, it will use whatever rail is cheapest and fastest, and that is not the banking system. He explains atomic settlement, what it changes about how money actually moves, and why the store-of-value case is clearest in Argentina rather than on Wall Street.Kasselman is president and chief business officer of Blockchain.com, which turned 13 during this recording, founded the same year as Coinbase. The company holds 90 million wallets and 42 million verified users across 190 countries, offers more than 800 assets, and runs the world's largest non-custodial brokerage. He has led it through seven acquisitions and a partnership with the Dallas Cowboys, after earlier stints at AT&T and a very early Uber.He is also useful on the operating side: what non-custodial security means at 90 million accounts, why he wants a permanent regulatory framework rather than case-by-case enforcement, the three rules he took from Uber, why the company moved to Dallas for reasons he insists were not the tax rate, and how he reversed remote work without going back to nine to five.Lane Kasselman is the president and chief business officer of Blockchain.com, one of the oldest companies in crypto, with 90 million wallets and 42 million verified users across 190 countries. He previously held senior roles at AT&T and at Uber in its early years, and is the founder of Kestrel Financial.KEY MOMENTS00:00 90 million wallets, 190 countries04:00 From "fake internet money" to believer09:08 Argentina and the store of value case14:05 "It's 2 or 3 months from now"19:45 Atomic settlement against the old rails25:15 Non-custodial at 90 million accounts27:47 Wanting a permanent rulebook33:34 The three rules he learned at Uber44:45 Seven acquisitions, three strategies54:27 Reversing remote workNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectBlockchain.com: blockchain.com/Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWFollow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, XThe Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

In 2008 Troy Eckard lost 85 percent of his net worth in six months. Three of his five banks went insolvent and called his loans.More on Troy Eckard and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/troy-eckardEleven years later he had eight employees in one room, and COVID opened the window he had been waiting 40 years for. Starting in 2019 with 120 private partners, Eckard Enterprises acquired $1.1 billion in assets over five and a half years and now holds interests in roughly 8,500 wells and 90,000 net mineral acres, with its own exploration company drilling.He is blunt about an industry he calls the worst marketer on the planet, and about the food chain that paid everyone before the investor ever saw a return. He explains why drill baby drill does not move a single rig when the economics do not work, why the country can have 500 years of oil and still leave it underground, and what he saw in 2015, when more billion-dollar companies went broke in twelve months than in any industry he knows.The operating lessons are the quiet part: rebuilding discipline after 50, running a few hundred million dollars on spreadsheets until someone asked what happens if he gets hit by a bus, spending the marketing budget on rooms instead of ads, and building a 10-year plan in a business where everyone else builds a 12-month one.Troy Eckard is the chairman of Eckard Enterprises, a family-owned energy company he has run through every major oil and gas cycle since the mid-1980s. The firm holds interests in roughly 8,500 wells and 90,000 net mineral acres and operates its own exploration arm.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why "drill baby drill" is not working03:54 Surviving multiple industry crashes06:40 The COVID window: 8 people to $1.1B11:22 "Money is easy. Good deals are not."33:56 500 years of oil: price against scarcity42:28 2008: 85% gone, three banks insolvent54:04 "Too much success scares bankers"56:34 "What if I got run over by a bus?"58:27 40 years of waiting for this window01:08:09 Marketing budget on rooms, not adsNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

"Work-life balance doesn't exist. That's a false narrative." Brint Ryan built a $1.7 billion firm on the alternative.More on Brint Ryan and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/brint-ryanRyan is the founder and chief executive of Ryan, the largest firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. He started it as a two-person business in 1991 and has grown it every year since, 33 consecutive years, to 6,100 employees, 18,000 clients across 60 countries, roughly $1.7 billion in revenue and $400 million of EBITDA. It has run a results-only, remote-capable model since 2008.He explains what work-life success means in practice and how it changed the way the firm pays people, why he treats generative AI as a force multiplier after starting with narrow machine learning years earlier, and how tax moves from an annual compliance exercise to real-time optimization and managed services.The origin story is worth the listen on its own: leaving the Big Six with no clients, and a first big win of $300,000 recovered that produced a $61,000 fee, which set the success-based model the firm still runs on. Also covered: sitting on the Lieutenant Governor's tax advisory committee, the first private equity deal, and the $50 million gift to the University of North Texas.Brint Ryan is the founder and CEO of Ryan, the largest tax services firm in the world focused exclusively on business taxes, with 6,100 employees and roughly $1.7 billion in revenue. He founded the firm in Dallas in 1991 and chairs the University of North Texas System Board of Regents.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "Imagine taking government out of tax"06:40 Work-life balance is a false narrative08:58 Why almost everything is success-based14:28 Tax grows 5 to 7% globally, every year17:44 Generative AI as a force multiplier22:58 Where managed services started43:05 "In the room when it was written"49:20 The UNT gift as an investment57:38 The first private equity deal01:05:22 Do not wait until you are ready to sellNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Vela Wood.

