Private Equity Data Guy

Graeme Crawford

Private equity meets data. Conversations with deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company leaders about the data problems that kill deals, slow exits, and destroy value. Hosted by Graeme Crawford, founder of Crawford McMillan. 20 years leading data programs at Fortune 100 companies. Now helping PE-backed companies fix data before exits so the numbers hold up under scrutiny. New episodes cover diligence red flags, value creation playbooks, and the real stories behind successful (and failed) transactions.

  1. 5d ago

    The Feeling Every Operator Has Before the Numbers Turn

    In this episode I sat down with Regan Inkster, a strategist who has spent 25 years building strategy for Global 1000 companies and served three times as a chief architect. We talked about a pattern he found in his own research on organizational coherence: the distance between what a company says internally and what employees actually experience appears in performance data before it appears in the financial numbers. He calls this warning window about two quarters, and he built an AI model that reads language across a company to measure it. We covered real cases, including a merger that destroyed about 75 percent of the deal's value and a widely recognized coffee company where the space between leadership and frontline teams matched swings in market value for years. Regan shared advice for private equity operating partners: close the loop between decisions and the reasons behind them, and check whether the dashboard rewards match what leadership wants the business to improve. Timestamps 00:02:26 Coherence drifts before financial results 00:04:13 Sensing dysfunction inside an organization 00:08:00 Building the coherence measurement platform 00:16:30 CEO strategy rollout builds agreement 00:18:24 Starbucks coherence linked to market value 00:21:23 Private equity ownership raises mismatch risk 00:32:59 Many AI initiatives fail to deliver 00:41:16 Closing the loop after decisions Companies Mentioned IBM Capital One Oracle Starbucks Fidelity International Systems World Pay Netflix Blockbuster The New York Times HBO Websites Mentioned Amazon: https://www.amazon.com Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com Reddit: https://www.reddit.com Indeed: https://www.indeed.com Guest Information Regan Inkster spent 25 years building strategy for Global 1000 companies and served three times as a chief architect. He worked as a global go to market and value creation leader at Oracle and as a country lead for emerging tech and AI at a global systems integrator. He wrote the book Two Quarter Warning, which describes how organizational coherence drops about two quarters before financial results do.

    The Feeling Every Operator Has Before the Numbers Turn

  2. Aug 26

    What Buyers Actually See Before the LOI (And What the SIM Hides)

    Jeremiah Wanzell has spent over two decades scaling consumer brands inside Fortune 100 companies like Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, and Steve Madden before moving into private equity as an operating partner. In this conversation, he breaks down what buyers actually see in consumer deals before the LOI, what the CIM almost never tells you, and why he built Deal Reveal, a free self-service scorecard that grades a deal across six weighted value drivers in under ten minutes. We get into the data gap between large enterprise and mid-market portfolio companies, the real reasons Allbirds collapsed and Nike stumbled, and what multi-channel diversity actually means in practice. Jeremiah also walks us through the Capezio acquisition, a fifth-generation family brand that another firm passed on, and why a clear deal thesis and niche market dominance made it one of the best deals in the consumer PE space. Chapters: 00:08 - Understanding Customer Base and Product Value07:27 - Understanding the Gaps in Revenue Stories12:16 - The Digital Opportunity in Business18:22 - Navigating Business Sales: Understanding the Wave of Institutional Capital24:38 - The Importance of Channel Diversity in E-Commerce34:05 - Cautionary Tales: Lessons from Allbirds and Nike40:57 - The Future of CPG Brands and Market Opportunities Guest Information Jeremiah Wanzell is a consumer brand operator and private equity advisor with 22 years of experience at Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, and Steve Madden. He works as an operating partner with PE firms in the consumer sector and originated the Capezio acquisition for Argon, which won M&A Deal of the Year. He recently launched Deal Reveal, a consumer M&A scorecard available at growthmindsetadvisors.com. Company: Growth Mindset Advisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiah-wanzell/ Website: https://growthmindsetadvisors.com/ Companies Mentioned Hugo Boss Calvin Klein / PVH Steve Madden Capezio Allbirds Nike Adidas On Running Hoka Brooks Skims Warby Parker Amazon / Whole Foods DSW Macy's Shopify Websites Mentioned growthmindsetadvisors.com (Deal Reveal scorecard) Key Takeaways The CIM shows revenue. It rarely shows revenue quality by channel, customer concentration, or margin by door. That gap is where deals get repriced or killed. Multi-channel diversity is non-negotiable. Brands that lean entirely on DTC or heavily on Amazon carry structural risk that buyers will price in. A clear deal thesis before you enter a process is what separates a fast pass from a real opportunity. Capezio got passed by one firm simply because they did not understand the dance wear category. Start the exit preparation process one to three years before you want to sell. The difference between a 2x and an 8x is often just how ready the business is when it hits the market.

