Leadership Quotient

The Crucible

Leadership Quotient, powered by The Crucible, explores the people side of private equity—how operating partners, portfolio executives, and advisors build, align, and scale leadership teams. Each episode offers candid conversations from across the PE ecosystem on the strategies, challenges, and decisions that drive value creation.

  1. FEB 10

    Backing Women: What Investors Miss and How to Fix It

    In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Hanim Dogan, Partner at Prime Advantage Capital Partners, angel investor, and venture partner, shares why enabling more female founders is both a leadership imperative and a value creation opportunity, and what investors often miss when evaluating early-stage teams. Drawing on her journey from founder (including an early software exit) to investor and advisor across multiple ecosystems, Hanim explains why the global investment community is smaller than people think, how trust and relationships shape access, and why authentic leadership presence matters as much as the pitch deck. Hanim and Lindsay explore the gaps she sees most often for female founders in fundraising—particularly the pressure to “perform” rather than lead—and how investors can get closer to real founder potential through deeper, more human diligence beyond the first screen (especially as AI becomes more common in sourcing). They also discuss how building great companies ultimately comes down to building great teams, why founders must upskill in team-building or bring in support early, and how leadership expectations are evolving in a more remote, AI-influenced world where soft skills are becoming differentiators. The conversation closes with a clear call to action: increasing female representation on the investor side, and ensuring men and women are in the same room driving change—because progress won’t happen in parallel conversations.

    30 min
  2. JAN 13

    Always Asking for the Ball: A Trader’s Guide to Leadership

    In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Michael Frank, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Gildre, shares how a career on the trading floor shaped his leadership philosophy and why the habits that create success in markets translate directly to entrepreneurship and private equity. From his early days on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange to building and exiting a multi-exchange trading operation, Michael reflects on what it means to reset every day, take accountability for outcomes, and stay sharp in environments where the rules can change overnight. He explains why great leaders listen before they act, including a pivotal story about taking a painful loss after finally trusting his partners’ instincts and how that lesson mirrors the founder’s challenge of letting smarter people run with the ball. Michael and Lindsay explore the difference between “organized chaos” and the real-world messiness of startups, including why credibility, execution, and incentives matter more off the floor than most investors expect. They also discuss how value creation is shifting as distribution becomes the true barrier to building, why Michael believes more entrepreneurs should consider search funds and acquiring durable businesses instead of starting from scratch, and how AI is changing the risk landscape for leaders across every industry. The conversation closes with Michael’s practical advice for founders: work hard, build community, hire people who are better than you, and always be the person willing to raise your hand and ask for the ball.

    34 min
  3. JAN 6

    The Mirror of Entrepreneurship: What PE Talent Reveals About Leadership

    In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Henry Myers, Co-Founder and Managing Director at High Water Search, shares why entrepreneurship is one of the clearest mirrors for leadership and what that reveals about talent in private equity today. Drawing on his path from finance into building a global PE-focused search firm, Henry explains how personal responsibility, self-awareness, and discernment shape effective leaders on both the investor and operator sides of the table. He unpacks why great recruiting is less about volume and pedigree and more about pattern recognition, timing, and deep alignment between a firm’s culture and an individual’s direction of travel. Henry and Lindsay explore the growing bifurcation between mega-funds and emerging managers, how incentives like carry structures shape behavior and collaboration, and why many investment professionals struggle when moving from large institutional platforms into more entrepreneurial environments. They also discuss the behavioral traits that increasingly differentiate successful PE leaders—empathy, adaptability, communication, and the ability to build trust with founders and management teams—and why reputations travel fast in a small ecosystem. The conversation closes with a look ahead at how private equity talent needs are shifting as value creation replaces multiple expansion, AI reshapes deal teams, and a new generation of leaders reassesses what kind of firms—and cultures—they actually want to build.

    42 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Leadership Quotient, powered by The Crucible, explores the people side of private equity—how operating partners, portfolio executives, and advisors build, align, and scale leadership teams. Each episode offers candid conversations from across the PE ecosystem on the strategies, challenges, and decisions that drive value creation.