The Deal Table

Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions

The Deal Table is a show where entrepreneurs, executives, and investors share actionable insights, strategies, and success stories about building, scaling, and exiting businesses. It features conversations with leading voices to inspire and connect like-minded professionals. Our target audience includes entrepreneurs, executives, and capital providers actively involved in growth, capital raising, and strategic deals.

  1. #35 Predicting Hurricanes Years in Advance - Solar Forecasting as Capital Strategy | Katherine Monson

    4 DAYS AGO

    #35 Predicting Hurricanes Years in Advance - Solar Forecasting as Capital Strategy | Katherine Monson

    Solar activity is a measurable risk variable across satellites, aviation, precision agriculture, and energy markets. Katherine Monson, CEO and co-founder of Hale SWx, explains how a physics-based solar model improves forecast accuracy beyond legacy statistical methods and enables both short-range operational decisions and long-range capital planning. For spacecraft operators, forecasting informs launch timing, altitude strategy, radiation exposure, and asset life—directly impacting CAPEX efficiency and revenue duration. Airlines gain visibility into dynamic radiation loads affecting avionics and crew exposure. In energy and insurance markets, long-horizon solar inputs may influence LNG demand positioning and hurricane risk pricing. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • The sun as the primary energetic variable in Earth systems • Why legacy space weather forecasting fails beyond four days • Hale SWx’s physics-based model vs. statistical regression approaches • Satellite drag, radiation exposure, and launch timing economics • The SpaceX solar storm loss case and CAPEX implications • Precision GPS risk in agriculture, mining, and oil & gas • Aviation radiation exposure, avionics maintenance, and FAA integration • Long-range solar forecasting for hardware design and lifecycle planning • LNG futures, hurricane forecasting, and insurance pricing strategy • Negotiation philosophy from Getting to Yes applied to capital-intensive industries ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd

    1h 2m
  2. #34 Agentic AI in Skilled Trades: Scaling Productivity and Private Equity Value Creation | Wyatt Smith

    5 FEB

    #34 Agentic AI in Skilled Trades: Scaling Productivity and Private Equity Value Creation | Wyatt Smith

    Wyatt Smith, founder of Upsmith and former Uber executive, outlines the strategic application of agentic AI within the U.S. skilled trades and home services sectors. Modern trade businesses face a 1.5 million-person labor shortage, a gap increasingly bridged by probabilistic AI agents designed to drive 50X increases in operational productivity. Automating administrative tasks at the application layer allows firms to expand top-line revenue and free cash flow without scaling indirect labor costs. These deal mechanics underpin current institutional demand and the historically high multiples paid by private equity for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service businesses. This transition toward competency-based credentialing positions technology as a primary lever for U.S. labor productivity and economic competitiveness. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • The 50X Productivity Framework • U.S. Skilled Labor Shortage • Private Equity in Home Services • Deterministic vs. Probabilistic AI • Competency-Based Credentialing • The AI Application Layer • Uber Elevate and Joby Aviation • Tech Optimism vs. Creative Destruction • U.S. Economic Competitiveness • Leadership and the Dignity of Work ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by:Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd #TheDealTable #Ai #artificialintellegence #PrivateEquity #HomeServices #SkilledTrades #FreeCashFlow #Productivity #EnterpriseValue #CapitalAllocation

    1h 8m
  3. #33 SMU Cox’s Strategy for the Next Decade: Talent, AI, and the Business of Higher Ed - Todd Milbourn

    29 JAN

    #33 SMU Cox’s Strategy for the Next Decade: Talent, AI, and the Business of Higher Ed - Todd Milbourn

