The Deal Table

Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions
  • 5.0 (16)
  • Business
  • Updated Weekly

The Deal Table is a long-form podcast featuring the founders, operators, investors, and advisors who navigate consequential decisions around capital, control, leadership, and legacy. Filmed at Old Parkland in Dallas, the show brings together leaders who have built, financed, governed, acquired, and exited real businesses to speak candidly about private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and what actually happens before, during, and after the deal. For founders, executives, investors, and advisors making decisions Sponsored by: Capital Southwest, Security National Bank, & Blockchain.com

  1. 1d ago

    #47 | Rex Kurzius: Google's AI Answers Killed 80% of Our Clicks

    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-kurzius Kurzius 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 MOMENTS 00:00 We track endangered chickens 06:16 Google's AI took 80% of the clicks 07:27 "It's underhyped" 09:46 A studio asks for 1901 to 1925 12:37 The survey that got the model wrong 24:44 Building the tool nobody sold him 25:46 His brother founded Mailchimp 38:24 The most stressful 18 months 53:13 "I call them athletes" 01:05:37 Losing his father at 10 Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Asset Panda: assetpanda.com Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The 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.

    #47 | Rex Kurzius: Google's AI Answers Killed 80% of Our Clicks

  2. 5d ago

    #46 | Tony Bridwell: Why Culture Never Shows Up in Due Diligence

    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-bridwell Lane 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 MOMENTS 00:00 The deal that died 30 minutes out 08:08 Culture never shows up in diligence 11:10 Brint Ryan: tighten the lug nuts 20:21 3% of a company moves 90% of it 25:21 When the founder is the mission 34:35 What you hear in the word follower 38:41 $60 billion on leadership, zero here 49:40 Tolerate, isolate, eliminate, rehab 01:12:00 30% logic, 70% emotion 01:17:57 Why he gave a friend a kidney Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect The Follower Effect: amazon.com/dp/1394375034 The Courage to Be Disliked: amzn.to/45s5Npo Man's Search for Meaning: amzn.to/4xxm4VK What to Make of a Life: amzn.to/4gy5JdK Dr. Tony Bridwell: drtonybridwell.com Southwest Transplant Alliance: organ.org Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The 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.

    #46 | Tony Bridwell: Why Culture Never Shows Up in Due Diligence

  3. Aug 4

    #45 | David Henry: From Radio Sales to $20 Million Jets

    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-henry David 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 MOMENTS 00:00 Three ways to fly, and the real math 05:20 What COVID did to private aviation 08:42 Charter costs, turboprop to Gulfstream 09:34 Dallas to New Orleans, all in 10:58 The industry's gotchas 17:01 The student who asked about 5G 24:44 $800,000 a year before fuel 32:28 The liability of lending your jet 38:50 Tracking tail numbers to front-run deals 50:21 The debit account model Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Vue Jet: vuejet.com Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X 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 Security National Bank.

    #45 | David Henry: From Radio Sales to $20 Million Jets

  4. Jul 27

    #44 | Kneeland Youngblood: What to Ask When a President Walks In

    "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-youngblood He 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 MOMENTS 00:00 "What's your ask?" 05:00 A family built on giving back 11:43 The Princeton advice that reset it all 20:52 Twelve years in the emergency room 25:32 The Bill Bradley question 27:32 The jet to Austin: "I had no juice" 29:55 Rainwater, Bonderman, and Milken 38:07 Founding Pharos, narrowing to health 58:07 Value-based care: $0 to $2 trillion 01:21:46 The greatest lie told to young people Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Pharos Capital Group: pharosfunds.com Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X 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 Security National Bank.

    #44 | Kneeland Youngblood: What to Ask When a President Walks In

  5. Apr 23

    #43 | Ken Malcolmson: Dallas Passes Chicago as No. 3 Metro by 2030

    "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-malcolmson DFW 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 MOMENTS 00:00 DFW's $12 billion capital project 01:36 Passing Chicago by 2030 03:39 Ross Perot's hard advantages 04:26 "Culture wins": Goldman and SMU 11:56 Love Field: 8.5 million to 18.5 15:06 "We need to get used to more density" 17:29 The $3.5 billion convention center 30:20 "Autonomy is the enemy" 48:36 The tornado that took the building 54:06 Scotiabank picks Dallas Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media. Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

    #43 | Ken Malcolmson: Dallas Passes Chicago as No. 3 Metro by 2030

  6. Apr 16

    #42 | Thomas Gleason: Buying an 1889 Boot Company

    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-gleason He 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 MOMENTS 00:00 He only wears his own boots now 01:21 Oil and gas first, as a landman 04:57 Olsen-Stelzer, founded 1900 06:31 Why custom boots do not scale 11:43 The merger with a bigger brand 21:13 Closer to $100,000 than $100 million 32:21 $5,500 here, $16,500 elsewhere 33:00 Three months against 18 to 24 40:45 Boots for Warriors 50:30 The Jane Seymour boot Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media. Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

    #42 | Thomas Gleason: Buying an 1889 Boot Company

  7. Apr 9

    #41 | Jay Young: Singles and Doubles Beat Home Runs in Oil

    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-young He 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 MOMENTS 00:00 "There's so much oil out there" 07:06 Gauging tanks: 1.67 barrels an inch 07:53 "Don't get in the oil business" 13:45 The Rangers, and the cash calls 19:26 ADD: acquire, develop, divest 23:34 Selling 40% of a well for $13 million 27:10 "We took too much risk" 34:37 Lock the rig before it doubles 52:11 The AI plants will run on gas 59:15 "It's singles and doubles" Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media. Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

    #41 | Jay Young: Singles and Doubles Beat Home Runs in Oil

  8. Apr 3

    #40 | Preston Dunlap: How Starlink Got Into the Pentagon

    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-dunlap He 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 MOMENTS 00:00 Why the US is the place to be in space 07:56 The Pentagon as a boardroom 10:45 First checks into Android and SpaceX 15:53 One drone against a hundred 21:46 The 2022 warning about China 33:24 Naming Conventional Prompt Strike 35:39 Project Maven, and Google walking out 38:31 $10B to $15B of innovation money 40:21 Six key-turners, 18-month rotations 49:32 Bringing Starlink into the Pentagon Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media. Sponsored by Capital Southwest.

    #40 | Preston Dunlap: How Starlink Got Into the Pentagon
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

The Deal Table is a long-form podcast featuring the founders, operators, investors, and advisors who navigate consequential decisions around capital, control, leadership, and legacy. Filmed at Old Parkland in Dallas, the show brings together leaders who have built, financed, governed, acquired, and exited real businesses to speak candidly about private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and what actually happens before, during, and after the deal. For founders, executives, investors, and advisors making decisions Sponsored by: Capital Southwest, Security National Bank, & Blockchain.com

Information

  • Creator
    Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Harper Belmont Media | Optima Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Show Website
    The Deal Table

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