Ray Thompson

Founders wear "too many hats" to be "effective" CFOs, says Anthony Walker, a Managing Partner at Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition private equity firm Next Coast Legacy. "Oftentimes they are CEO and CFO and CTO and Chief Compliance Officer. . . but certainly not being effective in that management," says Walker, a longtime backer of ETA searchers. Walker notes the opportunity to upgrade a business' finance function - including potentially adding a dedicated, strategically minded CFO - is a major component of value creation in the ETA search strategy and across the lower-middle-market generally. Walker shares his insights, along with Sam Swan and Eric Lougher of TaskRay, and Jake Bitz, CPA, MAcc and Emily Young (Hales) of Boulay, in the Search Party episode, "Upgrading the Finance Function: Critical for Lower-Middle-Market Success." Watch the episode on the Search Party YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/ekvyij_2 Follow the Search Party video-podcast on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gPiiSkDR Search Party Lead Sponsor: Next Coast Legacy https://lnkd.in/eSAuRW5p Search Party Sponsors: Avidbank https://www.avidbank.com/ Boulay – Contact Boulay's Search Fund Team: https://lnkd.in/eFF88SVf Mayer Brown https://lnkd.in/gU7sPPSg Oberle Risk Strategies https://oberle-risk.com/ Plexus Capital, LLC Capital https://plexuscap.com/ #privateequity #searchfund #entrepreneurship #searchparty #eta #dataanalytics

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PE Operating Partner: Neither Executive, Consultant, nor Advisor I often get asked about the PE Operating Partner role (note: a role is different than a title), so I thought I’d share a PE perspective here. The PE Operating Partner (OP) role is unique: it is not about being an executive, and not consulting, nor advising: - OP is not an executive: an in-house OP is not there to make day-to-day decisions for the portfolio leadership - OP is not a consultant: if the PE firm or a portfolio company needs consulting for a project, they could hire Bain or McKinsey - OP is not an advisor: the value of an in-house OP is not in providing high-level advice from a distance --------- A true in-house Operating Partner (OP) role is exactly that - a trusted, collaborative partner to PE and portfolio who rolls up sleeves and works alongside to drive value creation The OP role is a unique PE-specific combination of: A) executive experience = pattern recognition + B) consultative approach = structured process + C) experience in PE = understanding investment process Also, FYI: here is a more detailed summary of the OP role's responsibilities: https://lnkd.in/eWe7KBqE --------- Great Operating Partners are high value and high ROI and their skillset different from their prior job: they straddle helping investing teams and portfolio leadership, and they do it with deep passion for PE as a business. For PE firms, having experienced, in-house, full-time OPs is (believe it or not) 10x+ ROI which is a true force multiplier and the PE firm's "Operating Alpha" that is necessary to generate superior, excess returns. #pe #privateequity

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Just dropped on 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗲𝗿 (𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗸!) — we went deep on what I think is the real moat in advisor growth over the next decade: Compounding institutional knowledge. Not buying leads. 𝗔 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱: Why “referrals + vendors” isn’t a growth strategy (and what breaks when referrals slow) The generational shift: digital-first investors behave nothing like their parents Underutilized channels (yes, TikTok + Reddit) and how advisors should think about reachability + cost-efficiency Why “agentic” can’t mean “hands-off” in a regulated industry — governance + human-in-the-loop isn’t optional 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲: 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 “m𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁” 𝗮𝗻𝗱 “m𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱” If you’re building in WealthTech, running an RIA, or trying to modernize growth inside an enterprise platform, I think you’ll enjoy this one. #WealthManagement #RIA #FinancialAdvisors #AdvisorMarketing #OrganicGrowth #ClientAcquisition #WealthTech #AI #AgenticAI #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing #Fintech https://lnkd.in/eiTFxfuA

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