PODCAST · business
The Deall Show
by By Reverie
Interviewing the backers and dealmakers behind acquisition entrepreneurs: from the investors, lenders, lawyers, to the advisors and brokers. Covering everything ETA and Search related. Former guests include early investors in Facebook, Palantir, Pinterest, Lyft, as well as the former president of Y-Combinator. With guests having launched & managed billions of dollars.
Episodes
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The Advisor Behind 900 Acquisitions & $400M in Deals | Heather Griffith Barber
Heather Griffith Barber co-founded Utah’s largest vehicle wrap company at 23, scaled it to 30 employees, and exited at a 6x multiple in 2024 — before turning her focus entirely to helping other founders do the same. She’s now the advisor ETA searchers call before signing an LOI — having informed...
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From £175M Exit to Both Sides of the Deal Table | Mark Mills
Mark Mills built and exited 5 companies — most notably Cardpoint plc, the world's largest non-bank ATM operator, which he grew from scratch to £100M in annual revenue before exiting for £175M in 2007. Having both built companies and acquired them, Mark has sat on both sides of the deal table —...
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The Man Backing 1,200 Entrepreneurs and $1 Billion in Acquisitions | Jordan Fliegel
Jordan Fliegel played professional basketball in Israel before becoming a 2x founder — raising $14M for CoachUp (backed by Stephen Curry) and selling Draft to Paddy Power Betfair for $48M in 2017. He went on to make early angel bets on Ramp (~$44B valuation) and Carta (~$2B), before pivoting…
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The Deal Maker Behind $1 Billion in Boring Business Acquisitions | Eric Pacifici
Eric Pacifici is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SMB Law Group, a law firm that's helped everyday operators buy boring, unsexy businesses — closing over a billion dollars in deals along the way. Before founding the firm, Eric cut billion-dollar deals at Kirkland & Ellis, the largest law firm…
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Uber's Early Employee on the Deals That Built an Empire | Kyle Thomas
Kyle Thomas was one of Uber's earliest employees, hired as the company's 250th hire and one of its first NYC operators — right in the room while Uber was cutting the deals that turned it from a scrappy startup into a global empire. He helped launch multiple markets from scratch, personally...
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The Lawyer Who Quit Big Law to Back Elon Musk's xAI & Neuralink | Evan Buhler
Evan Buhler's journey into startups began after he quit his Big Law job following a conversation with a client who had built a multi-billion dollar company. After two attempts at building a legal tech startup, Evan founded Talok Capital, a venture capital firm investing at the intersection of AI,...
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From 0 to $200,000,000 Exit in 18 Months | Kevin Henrikson
Kevin Henrikson is a seasoned entrepreneur, engineer, and investor with a track record of building and scaling high-impact technology businesses. Before Acompli — which he took from 0 to a $200 million exit to Microsoft in just 18 months — Kevin was Director of Engineering at Zimbra, which sold…
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The VC Behind Jake Paul's $375M Startup & Selena Gomez's Brand | Scott Van den Berg
Scott Van den Berg is the General Partner of HotStart VC, a fund exclusively focused on investing in celebrity-owned brands. HotStart has made several notable investments in brands backed by celebrities like Selena Gomez, DJ Khaled, and Jake Paul. In this episode, Scott and Berk discuss how Scott...
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He Raised From YC, Sequoia & David Sacks — Then Walked Away Twice | Landon Sanford
Landon Sanford is a serial entrepreneur who's built venture-backed startups raising from Y Combinator, Sequoia, Craft Ventures (David Sacks), and the co-founders of HubSpot and Honey. Before becoming a full-time founder, he was the first hire at Maven and worked in strategy at Google. He's also…
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How JR Butler Went From an Alcoholic to Building a Billion-Dollar Company
JR Butler was a D1 hockey player at Holy Cross, part of the 2006 team that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college hockey history against #1-ranked Minnesota. After his hockey career ended, he struggled with alcoholism — including stories that involved hospitals and handcuffs — before...
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He Worked for the Kennedys, Took Cox Communications from $0 to $1 Billion, Then Became an Investor
Steve Walsh's career started out working for Congressman Joseph Kennedy. After his brief time in politics, Steve joined Cox Communications as one of the first employees and the founder's right-hand man, where he helped take the company from $0 to $1 billion in annual revenue. He later joined...
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Going from 0 to 1.3 Billion Paid Searches, 50 Million Users, and $5M+ ARR | Alan D'Souza
Alan D'Souza is a serial entrepreneur with 5+ successful exits and an active investor. Some of his past startups include txtBrowser (ChatGPT for SMS, with 1.3 billion paid search queries), Free Paisa (an app discovery platform with 50 million users and $5M+ ARR), Adof Games (creator of games like...