    What Buyers Actually See Before the LOI (And What the SIM Hides)

  3. Aug 20

    The Metrics Look Fine. So Why Is the Business Stalling?

    David Newcomb has done something rare in private equity. He operated through two separate transactions at the same company, including the founder exit, and watched the second buyer walk in and say they were acquiring the business because of what he had built. That vantage point gave him a phrase every operator, board member, and sponsor should carry: value drift. We spent this conversation unpacking what value drift looks like from the inside, why the board pack stays green while the real signals are moving in the wrong direction, and what happens to organizations when leadership changes come faster than the business can absorb them. David also shared what kept him through two holds: doing what he said he would do, quarter over quarter, with whoever was sitting across the table. Chapters: 00:08 - The Transformation of Private Equity03:54 - Understanding Value Drift in Private Equity10:50 - Navigating Founder Exits and Business Value Drift22:22 - Understanding Misalignment in Business Metrics27:23 - The Dynamics of Change in Private Equity31:06 - Navigating Change Fatigue in Private Equity Guest Information David Newcomb is a seasoned operator who managed through two private equity transactions at the same company, including the founder exit. He originated the term value drift to describe the erosion of intangible business value that follows leadership transitions and founder departures. He is active on LinkedIn and welcomes conversations from operators, sponsors, and advisors working through similar dynamics. Companies Mentioned Bawdy AI Not Very Private Equity Websites Mentioned LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com Bawdy AI: https://www.bawdy.ai Key Takeaways Value drift begins before anyone can measure it and compounds quietly until the damage is visible. Board metrics can signal health while the underlying business is losing the qualities that made it attractive in the first place. Replacing operators repeatedly without identifying the root cause does not solve the problem and adds real cost and fatigue to the organization. Doing what you say, consistently, across multiple sponsors and holds, is what separates operators who survive transitions from those who do not.

    The Metrics Look Fine. So Why Is the Business Stalling?

  4. Aug 13

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

    Philip Curran has spent four decades inside the rooms where leadership either holds together or quietly falls apart. In this episode, we get into the half of the story that most data people never see: the hidden emotional contract between leaders and the people they lead, and why ignoring it costs PE portfolio companies real money before and during exit. We cover the eight promises leaders make every day whether they know it or not, how leadership misalignment shows up as data problems, and why the hero culture inside PE-backed companies is more of a liability than an asset. If you care about what actually drives returns, this one connects dots you have probably felt but never named. --- Chapters: 00:03 - The Role of Leaders in Shaping Culture11:41 - Understanding the Hidden Emotional Contract16:33 - Understanding Leadership and Decision Making29:40 - Understanding Leadership through Hidden Emotional Contracts43:06 - The Hidden Emotional Contract in Work **Guest Information** Phillip Curran is the founder of Renova, a senior human capital advisory firm providing interim CHRO leadership and strategic counsel to CEOs and private equity operators. He is the creator of the ARC Diagnostic, a tool that measures leadership reliability at the enterprise level. His first book, The Hidden Emotional Contract, publishes August 17th. - Company: Rinnova HR - LinkedIn: Phillip Curran --- **Companies Mentioned** - Renova - IBM - Capital One --- **Websites Mentioned** - Rinnova HR - Phillip Curran on LinkedIn --- **Key Takeaways** - Culture is the lived experience of the people working for you, driven by the exhibited behaviors of leaders. HR cannot create it. - When five executives hold five different definitions of an active customer, the cost is not just a reporting issue. It slows decisions, breaks operations, and shows up as eroded exit value. - The eight promises: dignity, clarity, safety, meaning, growth, recognition, belonging, and agency. Breaking any of them causes people to pull back long before the numbers reflect it. - Decision velocity always matters in private equity. Anything that puts a foot on the brake, whether role confusion or lack of strategic clarity, destroys value. - The hero culture PE environments breed is a single point of failure, not a feature.

