Gus Haglund

@carlquintanilla @grok how can the US government get to break even without crashing the economy and what’s a realistic timeline

$2 trillion deficits — in visual form. (via B of A)

@PEoperator When I was at a sell side firm the founder expensed a racing horse and the maintenance that went along with it

What is the wildest EBITDA addback you've ever seen? I'll go first... Disney Princess training.

@SMB_HEFF I did risk management for a year. It’s brutal. Everyone creating unnecessary work for themselves because they are non-revenue producing and need to communicate why they still need a job

I got offered a new job in third party risk management for our investment firm. My mentor advised me to NOT take it. “You want to be in institutional M&A, not the Third party risk guy… that role doesn’t get you there, it’s a distraction”

@SMB_Attorney Wild. Name drop? Met Kevin the other day at the SFC event and told him I loved how it wasn’t the standard interview format.

We got a few bad reviews on our podcast, Main Street Deals, from competitors and Apple won’t take them down 😭 If you’ve listened to our podcast and gotten value from it, we’d be grateful if you’d leave us a real review. Link below!

@theiiimpact @TheSalonDon That’s a great point Makoto. Maybe she was a janitor or plumber

@gushaglund @TheSalonDon Janitors and plumbers also worked at Goldman as well. They probably weren’t experts at finance. Many positions like project manager that has no specific need to be a finance expert in the way you think.

Codie Sanchez does not understand the basics of finance 1) You don’t “look at the balance sheet” to see if a company is profitable You look at the income and cash flow statements 2) When you own a business you care about free cash flow. Not taxable income Hotels can use depreciation to lower taxable income and raise free cash flow that is a positive. Not a negative 3) Depreciation is not a fancy tax process. It is a standard part of essentially every business on earth

@TheSalonDon Yea don’t blame you. Seems like she was doing sales in markets division. You gotto be an idiot to say you look at a BS to see if you made money or not

@gushaglund Somebody with front office experience does not speak about finance like this So I don’t believe her background

@Sam_Rosati Seen this firsthand from independent sponsors. The deal doesn’t match the funds criteria but it could still a good deal…

Better route: Find a deal your PE firm isn’t going to pursue, get permission to pursue it personally, buy it (with some equity from colleagues at the same PE firm) and leveraging the non-recourse senior debt relationships from the same shop. Avoids the search phase risk. The operating phase risk…well that’s where the magic happens!!

@trentjhughes We did a AE role for a SaaS company once. Fresh out of college they’re making $150-200k all in. 22 years old. Wild. Was hard to sell them on $100k 🫠

I know way more salespeople making $350k than business owners making $350k

@trentjhughes Shrink the game

A dude told me he buys up all 8 tee times 2 slots ahead of him any time he golfs That's when you know you have fu money

@PEoperator Minds Capital is a good one. Acquiring Minds is tailored to 1 off acquisitions but they have probably 5 episodes in the last few months with guests that have done 10+ acquisitions rollups open.spotify.com/episode/16PGPn… open.spotify.com/episode/207qXm…

What are the best podcasts on companies built through a serial acquisition strategy?

@elialbrecht How does the 16x pest control business even pencil

Lower Middle Market valuations are all over the place. Here are some valuations I have seen over the past month: 1. Residential Plumbing (1.8M EBITDA) - 4.1x 2. Residential/Commercial HVAC (2.1M EBITDA) - 10.5x 3. SAAS Company (1.2M Rev) - 5x Revenue 4. Pest Control ($2M EBITDA) - 16x 5. Home Service ($1.2M) - 7.1x 6. Building services ($900k EBITDA) - 3.7x

@Will_Schryver Someone needs to solve this for SMBs. One of the biggest barrier to starting a business from 0 to 1

Worst part about owning a small business: Health insurance. The entire healthcare industry is broken in this country. It’s nearly impossible for a small business to find a reasonable group plan for your team and their families. Then once you find a plan (usually only 1 option available), the cost is so astronomically high that the employer and employee can’t afford it. I’ve had employees tell me they can’t afford the $1,000+ premiums every month for the family and then have to pay thousands more once they do have a claim. So they waive the health insurance plan, save the money from the premiums and roll the dice hoping no one in the family gets sick or injured. As a business owner, the options are limited because financially we can’t afford to offer any alternatives given our size.