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Building a Startup in a Warzone & Exiting to Snapchat and More Stories from Omar Hedeya
Omar Hedeya is an engineer turned VC investor with one unicorn in his portfolio. During this interview, Omar shares the story of investing in his first unicorn startup and what he saw in the founder early on. He also shares stories from some of the most notable founders he's met — including a...
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He Managed $325M+ and Backed Facebook & Docusign Early | Jon Staenberg
Jon Staenberg was an early employee of Microsoft, one of its first 2,500 hires, before becoming a General Partner managing over $325 million across three venture funds. He's invested in 400+ companies including Facebook, Splunk, Avalara, Docusign, and Seagate, plus made over 250 personal angel...
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The Ex-SEC Lawyer Behind $15 Billion in Startup Deals | Paul Swegle
Paul Swegle is a former SEC and DOJ attorney turned startup lawyer who has completed more than $15 billion in financings and M&A deals. He's helped build and sell four companies to publicly traded acquirors like Capital One, Abbott Laboratories, ING, and Nortek, taken a startup public at a $522...
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Regrets From an 8 Figure Exit | Mark Benak
Mark Benak was the CEO of Asset Performance Technologies (APT) which was acquired by Uptake for 8 figures. He now angel invests in tech startups. In this episode, we discuss his regrets from his exits and how he decides to invest in companies as an angel investor.
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He Grew a Startup to $100M in Revenue Before Becoming An Investor | Len Lehmann
Len Lehmann is a 30-year Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor who co-founded three venture-backed companies, including Global Village Communication, which he grew to over $100 million in revenue before it listed on NASDAQ. He's also an angel investor with Sand Hill Angels, a Silicon Valley...
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Building a $2 Billion Public Company & Backing 6 Unicorns | Martin Tobias
Martin Tobias is a serial entrepreneur who's founded three venture-backed companies (with two successful IPOs), raised over $500 million for his own startups, and personally invested in over 250 companies as an angel — including 4 unicorns whose portfolio companies went on to secure more than…
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He Was An Early Investor in Facebook & Palantir | Chris Haroun
Chris Haroun was an early investor in Facebook and Palantir, pre-IPO, and has raised and managed over $1 billion across his hedge fund and venture capital career — including stints at Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and Accenture. He's since built Haroun Education Ventures into a platform with over 2...
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He Was an Early Investor in Pinterest & Lyft | Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson is an angel investor, venture capitalist, exited entrepreneur, and former sales executive at Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Some of his most famous investments include Lyft ($24 billion IPO) and Pinterest ($12 billion IPO), made during his early years learning the venture game. Today he's...
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This VC Lost Out on $4 Billion by Passing on One Startup | Frederic Gray
Frederic Gray is a VC at Techstars — an accelerator with a portfolio now worth more than $300 billion — and the exited founder of Packfed. Across Techstars, Bread & Butter Ventures, and his own angel investments, he's backed roughly 175 companies, including unicorns like PrizePicks (recently...
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Inside the Mind of a Super Angel Investor with 500+ Investments | David Mandel
David Mandel is a "Super Angel" with more than 500 early-stage tech investments to his name, and Managing Partner of Emerging Ventures, a firm backing pre-seed and seed-stage B2B startups. Before turning to tech investing in 2014, he built, operated, and exited four successful businesses in the...
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He Built an 8-Figure Company With $0 in Funding | Phil Fraser
Phil Fraser launched William Hill's first-ever online casino in 2000 before founding WhichBingo, which grew to become the UK's largest bingo review platform — built entirely from 0 to an 8-figure exit with zero outside funding. WhichBingo was later acquired by Gambling.com Group, a major public...
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The NASA Advisor Who Raised $73M to Solve a Problem No One Else Could | Peter Hopton
Peter Hopton founded Iceotope, a liquid-cooling technology for data centers that Forbes called a solution to a "multi-billion dollar question" facing the entire IT industry — raising $73M to date. He's also served as a Commercialisation Advisor to NASA and now works as a venture capitalist…
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He Scaled a Startup to $1.5 Billion & Closed a $25M Deal After 26 Follow-Ups | Chris Hladczuk
Chris Hladczuk scaled Meow from $100 million to $1.5 billion in assets as Chief Revenue Officer — including closing a single $25 million deal after 26 follow-ups — before leaving to found Hanover, an AI-native fund admin platform that's already raised $3.5M in seed funding. A former Goldman Sachs...
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He Bet on Revolut & Monzo Before Anyone Knew Their Names | Henrik Sanchez
Henrik Sanchez started angel investing in 2015 while still a university student, building a personal portfolio of over 40 investments — including early bets on Monzo ($880M in revenue) and Revolut ($2.2B in revenue) years before they became two of Europe's biggest fintech unicorns. He's now a...