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

  5. Aug 13

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

    Philip Curran has spent four decades inside the rooms where leadership either holds together or quietly falls apart. In this episode, we get into the half of the story that most data people never see: the hidden emotional contract between leaders and the people they lead, and why ignoring it costs PE portfolio companies real money before and during exit. We cover the eight promises leaders make every day whether they know it or not, how leadership misalignment shows up as data problems, and why the hero culture inside PE-backed companies is more of a liability than an asset. If you care about what actually drives returns, this one connects dots you have probably felt but never named. --- Chapters: 00:03 - The Role of Leaders in Shaping Culture11:41 - Understanding the Hidden Emotional Contract16:33 - Understanding Leadership and Decision Making29:40 - Understanding Leadership through Hidden Emotional Contracts43:06 - The Hidden Emotional Contract in Work **Guest Information** Phillip Curran is the founder of Renova, a senior human capital advisory firm providing interim CHRO leadership and strategic counsel to CEOs and private equity operators. He is the creator of the ARC Diagnostic, a tool that measures leadership reliability at the enterprise level. His first book, The Hidden Emotional Contract, publishes August 17th. - Company: Rinnova HR - LinkedIn: Phillip Curran --- **Companies Mentioned** - Renova - IBM - Capital One --- **Websites Mentioned** - Rinnova HR - Phillip Curran on LinkedIn --- **Key Takeaways** - Culture is the lived experience of the people working for you, driven by the exhibited behaviors of leaders. HR cannot create it. - When five executives hold five different definitions of an active customer, the cost is not just a reporting issue. It slows decisions, breaks operations, and shows up as eroded exit value. - The eight promises: dignity, clarity, safety, meaning, growth, recognition, belonging, and agency. Breaking any of them causes people to pull back long before the numbers reflect it. - Decision velocity always matters in private equity. Anything that puts a foot on the brake, whether role confusion or lack of strategic clarity, destroys value. - The hero culture PE environments breed is a single point of failure, not a feature.

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

  6. Aug 13

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

    Philip Curran has spent four decades inside the rooms where leadership either holds together or quietly falls apart. In this episode, we get into the half of the story that most data people never see: the hidden emotional contract between leaders and the people they lead, and why ignoring it costs PE portfolio companies real money before and during exit. We cover the eight promises leaders make every day whether they know it or not, how leadership misalignment shows up as data problems, and why the hero culture inside PE-backed companies is more of a liability than an asset. If you care about what actually drives returns, this one connects dots you have probably felt but never named. --- Chapters: 00:03 - The Role of Leaders in Shaping Culture11:41 - Understanding the Hidden Emotional Contract16:33 - Understanding Leadership and Decision Making29:40 - Understanding Leadership through Hidden Emotional Contracts43:06 - The Hidden Emotional Contract in Work **Guest Information** Phillip Curran is the founder of Renova, a senior human capital advisory firm providing interim CHRO leadership and strategic counsel to CEOs and private equity operators. He is the creator of the ARC Diagnostic, a tool that measures leadership reliability at the enterprise level. His first book, The Hidden Emotional Contract, publishes August 17th. - Company: Rinnova HR - LinkedIn: Phillip Curran --- **Companies Mentioned** - Renova - IBM - Capital One --- **Websites Mentioned** - Rinnova HR - Phillip Curran on LinkedIn --- **Key Takeaways** - Culture is the lived experience of the people working for you, driven by the exhibited behaviors of leaders. HR cannot create it. - When five executives hold five different definitions of an active customer, the cost is not just a reporting issue. It slows decisions, breaks operations, and shows up as eroded exit value. - The eight promises: dignity, clarity, safety, meaning, growth, recognition, belonging, and agency. Breaking any of them causes people to pull back long before the numbers reflect it. - Decision velocity always matters in private equity. Anything that puts a foot on the brake, whether role confusion or lack of strategic clarity, destroys value. - The hero culture PE environments breed is a single point of failure, not a feature.