A friend hot-glued a sensor onto a plastic breathing device over a weekend. That prototype cleared clinical trials and went to the FDA.More on Alex Farahmand and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/alex-farahmandDr. Alex Farahmand is an emergency medicine physician and the co-founder and president of Tidal Medical Technologies. After his fellowship he spent six months reading and rebuilding his sense of what he was actually good at, then launched and scaled a group of urgent care clinics before turning to devices.The business mechanic is what makes the product valuable. When a patient leaves the hospital without pneumonia and comes back inside 30 days, it counts as hospital-acquired pneumonia, and Medicare treats that very differently. His connected incentive spirometer sits directly on that reimbursement line, which is why a hospital will pay for prevention.He is candid about building a device category that did not exist: proving a brand new patented product through trials from scratch, why bedbound patients carry the highest risk, whether to integrate with hospital records or stand alone, and a go-to-market of smaller hospitals first, founder-led sales and American manufacturing.Dr. Alex Farahmand is an emergency medicine physician and the co-founder and president of Tidal Medical Technologies, which makes InSee, a connected incentive spirometer built to reduce postoperative pneumonia and hospital readmissions. He previously launched and scaled a group of urgent care clinics.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The weekend hot-glue prototype05:10 The identity crisis after fellowship11:00 Scaling urgent care clinics19:00 How the smart spirometer was born21:30 The Medicare readmission incentive28:20 SaaS plus risk reduction32:00 Integrate with records or stand alone39:40 Trials, FDA, and revenue44:00 American-made, founder-led sales53:00 Smaller hospitals firstNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

<p>Weeks into his term as Mayor of Dallas, Tom Leppert cold-called the CEO of AT&T. Eleven months later the headquarters moved to Dallas.</p><p>More on Tom Leppert and this episode: <a href="https://www.thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tom-leppert">thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tom-leppert</a></p><p>He walks through the relocation in detail: the $5 million Dallas put on the table, why he never believed the 800-jobs figure everyone quoted, and the $55 million in AT&T community giving he counted sixteen months after the move. It is the clearest account of incentive math a city has offered on this show.</p><p>Leppert is the former Mayor of Dallas and the former chief executive of Turner Construction and Kaplan. A White House Fellow who served in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, he took the Turner job on one condition: that he could move the company's headquarters out of New York.</p><p>The rest is what a mayor sees that a resident does not. Why companies keep leaving the coasts, where Dallas growth is now straining, the policy mistakes other states keep making, and what he thinks is broken in K-12 and in the cost structure of higher education.</p><p>Tom Leppert is the former Mayor of Dallas and the former chief executive of Turner Construction and Kaplan. He was a White House Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury, became a chief executive at 34, and now hosts the Intersections podcast.</p><p>KEY MOMENTS</p><p>00:00 The cold call to AT&T</p><p>08:23 McKinsey, and a CEO job at 34</p><p>10:20 Lessons from the White House</p><p>18:59 Why he ran for mayor</p><p>32:00 Moving Turner's HQ to Dallas</p><p>37:32 The AT&T relocation, in full</p><p>41:22 What the move was actually worth</p><p>44:05 Growth, and where it strains</p><p>47:29 Policy mistakes other states make</p><p>01:20:04 High-speed rail to Houston</p><p>Newsletter: <a href="https://www.thedealtablepodcast.com/connect">thedealtablepodcast.com/connect</a></p><p>Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: <a href="https://amzn.to/48nLElW">amzn.to/48nLElW</a></p><p>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/">instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/</a></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/">linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/</a></p><p>The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.</p>