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He Raised $40M, Got to $10M in Recurring Revenue — Then Left to Buy Boring Businesses | Tim Ericson
Tim Ericson founded Zagster, a bike-share startup that raised over $40 million from VCs and grew to $10M in recurring revenue and more than 250 programs across 35 states, before exiting in 2020. From there, he left startups behind to buy up America's growing list of boring businesses that need…
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Stories from Angel Investing & Going From 0 to Exit in 24 Months | Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding co-founded Rebills, a checkout and payments solutions provider he bootstrapped from scratch to a multi-million pound exit in just 24 months. Since then, he's become an active angel investor and founded Sonorous Group, a London-based holding company where he now holds shareholdings...
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How Mister Raw Lost $1 Billion and Went Bankrupt | Stefan Avivson
Stefan Avivson, known as "Mister Raw," has spent nearly 30 years building startups — founding 15 companies, exiting 5, and going bankrupt twice, including a $1 billion loss after his investor, a Russian oligarch, died by suicide. He's since rebuilt, raising millions in new funding and becoming an...
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The Hidden Mind Behind $2 Billion Worth of Startup Exits | Jeff Martin
Jeff Martin is the #1 Amazon bestselling author of "Peak Teams" and founder of Collective Genius, where he's spent two decades helping VC-backed CEOs and founders build high-performing teams. The startups he's worked with have gone on to raise and exit for over $2 billion combined. In this…
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The Google Insider Who Angel-Invested His Way to a $75M VC Fund | Nectarios Economakis
Nectarios Economakis was the first business development hire at Google Montreal, where he quietly built an angel investing track record on the side — backing companies like BonLook (later acquired in 2021) and Chronogolf. He went on to co-found The PNR, hosting the Point of No Return podcast and...
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How KP Reddy Built $350M+ Startups in "Boring" Industries
KP Reddy is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author who has exited three technology companies — including Cereus Technology Partners, which IPO'd on NASDAQ and reached a $350M market cap within two years before later selling to Verso at a 35x multiple. He went on to found Shadow...
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She Built an Agency That Now Serves Nike, Airbnb & Louis Vuitton | Kelsey Dixon
Kelsey Dixon co-founded davies + dixon, an award-winning, all-female social media marketing agency, before it was acquired by Rossman Media — a firm that serves global brands like Airbnb, Nike, Louis Vuitton, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Kelsey and her co-founder were named to multiple 40 Under 40…
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He Ran Y Combinator After $96M Yahoo & $80M Apple Exits - Geoff Ralston
Before running Y Combinator, Geoff Ralston built RocketMail at Four11, which sold to Yahoo for $96 million and became the foundation of Yahoo Mail. He later became CEO of Lala, a music startup Apple acquired in a deal valued at over $80 million, which became the technical foundation for Apple...
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The Only VC in India to Have Built 2 Profitable Unicorns | Govind Mundhra
Govind Mundhra is the first and only VC in India to have built and scaled two profitable unicorn startups — InMobi, where he helped drive the company to become India's first profitable unicorn, and WeWork India, where he served as CFO. In 2020, he co-founded Paradigm Shift Capital, India's first…
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He Was Postmates' First COO Before The $2.65B Sale to Uber - Now He's An Investor | Peter Hazelhurst
Peter Hazlehurst was the first COO of Postmates — a company that would later sell to Uber for $2.65 billion — and has held senior product and leadership roles at Google (Google Wallet, Google Payments), Nokia, Uber (where he built and led Uber Money), and Yodlee. He's also an angel investor with...
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The VC Backing a Billion-Dollar Fraud-Prevention Unicorn | Isaac de la Peña
Isaac de la Peña founded multiple startups before switching sides to become a VC, and today is General Partner at Conexo Ventures, whose portfolio includes Feedzai — a billion-dollar AI fraud-prevention company used by major banks worldwide. An MIT Sloan MBA with 25+ years building and scaling…
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The Investor Behind a $600M Healthcare VC Empire & a $47B HealthTech Exit | Eyal Lifschitz
Eyal Lifschitz built and exited multiple HealthTech startups before becoming a venture capitalist. His past ventures include PharmaSys (acquired by Elan Corp), ECR (acquired by AVX Corp, NYSE: AVX), and Given Imaging — which later sold to Covidien for $860 million. He went on to co-found…
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From Marine Corps Veteran to $50M in Revenue in a Year | Scott Wyatt
Scott Wyatt is a Marine Corps veteran and 2x exited founder who took Dollar Beard Club from 0 to $50M in revenue in its first year, before going on to co-found and serve as CTO of CoolBox and, now, Squillo. During this episode, we went over: - How Scott went from growing up in a poor family in a...