    Why Your Data Problem Is Actually a Leadership Problem

  7. Aug 6

    Why 80% of Founder CEOs Fail After PE Buys Their Company

    Behind every value creation plan, there is a data problem. But behind every data problem, there is a people problem. In this episode, I sat down with Kit Lisle, a former US Army intelligence officer turned middle market M&A veteran, who spent 30 years watching private equity backed executives succeed and fail in the same environments for the same reasons. Kit built The Operators, a peer community now nearly 800 members strong, because he got tired of watching talented executives get dropped into hostile ownership transitions with no map, no lexicon, and no honest conversation about what they were walking into. He also spent six months building his own definition of value creation because he got tired of getting 23 different answers every time he asked the question. What came out of that work is a six-lever framework that reframes how operating teams and deal teams should think about performance inside a portfolio company. We go through every lever, including the one most people skip straight past, which is alignment, and I push back on a few of his points with what I have seen on the data side inside portcos that are two to three years into a hold and running out of runway. We also get into why the wait-and-see doctrine is costing PE firms real money, why the definition of "operator" shifts entirely depending on whether the board is happy with you, and what founder CEOs consistently get wrong in the first 90 days after taking institutional capital. This one is practical, direct, and pulls no punches. 0:00 - Private equity is under real pressure 1:18 - Kit Lisle and his background 2:14 - Defining value creation clearly 3:25 - Alignment as the first lever 8:12 - Operational improvement and change management 11:09 - Fact-based decision making in portcos 14:30 - The Operators community and what sponsors never hear 20:28 - The tension between operating partners and deal teams 25:04 - Why the 80% misalignment rate persists 32:32 - What founder CEOs must do to survive PE Companies Mentioned Capital One IBM A Claro Growth Partners The Operators Websites Mentioned theoperators.pe (Kit Lisle's peer community for private equity backed executives) Guest Information Kit Lisle is the founder of A Claro Growth Partners, a growth strategy firm, and the builder of The Operators, the peer community for private equity backed executives. He spent 30 years in the middle market M&A space and began his career as a US Army intelligence officer. After years of watching misalignment crater value creation plans, he developed his own six-lever framework for defining and delivering value inside PE-backed companies. He is also the author of the Strategic Growth Council advisory group and a regular speaker and contributor inside the PE operating partner community. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-lisle/ Website: theoperators.pe

    Why 80% of Founder CEOs Fail After PE Buys Their Company

  8. Jul 15

    The Compliance Reality Nobody Tells You About AI

    Brandon Micci has spent his career inside some of the largest financial institutions in the world, deploying AI and data infrastructure at a scale most companies only talk about. In this episode, we go into what it actually takes to get AI into production inside a regulated organization, where most initiatives stall before they ever reach users, and what the right sequencing looks like when budget and time are limited. We cover the lessons from building a 30,000-user analytics culture at Capital One, the compliance reality of deploying a language model to 27,000 people at JPMorgan, and the practical advice any mid-market company can act on right now to get AI working in the right direction. TIMESTAMPS [0:52] Welcome to The PE Data Guy [1:18] Brandon Micci's Career Background [3:01] Tableau and Capital One Culture [8:25] Safe AI Rollout Best Practices [13:41] Building the CEO Dashboard [17:40] JPMorgan 27,000 User Deployment [22:25] AI Strategy on a Smaller Budget [33:50] Investing with a Long-Term View COMPANIES MENTIONED Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Southwest Airlines, PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton, Alteryx, Tableau, Oracle, Meta, Palantir, SpaceX, Micron, SanDisk, Lovable, Cursor WEBSITES MENTIONED No specific websites were referenced in this episode. GUEST INFORMATION Brandon Micci is a data and AI executive who has led large-scale initiatives at Capital One, Citigroup, Southwest Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase. At JPMorgan, he oversaw the deployment of an LLM assistant to 27,000 users across the payments organization. He focuses on helping organizations build a clear ROI case before committing resources to AI.

    The Compliance Reality Nobody Tells You About AI
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About

Private equity meets data. Conversations with deal teams, operating partners, and portfolio company leaders about the data problems that kill deals, slow exits, and destroy value. Hosted by Graeme Crawford, founder of Crawford McMillan. 20 years leading data programs at Fortune 100 companies. Now helping PE-backed companies fix data before exits so the numbers hold up under scrutiny. New episodes cover diligence red flags, value creation playbooks, and the real stories behind successful (and failed) transactions.

Information

  • Creator
    Graeme Crawford
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    45
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Graeme Crawford
  • Show Website
    Private Equity Data Guy