A Memphis trustee wanted to liquidate the Elvis Presley estate into municipal bonds. Chris Gannett helped build the alternative.More on Chris Gannett and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/chris-gannettHe describes the Graceland job as being a custodian rather than a marketer, and the intellectual property strategy that followed turned an estate into a global business with a measurable effect on Memphis tourism. From there came American Idol, the 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia joint venture, and the 2012 sale that funded his own firm.What he does now is stranger and more useful. Gannett treats the founder as the biggest risk variable in any deal, and uses cognitive behavioral coaching, grounded in a Berkeley methodology, as the way to de-risk a person the way you would de-risk a balance sheet. His firm combines coaching, advisory and capital in one structure.The personal thread is losing his father and the reprioritization that followed, plus a clear-eyed view of what replaced the era of three networks and three record labels.Chris Gannett has held chief marketing officer and general manager roles at Sony, American Idol, Elvis Presley Enterprises, TheBlaze and MediaMath. That work contributed to multiple Grammy and Emmy Awards, three Guinness Records, three turnarounds and three exits. In 2022 he founded Gannett Partners, combining coaching, advisory and capital across 10 countries.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Custodian of the Elvis estate03:15 Graceland and Memphis tourism06:30 The IP strategy that saved it10:45 Founding Gannett Partners14:30 Coaching, advisory, and capital18:45 Cognitive behavioral coaching22:40 The founder as the risk variable27:45 What "permission to win" means50:30 Losing his father, and refocusing01:03:00 American Idol and artist developmentNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

More than 15,000 Johnson Controls engineers became CBRE employees on day one. Jimmy Tran spent two years on the buyer's side of that carve-out.More on Jimmy Tran and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jimmy-tranHe led over $2 billion in acquisitions at CBRE, closing roughly a deal a month, and earnings tripled across eight years. Two years of work on the carve-out came down to about 90 days of real diligence, and he is candid about what that pace does to a team and to a thesis.Then he went the other direction. An area development agreement signed in 2019, a Code Ninjas center opened in Preston Hollow months before COVID shut customer-facing businesses, two more centers bought from an owner who wanted out, 15 staff, and all three sold this January. Escrow, lawyers, and a seller's perspective on what a small business is actually worth.Both ends of the same job produce the same conclusion: culture eats strategy for breakfast, three in ten deals near $50 million die between letter of intent and closing, and you can destroy an enormous amount of value in an acquisition that looked good on paper.Jimmy Tran is the founder of Oak Lawn Ventures and the former vice president of corporate strategy and M&A at CBRE, where he led over $2 billion in acquisitions. He consulted at Bain and Company in Dallas, Hong Kong and Singapore, holds a joint Harvard degree, and serves on the board of the Dallas Economic Development Corporation.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Refugee, not immigrant11:05 Bain paid for Harvard, on a deal33:05 Why you buy: capability or market35:55 A deal a month, a dozen a year36:28 The Johnson Controls carve-out40:41 Two years of work, 90 days of diligence42:32 Culture eats strategy for breakfast53:53 Sellers who think it is worth $20M01:01:11 3 in 10 deals die after the LOI01:03:56 How M&A destroys valueNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Scott Harper and his co-founder quit over an ethical disagreement and started Dialexa with $50 and a domain name. Twelve years later IBM bought it.More on Scott Harper and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/scott-harperHe is specific about the parts founders usually skip. Selling consulting before he had the experience to deliver it. Hiring for talent over experience, then fixing the mismatches that creates. The difference between corporate DNA and entrepreneurial DNA in the people you bring in. Going from control freak to chief executive, and hiring a chief operating officer to make growth survivable.The exit sequence is the useful part for any owner. He sold a minority stake to a private equity group in February 2020, one month before COVID. Then he decided to run an actual process rather than wait for a buyer to knock, and chose on price, fit and people, with equity distributed to employees.Along the way Dialexa served Uber, Amazon and Toyota, helped define digital product engineering as a category, and incubated ventures including Vinli and Robin Autopilot.Scott Harper co-founded Dialexa in 2010 and grew it into a digital product engineering firm serving Uber, Amazon and Toyota before IBM acquired it in 2022. He has incubated ventures including Vinli and Robin Autopilot, and was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Quitting over ethics, starting with $5005:20 Consulting without the experience07:40 Product engineering against IT20:00 Spinning out Vinli and Robin26:00 Hiring talent over experience33:00 Corporate DNA against founder DNA39:50 From control freak to CEO44:00 Hiring a COO to grow48:30 Run a process, do not wait54:30 Equity and employee ownershipNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Attackers are already stealing encrypted data they cannot read, and storing it. Quantum computing is what turns that into a strategy.More on John Donovan and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/john-donovanJohn Donovan explains steal-and-store in plain language, why the quantum race is really a security race, and what