    Southern Methodist University isn’t trying to become Wall Street—and Dean Todd Milbourn is clear about that. What SMU Cox is doing is building a modern business school designed for a fast-shifting economy where talent, adaptability, and real-world engagement matter more than tradition alone.In this episode, Milbourn breaks down how SMU Cox is operating more like a holding company than a legacy institution, with professional schools serving as economic engines that fund long-term academic investment. He explains why the move to the ACC has been a major academic accelerant, how AI is reshaping both jobs and curriculum, and why entrepreneurial thinking—not just entrepreneurship—is becoming a core skill for every graduate. The conversation spans the business of higher education, the role of athletics in institutional momentum, and SMU Cox’s position as a talent pipeline for Dallas as finance, energy, and technology continue to converge. This is a candid look at how a business school competes, adapts, and grows in a world where standing still is not an option. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • The Institutional Risk of Higher Education • University as a Holding Company • Athletics as a Strategic Accelerant • AI Disruption and Talent Resiliency • The CEO-Partnership Model • Y'all Street and Global Capital Relocation • The Net IQ Importer • Scaling the Venture Ecosystem ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd#thedealtable #highereducation #capitalstructure #corporategovernance #assetmanagement #venturecapital #economicgrowth

    1h 10m
  4. #32 Why Texas Is Booming: Scott Theeringer on Land, Housing, and Infrastructure Strategy

    22 JAN

    #32 Why Texas Is Booming: Scott Theeringer on Land, Housing, and Infrastructure Strategy

    Texas is growing faster than almost anywhere in the U.S.—1,200 new residents every day, three new subdivisions on average, and booming demand for homes, offices, and data centers. Land strategy, phased development, and infrastructure planning drive long-term value, while energy supply and city regulations set critical limits. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • The Texas Triangle Economy: Why this region is the 5th strongest economy in the U.S. and why its "sticky" population ensures long-term growth. • The Entitlement Machine: A masterclass on how to navigate zoning, engineering, and city council politics to unlock land value. • AI & Data Center Infrastructure: The massive power demands of modern data centers and the $20M+ investment required for "powered sites." • The Case for Nuclear: Why current energy sources can't keep up with Texas’s 2030 population projections. • Solving Chronic Homelessness: An empathetic look at the legislative gaps in mental health stabilization and the reality of addiction on our streets.• The "Flight to Quality": How the office and retail markets are shifting toward high-end, experiential spaces. • Building Generational Wealth: How Scott’s team sources off-market deals to turn multi-generational family farms into multi-million dollar legacies. • Developing Resilience: Lessons from "Cold Call Cowboys" and why the younger generation needs to embrace the "muscle" of rejection. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd #thedealtable #realestateinvesting #privateequity #texasrealestate #landdevelopment #housingmarket #datacenters #infrastructure #investmentstrategy #mergersandacquisitions

    1h 4m
  5. #31 Lower Middle Market Private Equity Explained: Founder Exits and Control with JJ Barto

    15 JAN

    #31 Lower Middle Market Private Equity Explained: Founder Exits and Control with JJ Barto

    JJ Barto of Broadwing Capital explains how lower middle market private equity actually works—partnering with founder-owned businesses, navigating first-time institutional capital, and creating value through disciplined execution rather than financial engineering.A grounded look at how durable lower middle market businesses are built, transitioned, and scaled—without relying on leverage-driven shortcuts or headline risk. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Defining the LMM: Broadwing Capital’s $5M–$50M EBITDA investment thesis. • The Founder Identity Crisis: Navigating the shift from sole owner to institutional partner. • The "Soft Elbows" Philosophy: Balancing high financial IQ with operator-level humility. • Deal Mechanics: Structuring equity rolls and the "second bite at the apple." • Due Diligence Stress Tests: Surviving the 90-day Quality of Earnings (QofE) process. • Value Creation Roadmaps: Aligning strategy and "exit states" before the deal closes. • PE vs. Family Offices: Comparing capital structures and investor time horizons. • The 70/30 Rubric: Why 30% industry nuance drives "rocket ship" growth. • Macro Risk & Tariffs: How economic uncertainty suppresses buyer and seller expectations. • The Human Capital Challenge: CEO cultivation and aligning Type A management teams. • The Liberal Arts Edge: Why critical thinking and history outperform technical finance degrees. • Platform vs. Add-on Strategy: When to pool regional firms into a "super-provider." • LMM Evolution: The transition from the "Wild West" to a sophisticated asset class. • Operational Discipline: Why consistent execution separates great investments from average ones. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd #TheDealTable #privateequity #businessexitstrategy #valuecreation #capitalmarkets #mergersandacquisitions

    1h 6m
  6. #30 World Cup 2026 & Stadium Economics | Dan Hunt on FC Dallas and Long-Term Sports Investing