@BarefootStudent “Once I get experience, then I’ll start a company” is the biggest lie we tell ourselves. There is never a good time to start a business. But it’s is definitely not when you’re 30 and beginning to start a family

Jeff Bezos tells Gen Z entrepreneurs to gain work experience before launching new companies: ‘I started Amazon when I was 30,’ per Fortune.

@sourcesandmuses Any sponsor immediately has an advantage if they come to the table with an experienced operator

@Will_Schryver Parties involved might be unhappy but brokers are hired to get the best price for their clients. If the market dictates the price is too high, the price will drop. But still, you don’t want to be the highest bidder at the broker auction

I hate it when brokers do this $1M asking price for an HVAC company doing $250K in earnings $150K in earnings if you back out owners comp and personal expenses That’s not even the worst part $250K was peak earnings in 2025 The company averaged $175K the last 2 years You’re effectively paying 10x for an asset that will initially kick off closer to $100K in earnings after you pay yourself or hire a competent manager to run the business Oh, and the trucks are all over 100k miles and one of the employees is a family member The broker is doing a huge disservice to everyone involved in the process Buyers will realize they’ve wasted a lot of time with diligence after digging in - Annoyed Lenders won’t underwrite - Annoyed Seller doesn’t understand why his/her company continues to sit on the market - Annoyed/mad Brokers, please don’t do this

@PEoperator Exactly. Knowing you have a great operator on deck, the sponsors use it as a competitive advantage over other buyers.

@gushaglund Interesting. Confirms my theory that operators will only become more important in PE