that means for anyone whose data is sitting in someone else's archive waiting for the machine that opens it.He was CEO of AT&T Communications, where he ran innovation strategy for more than a decade, drove the global 5G rollout and pushed the company toward software-defined networking. He now runs Qudit, investing in quantum computing, AI, hypersonics and high-performance systems, and sits on the board of Lockheed Martin.On AI he is precise rather than breathless: four real constraints, accuracy, cost, privacy and explainability, why the race is still wide open, and what DeepSeek changed. He is also unusually direct about how he learns. Cold-calling experts he has never met, reading three books at a time on one subject, and checking the author's bio before reading a single line.John Donovan is the founder of Qudit, investing in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and hypersonics. He was previously chief executive of AT&T Communications, where he led the global 5G rollout, and he serves on the board of Lockheed Martin.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Cold calling experts he has never met05:45 Bleeding edge against leading edge10:15 The three-book framework15:20 Why resumes are obsolete32:10 Read the author bio first52:20 AI's four real constraints56:30 DeepSeek, and a wide open race01:04:15 Quantum computing, explained simply01:06:10 Steal-and-store, and your old data01:12:30 Hypersonics: bullet against bulletNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Northern England, then Israel, then an MBA, then rabbinical school, then recruited to Des Moines. Leib Bolel now runs a venture fund in Arizona.More on Leib Bolel and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/leib-bolelHe also has six children and five Ironman finishes, which turns out to be relevant: the discipline argument he makes about triathlon is the same one he makes about holding a venture position for a decade.The substance is data-driven venture capital, and what that phrase actually means once you strip the marketing off it. Why most venture tech stacks are still siloed and simplistic, how sourcing from data rather than from your network changes which companies you ever see at all, and what the Moneyball comparison gets right and wrong.He is equally specific on the debt side, where founders quietly get hurt: how capital structures end up misaligned, what predatory venture debt looks like from the inside, when flexible capital beats a priced round, and why a founder should have an ideal investor profile the way a company has an ideal customer profile. Plus Israel's role in dual-use technology and what it takes to scale an Israeli startup into the US.Leib Bolel is the founder of Lioncrest Ventures, which provides flexible multi-product financing to early growth-stage technology companies, and a partner at Grayhawk Capital, where he has spent nearly seven years investing in B2B software. He previously founded the Arizona Israel Technology Alliance.KEY MOMENTS00:00 England, Israel, Iowa, Arizona05:20 Five Ironmans and staying in the race11:44 Data-driven venture capital explained14:52 The Moneyball comparison18:34 The edge outside the coasts20:04 Debt against equity for founders22:37 What predatory venture debt looks like30:35 Israel, innovation, and security tech43:06 Sourcing from data, not the network57:45 Return targets across equity and debtNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectThe Power Law: amzn.to/3RJfzfNLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Eric Bennett managed $10 billion as a chief investment officer before deciding the most interesting returns were in the brain.More on Eric Bennett and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/eric-bennettHe co-founded Talison Wealth Management and served as its chief investment officer, then became founding executive director of the Brain Performance Institute at the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth in 2013, where he raised more than $105 million, built a new facility and served over 50,000 people. In early 2025 he launched Brain Capital Partners and the Brain Super Fund.The underwriting is the interesting part. Biotech can create value and even exit before it has any revenue, so he explains what he actually prices, how he separates evidence-based neuroscience from supplements that never had to clear the FDA, why the regulatory pathway is the gate, and why psychedelics became investable in the last five years when they were not before.He also covers brain-machine interfaces and the government's quiet role through DARPA, transcranial magnetic stimulation and implants, where AI accelerates both discovery and diligence, and how the Brain Performance Institute got military veterans through the door by offering better brain performance rather than treatment for PTSD.Eric Bennett is the founder of Brain Capital Partners and the Brain Super Fund, which put venture and growth capital into brain science. He co-founded Talison Wealth Management as chief investment officer and was the founding executive director of the Brain Performance Institute at the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why