ETA Insider Podcast Split Roles, Shared Vision: Making Partnerships Work in ETA
Apr 24, 2026
Julia Hensel, Booth MBA ’20, runs LexiGate and Repspert, leading global, distributed teams. Grant Hensel, Booth MBA ’23, builds Entrepreneurial Capital, investing in and supporting searchers and small acquisitions. They discuss dividing investor and operator roles. They cover acquisition strategy, buying complementary businesses, scaling across geographies, and habits that keep partnership alignment.
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Undergrad Entrepreneurship Sparked Their Partnership
- Grant and Julia met in undergrad at Wheaton College after starting an entrepreneurship club together and eventually married.
- Their shared early projects and business nerdiness laid the foundation for later joint ETA ventures and complementary careers.
Complementary Investor Operator Split
- They split roles: Grant focuses on investing while Julia leads operations as CEO after acquisition.
- This division lets Julia run day-to-day at LexiGate while Grant supports strategically and builds Entrepreneurial Capital.
Match Roles To Strengths And Energizers
- Find roles that match your strengths and energy rather than forcing symmetric responsibilities.
- Grant used StrengthsFinder-like assessments to realize he prefers enabling and maximizing others, which led him to investing.