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Going from a Broke Student to $50M in Revenue & a $80M Exit | Luke Janssen
Luke Janssen built & scaled Tigerstrike to $50M in revenue before exiting it for $80M. He also raised close to $20M from venture capital funds for Tigerstrike. Luke is also the founder & GP of a VC fund / studio called Mangosteen where he funds & helps founders build their startups. During this...
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He Raised $250M & Exited His Startup - Charles Tseng's Playbook
Charles Tseng has founded multiple startups, including a company that raised over $200M in venture funding and reached a successful exit. He co-founded ELEV^TE, a venture studio that partners with founders to turn ambitious ideas into industry-changing companies, and now invests in and incubates...
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The Mind Behind the $565M Fund Backing Airtable & Patreon | Maria Palma
Maria Palma is General Partner at Freestyle Capital, a firm with over $565M AUM and investments in over 150 companies including Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, and BetterUp. Before Freestyle, she built her track record as a GP at Kindred Capital in London and a Principal at RRE Ventures in New York,...
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The $250M VC Investing in Deep Tech Alongside Google's Former CEO | Gal Treger
Gal Treger is General Partner at First Spark Ventures, a $250M global deep tech fund built in partnership with The Stanford Research Institute — where former Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits as a partner. Before First Spark, Gal served as a Director at Schmidt Futures and as an Economic Advisor in…
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The €180M Climate VC Backed by Spotify's Founder | Heidi Lindvall
Heidi Lindvall went from human rights activist to startup founder to co-founding Pale Blue Dot, one of Europe's leading early-stage climate tech funds — backed by an investor list that includes Spotify founder Daniel Ek and the founders of Supercell, Zendesk, TransferWise, and DeliveryHero. With...
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14X Revenue Growth, One Exit, Now Backing LatAm's Next Billion Dollar Startups | Hernan Haro
Hernan Haro grew Pulpo Media's revenue 14X before successfully exiting to Entravision, a publicly traded media company. He then moved back to Argentina to found MrPink VC, a seed-stage fund that's built, invested in, and refined over 40 startups across Latin America, producing 10x returns and...
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The Investor Deploying $200M+ Into Climate Tech's Biggest Bets | Itaru Shiraishi
Itaru Shiraishi is General Partner at EEI — Japan's first venture capital firm dedicated entirely to clean technology. Before turning investor, he built ventures and structured deals at Marubeni, Masdar (the UAE's flagship renewable energy giant), and Fortis, giving him a cross-border track…
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He Built 5 Venture-Backed Startups. Now He Explains Why 95% of Startups Fail | Bob Crimmins
Bob Crimmins has built and scaled 5 venture-backed companies — and lived through enough failure and success to know exactly why 95% of startups don't make it. Now a venture capitalist and angel investor, he's building Startup Haven, a fund, accelerator, and community that spans six major startup...
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From HS Dropout to Multi-Million Dollar Tech Founder & VC | Justin Stanford
Justin Stanford dropped out of high school as a teenager to chase a dream of tech entrepreneurship — and built ESET Southern Africa into a business supporting a network of over 2,500 partners across 15+ countries, with annual revenue north of $10 million. Forbes named him one of Africa's "30…
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The Ex-Sequoia Investor Now Building Her Own Fund | Tammy Siew
Tammie Siew cut her teeth as an investor at Sequoia Capital before co-founding Revery, a wellness startup backed by Sequoia in a $3.5M seed round. Today she's General Partner at Pebblebed, a venture firm she co-founded alongside a founding member of OpenAI and the former founder of Facebook AI...
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From Cold Calling Warren Buffet to Taking on Massive Hedge Funds | Matt Tarver
Before founding Foundt Capital, Matt Tarver was an engineer who joined a microchip startup and helped it raise funding and successfully exit — including a cold call to Warren Buffett himself as part of the fundraise. That audacity now defines his work as founder & GP of Foundt Capital, an...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Interviewing the backers and dealmakers behind acquisition entrepreneurs: from the investors, lenders, lawyers, to the advisors and brokers. Covering everything ETA and Search related. Former guests include early investors in Facebook, Palantir, Pinterest, Lyft, as well as the former president of Y-Combinator. With guests having launched & managed billions of dollars.
HOSTED BY
By Reverie
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Deall Show have?
The Deall Show currently has 55 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Deall Show about?
Interviewing the backers and dealmakers behind acquisition entrepreneurs: from the investors, lenders, lawyers, to the advisors and brokers. Covering everything ETA and Search related. Former guests include early investors in Facebook, Palantir, Pinterest, Lyft, as well as the former president of...
How often does The Deall Show release new episodes?
The Deall Show has 55 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Deall Show?
You can listen to The Deall Show on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Deall Show?
The Deall Show is created and hosted by By Reverie.
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