the brain, and why now08:06 The fund structures, side by side10:45 Mental health, Alzheimer's, longevity20:26 Real science against snake oil26:18 How capital flows into brain tech29:21 Brain-machine interfaces35:30 DARPA and the government's quiet role38:40 Psychedelics, PTSD, and reframing it47:30 Valuations and exit paths54:38 Suicide, phones, and burnoutNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Mara McNeill took over Toyota's bank the month COVID shut the country down, as the fourth CEO in four years. She grew it from $1B to $6B.More on Mara McNeill and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/mara-mcneillShe breaks down how the growth actually happened rather than how it reads in a press release: the Mazda captive relationship that unlocked a new lending strategy, an SBA license secured fast enough to run Paycheck Protection Program loans for shut-in dealers, 465 loans that helped save roughly 40,000 dealer jobs, and why brokered certificates of deposit turned out to be stickier than regulators believed.From there the conversation turns to what boards missed at Silicon Valley Bank in 2023, why the problem was not capital requirements, what changes in expectations between a $1 billion bank and a $10 billion one, and how she sold a $6.9 billion student loan portfolio.She is a former Air Force captain who served at the Pentagon, with degrees from the Air Force Academy, Georgetown and Harvard, and senior roles at JPMorgan Chase and the US Treasury, where she worked the auto bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.Mara McNeill is the President of PayPal Bank. She previously ran Toyota Financial Savings Bank, growing it from $1 billion to $6 billion in four years, and held senior roles at JPMorgan Chase and the US Department of the Treasury. She is a former United States Air Force captain who served at the Pentagon.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Fourth CEO in four years, in March 202002:00 Scaling the bank from $1B to $6B05:10 The Mazda partnership that unlocked it08:30 PPP lending for shut-in dealers11:05 Why brokered CDs were stickier18:00 What boards missed at SVB27:10 A $1B bank against a $10B bank40:10 Selling a $6.9B student loan book48:10 Moral hazard and bailouts56:30 Michigan, and the Treasury auto bailoutNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectMara McNeill on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maramcneill/Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Victor Vescovo warned OceanGate that the Titan submersible would fail. Two of his friends were aboard when it imploded.More on Victor Vescovo and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/victor-vescovoHe explains why carbon fiber was the wrong material for a deep sea hull, why Stockton Rush would not hear it, and how the same risk discipline that keeps him alive at full ocean depth governs the way he underwrites a deal. Turning back on Everest and walking away from a term sheet are the same muscle.Vescovo co-founded Insight Equity and raised $1.5 billion in private equity, and now runs Caladan Capital. He is a former US Naval intelligence officer who has flown to space with Blue Origin, summited Everest, and piloted a submersible to the deepest point of all five oceans.The investing half of the conversation covers where he puts money now: SpaceX, de-extinction work at Colossal Biosciences, asteroid mining and other exotic technology, plus why first-mover advantage is mostly a myth and what actually makes a company durable.Victor Vescovo is the founder and CEO of Caladan Capital and a co-founder of Insight Equity, where he helped raise $1.5 billion. A former US Naval intelligence officer, he has summited Everest, flown to space with Blue Origin, and is the first person to reach the deepest point in all five oceans.KEY MOMENTS00:00 The Titan question, asked up front02:48 Everest, the deep ocean, and space04:46 Fewer people down there than in orbit06:01 Titan against Limiting Factor11:43 Betting on de-extinction16:32 What exploration teaches venture23:51 Risk when the stakes are your life27:26 Everest, and knowing when to turn back48:58 Asteroid mining and space tech55:26 First-mover myths and durabilityNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Suresh Narayanan's father was a Concorde mechanic. When he started his own company, he picked the least glamorous corner of aviation on purpose.More on Suresh Narayanan and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/suresh-narayananNarayanan is the founder and CEO of Jets MRO, which opened in Dallas in January 2024 doing heavy scheduled maintenance on business jets, alongside a component repair station the company acquired. He was previously chief operating officer of JSX and an aerospace engineer working on military jet modifications.His argument is that the business jet aftermarket never matured the way the airline world did, which leaves an obvious gap for anyone willing to run it properly. He sells to the maintenance manager rather than the aircraft owner, treats mechanic turnover as the industry's real constraint, and designed the facility around the people working inside it rather than the aircraft parked in it.The deal content is unusually practical: raising capital for a greenfield operation on nothing but a business plan, acquiring and integrating a repair station, how he thinks about strategic fit against building new, and what quality of earnings and diligence look like from the seller's side of the table.Suresh Narayanan is the founder and CEO of Jets MRO, a Dallas business jet maintenance, repair and overhaul company launched in January 2024. He was previously chief operating officer of JSX and an aerospace engineer at AQRD working on military jet modifications.