I have worked at five different investor owned portfolio companies (portcos) from entry level to C-level. I am constantly being asked how to find PE operator roles. So, I put together my own guide to help you get started. These are the tactics and strategies I used to find my roles, as you will see below. So, how can you get a job in a PE portfolio company? (Let's assume you aren't at a company that gets acquired by PE - that's the easiest way) In my view, there are two components to this: 1) how you present yourself and 2) how you find opportunities. This post is about how to find opportunities. Finding PE operator roles can be overwhelming. Companies do not always advertise that they are owned by investors. But if I had to summarize the key to success, it would be: relentless persistence. But how to get started? Focus You first need to narrow your view at least slightly - industry, region, role. This may feel limiting but it will actually help you be more successful in your search by churning up higher likelihood leads. People need to be able to help you - saying you need a job isn't enough. Where? What industry? What sized company? Any variables you can remove will help you focus your search and help others help you, which leads me to... Ask Your Network Next, you need to leverage your network. That means you need a network. Networking is code for brazenly asking. Ask everyone you know for help. Lean in. People generally love doing favors and if they don't, they will at least love to get you off their back if you persist long enough. Your network is your net worth, they say. The most obvious networking tool is LinkedIn. You may think LinkedIn is for self promotors, but it can be useful. Here's my story of making it work for me. The first company I sold was to a strategic buyer. That meant I was out of a job. I was on the hunt again. I called the investment firm I worked for and asked if I could come out to meet with everyone at the firm individually. They graciously agreed. So I would heading out to San Francisco to meet with a slew of billionaires and hundred millionaires. But how could I make those meetings productive? I needed a job, not a meeting. I scheduled my meetings and connected with each partner on LinkedIn. Then to prepare, I went through every single one of their contacts (thousands!) and flagged anyone who seemed interesting. I made a list from those and researched the people and companies. I culled the list down to the folks I thought could make sense to discuss. When it was time for my meetings, I had a clear agenda. I told each partner I had scoured their LinkedIn and created a list. Would it be ok if I asked them about each person I was interested in talking to? They loved that I had done the work and taken the onus off of them. I ended up dozens of introductions, some of which led to interviews and even job offers. The takeaway here is: make specific asks of people. Will you introduce me to this person? Do you have a connection at this company? In this industry? Talk to Recruiters Specifically, find PE-focused recruiters. It has become its own practice within recruiting firms. Private equity firms lean heavily on recruiters for top roles. This is less true at more junior roles, but recruiters can be a great entrée into PE-backed businesses. I have gotten multiple PE operational roles through recruiters. That's as simple as conducting a Google search, uploading resumes, and networking (again, LinkedIn). One side note on recruiters - they often have specific criteria they are looking for. For example, I once worked for a CFO who was hired by the PE firm. The criteria for their search was twofold: lives in the same city as the company and went to Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton for an MBA. Whatever you think of that criteria, that's what it was. The recruiters filtered resumes that included one of those school names. When I learned that (a few years into my job), I asked my company to send me to an executive education program at Harvard. No, I didn't learn a thing. But, it did filter me into a search where I landed my next CFO gig. Look for differentiating angles. Anyway, recruiters are usually the way in on C-level roles. How to Find PE-Sponsored Companies I have found three useful ways: 1) Databases 2) Websites 3) News Databases can be expensive to access, but if you do have access, they can be a goldmine. Many allow you to filter on certain criteria, like ownership status. CapitalIQ and PitchBook are two popular examples. Another (free) way is to explore private equity firms' websites. There, they list all of their current and past portfolio companies. Often, past portfolio companies were sold to another PE firm. I have spent weeks of my life clicking through every single portfolio company of hundreds of private equity firms. Yes, it’s tedious, but very few will go to these lengths. That gives you an advantage. News is another way to learn about PE portcos. PE firms will often publish a news release when they buy or sell a company. There is no better time to pitch yourself to a company than when they have recently transacted. The new firm will want to make sure the company is shored up with talent of all kinds. Two strategies for tracking news: 1) use Google Alerts to flag key search terms (for example, “[city]” + “private equity”) and 2) find newsletters that publish recent PE deals. One good example of a newsletter is Axios Pro Rata - they publish a handful of deals ever week. How to Get in Touch When you have identified a company, reach out directly. My strategy has always been to reach out to the private equity firm first. Explain to them who you are and why you want to join their portfolio company. A good cold email will be impressive and they will pass along your resume to the company. The reason I go to the private equity firm is because when they hand a resume to the company, there is an implied pressure to follow up. Managers are not in the habit of ignoring emails from the PE firm. Email Tip: If you don’t have an email for the right person, piece it together. Companies typically reuse formats. For instance, if you find one email address that is first initial + last name @ domain dot com, that might be the same for your target contact. When in doubt, try the common formats. Spray and pray! Follow Up This is what landed my last job. While networking, I was talking with my old CEO who mentioned a company he was advising for a private equity firm. He explained that they were considering a new management team, but just weren't sure yet. I was interested, but worried I would miss this opportunity… I asked the CEO if it would be ok with him if I scheduled a recurring monthly call. Maybe it was 5 minutes, maybe thirty, or maybe we skipped it altogether. But, that call would be a prompt (to both of us) to keep this opportunity in view and stay in touch. Eventually, I got the job. How to find a job in private equity? In a nutshell, be resourceful and be relentlessly persistent. What did I miss? What strategies have you used or seen be successful?

Was talking to a 19 year old college student about jobs in finance First question: “do they let you use ChatGPT at finance firms nowadays?” I asked why “Everyone in my school uses it. Even for simple formulas or excel functions. I use it all the time to look at new companies. I even use it as my study buddy to prep for technical interviews” I think we are underestimating the pace at which our next generation is becoming reliant on AI for everything