    9 JAN

    #30 World Cup 2026 & Stadium Economics | Dan Hunt on FC Dallas and Long-Term Sports Investing

    Dan Hunt outlines the business logic behind FC Dallas, continuous stadium reinvestment, and North Texas’ World Cup 2026 strategy. He explains how capital allocation, infrastructure upgrades, and market integrity translate into durable economic impact. WHAT WE COVER The Hunt family’s long-term investment thesis in American soccer Dan Hunt’s role running the business side of FC Dallas vs. on-field decision-making How MLS nearly collapsed in 2001—and the ownership intervention that saved the league Stadium reinvestment as a value-creation strategy and economic engine Capital planning behind Toyota Stadium’s $200M redevelopment and new Mansfield stadium World Cup 2026 strategy and why North Texas expects the largest economic impact How global sporting events function as long-term commercials for cities The role of legacy ownership and family governance in professional sports Risks to sports integrity from gambling and the impact on fandom Youth development systems and why North Texas produces sustained soccer talent Diversification across sports, real estate, and operating businesses Balancing entrepreneurship, professional management teams, and family culture ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd

    1h 6m
  7. #29 Founder-Led M&A & Private Equity | John Willding on Structuring Life-Changing Deals

    24/12/2025

    #29 Founder-Led M&A & Private Equity | John Willding on Structuring Life-Changing Deals

    Navigating a founder-led exit is more than just a transaction—it’s a pivotal moment for a business and its owners. John Willding breaks down how private equity and strategic buyers differ, why early planning and quality-of-earnings analysis matter, and how thoughtful deal structuring drives long-term value. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT WE COVER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • How founder-operators should approach life-altering M&A transactions • Differences between private equity and strategic buyers and implications for deal structure • Planning for M&A well in advance, including quality-of-earnings analysis and due diligence • Asset vs. equity sales, tax considerations, and partnership agreements • Structuring deals to retain employees and maximize transaction value • Navigating regulatory frameworks, including securities and fund formation rules • The role of specialized legal expertise in unlocking complex transactions • Long-term relationship-building and strategic positioning to create value in the mid-market ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media Sponsored by: Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd #TheDealTable #PrivateEquity #MiddleMarketMergers #FundFormation #CorporateLaw #MergersAndAcquisitions #DealStructuring #FounderCompanies #BusinessTransactions #InvestmentLaw

    1h 20m
  8. #28 Buddy Ozanne on Generational Wealth, Intellectual Capital, and Why Capital Is More Than Money

    18/12/2025

    #28 Buddy Ozanne on Generational Wealth, Intellectual Capital, and Why Capital Is More Than Money

    Buddy Ozanne, founder of Property Advisors Inc., discusses the evolution of wealth management and the critical components of long-term estate preservation. The conversation covers his transition from a transactional insurance model in the 1970s to becoming a pioneer in the fee-only RIA space. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Key Takeaways ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ -The transition from transactional sales to fee-based fiduciary advice. -How to transfer "Intellectual Capital" to heirs who haven't met you yet. -The "Moneyball" approach to investing: Why you don't need home runs to win. -The origin story of the SMU "Boulevard". ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📱 CONNECT WITH US ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Deal Table is Produced by Harper Belmont Media & proudly sponsored by: Vela Wood | https://velawood.com Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com Follow The Deal Table: https://www.instagram.com/thedealtablepodcast/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/ Follow Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/ https://www.instagram.com/ryansharper/ Follow Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/ Sign up for the Deal Table Newsletter: https://share.hsforms.com/1Tfx_WobCTPuXWenG1-69EQoavsd #TheDealTable #WealthManagement #EstatePlanning #FeeOnlyAdvisor #CapitalPreservation #LongTermInvesting #PortfolioStrategy #GenerationalWealth

    1h 4m
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About

The Deal Table is a show where entrepreneurs, executives, and investors share actionable insights, strategies, and success stories about building, scaling, and exiting businesses. It features conversations with leading voices to inspire and connect like-minded professionals. Our target audience includes entrepreneurs, executives, and capital providers actively involved in growth, capital raising, and strategic deals.

Information

  • Creator
    Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Show Website
    The Deal Table