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Choosing the unglamorous corner01:59 Launching Jets MRO in Dallas07:56 People first, as a business model18:33 The gap in business jet maintenance26:08 Who actually decides on a repair33:19 Designing a hangar around mechanics37:38 Raising money on a plan alone41:39 Acquiring the repair station51:47 Strategic fit against building new55:32 Quality of earnings and exit planningNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Douglas Smith picked up the phone and called the CEO of Delta Air Lines. That call became TSA PreCheck and Global Entry.More on Douglas Smith and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/douglas-smithAppointed by President Obama as Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the Department of Homeland Security, Smith coordinated private sector engagement across all 22 DHS divisions, led delegations to more than 40 countries, and ran the interagency response that kept global supply chains moving after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami.Here he tells the full build story of Global Entry: the throughput crisis at US airports after 9/11, the idea of shrinking the haystack instead of searching all of it, the call to Delta chief executive Richard Anderson, the premium-traveler insight that made the program sellable to the public, and the four ports of entry where it was first tested.He also explains how the emergency alerts on your phone were built with the wireless carriers, why he once found one of his own DHS memos sitting in a three-ring binder in the UAE, where cyber risk actually concentrates in a supply chain, and why dismantling the government's critical infrastructure advisory councils should worry the private sector.Douglas Smith is the Global Head of Public Affairs and Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa at The Nuclear Company. He previously served as Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at the US Department of Homeland Security under President Obama, and has spent 30 years across national security and business.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "They were true patriots"03:41 Global Entry: shrinking the haystack07:15 The part government could not do10:21 Why throughput is a security strategy13:37 Who actually runs the government26:17 Where supply chain risk concentrates31:38 Cyber defense: small firm or giant34:32 Dismantling CISA and the councils40:59 "Data wins the war"43:59 AI, and what a father worries aboutNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

General Jim Williams survived multiple helicopter crashes and once told his command he was going to go negotiate with the terrorists.More on General Jim Williams and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jim-williamsHe spent 38 years in the Marine Corps and retired a two-star general. What he does now is argue, with the same directness, that American financial literacy is a national weakness, that most business owners are nowhere near exit ready, and that discipline is a system you build rather than a trait you have.The conversation runs from combat operations to the boardroom: mission clarity and planning, when persistence becomes stubbornness, the retirement crisis, Enron and the ethics lessons of 2008, and what employers owe their people on health and financial wellbeing.It ends on competitiveness. Automated manufacturing and the talent shift, global demographics, China and the supply chain, the decline of US steel, the return on a college degree, and how to build a team you can actually delegate to.General Jim Williams is a retired two-star general who served 38 years in the United States Marine Corps, including combat command. He now works with business owners and executives on leadership, financial discipline and exit readiness.