Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast

Rob Hale thinks he's an unlikely person to listen to when it comes to dealmaking. After all, he became a billionaire and lost it all by the age of 35. But Rob rebounded from the failure of Network Plus to co-found Granite Telecommunications, which made him a billionaire again and eventually co-owner of the Boston Celtics. That failure and rebound yielded three essential business lessons that Rob shared with attendees at the 2023 Boston Smart Business Dealmakers Conference.

Human capital and corporate culture play a key role in most M&A transactions. In this episode, we talk to a different sort of business leader about asset management, team building and creating a winning culture — in a very literal sense. Nic Barlage is CEO of Rock Entertainment Group and its many holdings, including the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. He oversees more than 500 full-time team members throughout the business operations of the Cavaliers. Nic sat down with Smart Business Chief Content Officer Dustin Klein to discuss talent acquisition and development, building a winning culture, and the importance of leadership. What follows are excerpts from that conversation, which took place in June 2023 at the Cleveland Smart Business Dealmakers Conference.

Jumpstart Capital founder and Managing Partner Vic Gatto has been investing in early-stage health care businesses for nearly a decade. His organization — Jumpstart Foundry, Jumpstart Health Investors and Jumpstart Capital — works to bring innovation to what could be considered a timid but also complex industry. He talks about the formation and evolution of the venture capital firm, the opportunities he's seeing in these early-stage ventures as well as their challenges.

Carrie Thome left the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, where, as the Chief Investment Officer, she oversaw a $3 billion investment portfolio, to co-found NVNG Investment Advisors, an investment platform and network made up of a family of funds. The organization closed its Fund 1 in late 2021. Carrie talks about the organization, leaving WARF to launch it, her experience as a fund raiser and the progress NVNG has made since its start in 2019.

Compelled by the invitation of Jesus to "love our neighbors as we love ourselves," Corner to Corner was founded by Will and Tiffany Acuff in 2011. The young couple wanted to create a relationship-centered nonprofit that focused on seeing neighbors in their low-income Nashville neighborhood flourish on their own terms. In partnership with the community, the first program was aimed at equipping those recently out of prison with the necessary skills to gain meaningful employment. Since those early days, Corner to Corner has grown and expanded programming throughout Middle Tennessee, all in meaningful partnership with neighbors. Will sat down with Smart Business to discuss how it all started, how he raised funds and what the future holds for Corner to Corner.

Patrick Patterson went from the third person at what ultimately became Level Agency to its co-owner, sitting in the CEO seat for the first time. And shortly after taking over the business, he brought in PE partners — also a first — to help accelerate the company's growth with M&A-minded advisers who can help the agency accomplish its ambitions goals. Patrick talks about the management buyout, how he connected with his PE backers and what it took to close the deal, what life is like with a PE partner and the agency's plans for the future.

While service providers such as hotels and restaurants were severely debilitated by the pandemic shutdown, others thrived. One such example is Reimagine Care, a Nashville-based in-home cancer care enabler. It's taken cancer care from the clinic to patients' living rooms. Aaron Gerber, co-founder and former CEO of Reimagine Care, says the scope of what can be done for patients has greatly changed with tremendous advancements over the last two and half decades. What had not changed was how that care was delivered. Aaron talks about raising capital and providing oncology healthcare to patients in their own homes.

After years of investing in early-stage companies in the SaaS, robotics, internet of things, health & fin tech spaces, Ven Raju has taken his talents from New York to Pittsburgh where he now heads Innovation Works as its president and CEO, while also holding the position of managing director of Riverfront Ventures. The two organizations have a symbiotic relationship — Innovation Works invests at the earliest stages of a venture while Riverfront provides follow-on capital to those companies that gain traction. Ven compares and contrasts his investment experiences between the two cities, and offers the perspective he's hearing from investors he's talking to as he works to grow Southwest Pennsylvania's startup stature in the market.

Stephen Glicken is working to disrupt ticket sales as we know it with his company, Project Admission. It's a unique model that managed to survive the collapse of live events during COVID and continue to draw investor interest, gain market traction and land significant partnerships. Stephen talks about the business, its growth, fundraising, investors and what he hopes to be saying in the next five years about the company he launched.

Wellist is a consumer navigation company that started by helping to connect patients to services largely outside their care plan — connecting with an acupuncturist, a place to get a wig or someone to clean the house. The company has since opened up its offerings to employees, and in the process has been able to leverage the data it collects to help employers provide better support to their employees and reduce costs. Founder and CEO Ashley Reid talks about growing into the company's now national presence, what outside board seats have taught her about running her own business and the evolution of the company's fundraising.