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Combat mindset in the boardroom03:45 Negotiating with terrorists09:30 Financial discipline as a weakness14:30 The retirement crisis nobody plans for26:10 Enron and the lessons of greed29:45 2008, ethics, and the Harvard MBA44:30 The financial burden of living longer49:00 Automation and the talent shift52:20 China, steel, and competitiveness01:11:40 Exit planning and owner dependenceNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectStart with Why: amzn.to/4khcQHuLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Charlie Calise thinks private equity overpaid across the last cycle, and the companies underneath those deals may never make the math work.More on Charlie Calise and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/charlie-caliseHe is blunt about what cheap money did to deal math, and about a consequence buyers rarely price in: overpaying does not just produce a bad return, it breeds toxicity inside the operating company. He walks through what actually makes an acquisition accretive, and tells the story of a client that bought a company for its store-door delivery model without ever checking whether there was room left on the truck.Calise is the CEO of Calise Partners and chairman of Imaginuity, which he acquired in order to own the full customer journey rather than build the capability internally. He has done multiple acquisitions and runs a family office, so the conversation moves easily between buying capability, integrating culture, and what happens to a family's money afterward.Also covered: owner dependency and the exit-planning trap, family operating agreements and generational wealth, the cost of a bad hire and how hiring standards changed after COVID, and where AI is genuinely changing agency economics rather than just headcount.Charlie Calise is the CEO of Calise Partners and the chairman of Imaginuity, a Dallas marketing and technology firm he acquired. He is a veteran marketing strategist who has run multiple acquisitions and oversees a business handling millions of transactions a year, alongside a family office.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why the multiples do not survive07:05 Data against gut in marketing calls10:20 What AI actually does to efficiency18:15 Buying Imaginuity instead of building22:40 The capital strategy behind the deals34:20 Culture clash and why integrations fail39:45 Owner dependency and the exit trap50:35 Valuation myths and truck math01:04:00 The real cost of a bad hire01:20:45 The power of family operating agreementsNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectAs a Man Thinketh: amzn.to/4i4Y1GgLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

John Terry tells his students that 80 percent of businesses are started by people who got fired or laid off. He left on purpose.More on John Terry and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/john-terryTerry co-founded ChurchillTerry and has taught the entrepreneurship and starting-a-business courses at SMU for 25 years, first to MBAs and later to the executive program. He advises owners on valuation, exit readiness, and what buyers actually pay for.Most owners price their company on what they need rather than what it is worth, and the gap between those two numbers is where deals die. He takes apart the truck factor fallacy, the idea that a competitor's sale price tells you anything about yours. He explains what owner dependency does to an offer, why accrual accounting and clean books move the number, and how buyers really weigh risk, return and the illiquidity discount.There is also a case of profitability hidden inside client mix, a multi-generational family business turnaround, and the two executive MBA students who wrote a plan in his class, got a B, and turned it into Two Can Cocktails.John Terry is the co-founder of ChurchillTerry and has taught entrepreneurship at SMU for 25 years. He advises business owners on valuation, exit readiness and the mechanics of a sale, and works across entrepreneurship, corporate finance and investment advisory.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Why 80% start after losing a job04:39 Entrepreneurship is mindset, not method13:56 Leaving corporate for ChurchillTerry23:11 Profitability hidden in client mix25:34 Turning around a family business28:34 The truck factor fallacy33:44 Pricing on need, not on value35:18 Why accrual books move the number37:40 Owner dependency caps your price49:22 The class project that became a brandNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectThe E-Myth: amzn.to/42Ora3RBuild a Business, Not a Job: amzn.to/4aSK5wBLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Blockbuster turned down Netflix for $50 million in 2000. Jim Keyes did not become CEO until 2007, and the internet still blames him for it.More on Jim Keyes and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/jim-keyesHe walked into a company that had already violated its bank covenants two or three times. He bought a streaming service from the studios with 3,000 titles already digitized, doubled EBITDA in twelve months, and had a two notch Moody's upgrade in hand when Lehman Brothers collapsed. Then all six studios cut Blockbuster from 90 day credit terms to cash, $300 million of float left the company in two weeks, and there was no choice but to file.As he puts it, the company was listing, not sinking, and the iceberg was the financial crisis. He beat Carl Icahn in bankruptcy court, had a scotch with him the next day, and sold the business to Charlie Ergen's Dish, which intended to bypass the internet with wireless. Before Blockbuster came 21 years at 7-Eleven, from chief technology officer to CEO, a 10x on equity value, and the 1987 buyout that left $4 billion of debt at 17 percent interest.The other half of the conversation is education. Keyes wrote Education Is Freedom, and he argues that falling college attainment is a national security issue, with China moving from 40 to 60 percent while the United States slid into the low 40s.Jim Keyes is the author of Education Is Freedom and the former chief executive of both 7-Eleven and Blockbuster. He spent 21 years at 7-Eleven, rising from CTO to CFO to COO to CEO, and took over Blockbuster in 2007. The youngest of six, he graduated from the College of the Holy Cross and holds an MBA from Columbia.KEY MOMENTS00:00 "The idiot that turned down Netflix"14:20 Education as a national security issue24:11 Six kids, a shack, then Holy Cross55:15 Blockbuster: the debt and the late fees58:03 The iceberg was 2008, not Netflix59:25 Buying 3,000 digitized titles01:01:21 Six studios go to cash, $300M walks out01:06:10 Charlie Ergen and the plan to bypass web01:08:52 Beating Carl Icahn in court01:12:37 $4 billion of debt at 17% interestNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Kevin Lavelle took Mizzen+Main from zero to more than 100 Nordstrom doors in 16 months. Then he hired the CEO who replaced him.More on Kevin Lavelle and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/kevin-lavelleThe brand is now in almost 1,000 retail locations plus 11 of its own stores. He covers the parts founders usually skip: raising $100,000 at a time from angels, signing a personal guarantee with almost nothing behind it, what changed once a private equity firm was on the cap table, and why he chose an L Catterton investment in early 2017 over selling the company.Then he started over. Harbor, his second company, began the night a rival baby monitor app crashed. It pairs a camera with smart audio and a remote night nanny, against in-home night nurses that run $300 to $700 a night. Tim Ferriss invested and asked what was expected of him. The answer was nothing.Along the way: why the best baby monitors are still bad, why the AI chip sits inside the camera, what 300 to 400 discovery calls turned up, momfluencers commanding $40,000 to $80,000 a post, and a US birth rate down to 3.6 million a year.Kevin Lavelle is the founder of Mizzen+Main, the performance dress shirt brand he started building in 2011 while working at Hunt Oil in Dallas, and the founder and CEO of Harbor, a baby monitor and infant sleep company. He is an SMU graduate and a former Oliver Wyman consultant, and he lives in Dallas.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Zero to 100 Nordstrom doors in 16 months05:46 A sweaty staffer, and a shirt idea09:05 Raising $100,000 at a time13:55 Signing his first personal guarantee19:03 L Catterton, and the executive coach22:30 The decision to step back as CEO37:10 The night the baby monitor app crashed42:10 Smart audio and the remote night nanny49:51 Momfluencers at $40,000 a post01:04:30 Tim Ferriss invests, and expects nothingNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Roughly half the handshake deals struck on Shark Tank never close. Abe Minkara ran diligence on them for seven years at Mark Cuban Companies.More on Abe Minkara and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/abe-minkaraHere he opens the whole machine. More than 40,000 entrepreneurs apply each season and 150 to 200 get picked. The pitch that airs as five minutes actually runs an hour or more, and after the opening minute there are no retakes. The average check is about $200,000, pre-seed to Series A, and the deals with three, four or five Sharks attached are the ones most likely to die.Deals get killed by ordinary things: $5 million in claimed sales against $3 million in the books, a Walmart commitment that turns out to be an email, an undisclosed lawsuit. If a handshake deal did not close there was a good chance the episode never aired, a fix the show made after companies started using it purely for exposure. For the ones that do air, $200,000 in sales inside 48 hours and close to $1 million in a week is real.Then he explains what he does now at Legacy Knight, the Dallas multifamily office he co-founded in late 2019. It serves families in the $50 million to $500 million range, pools their capital to clear $10 to $20 million fund minimums, and runs private equity as its largest allocation.Abe Minkara is a founding partner at Legacy Knight, a Dallas multifamily office he co-founded in late 2019 and that Citywire ranked the fastest growing registered investment advisor in Texas. He previously spent seven years as a managing director at Mark Cuban Companies, much of it running diligence on Shark Tank investments.KEY MOMENTS00:00 Harder to get on than into Stanford02:48 40,000 apply, 150 to 200 get picked04:24 One scripted minute, then no retakes10:37 If the deal died, no episode aired11:40 Commit to ten, expect half to fall out13:35 The average check is about $200,00030:12 $50M to $500M: the multifamily office44:10 Private equity as the biggest bucket48:50 Clearing $10 to $20 million minimums55:27 Slap AI on the name, raise $10 millionNewsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connectLane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElWInstagram: instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.