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In-House Portfolio Operations Group vs External Operating Partner Firm: When to Build and When to Rent (2026)
A private equity firm that wants operating muscle has two ways to get it: build a captive operations team, or rent operators from outside. How the two models actually differ, and which fits the fund in front of you.
The consulting pyramid appears to have discovered gravity.
Real progress in a portfolio company rarely looks impressive at first.
PE returns are compressing. The industry response is more theatre.
Lifestyle (w/e 7/10/26)
News (w/e 7/10/26)
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Why Buy-and-Build Deals Fail: An Operator's Guide to Add-On Integration (2026)
The buy-and-build deck always works. A platform at 6x, three add-ons at 4.5x, blend the multiple down, grow the combined entity, exit the whole thing at 9x or 10x. On paper it is the most reliable value-creation story in the mid-market, which is why
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LPs do not need more transparency theatre. They need one honest conversation.
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Private equity secrecy does not protect excellence. It protects bad behavior.
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PE does not have a talent shortage. It has a thinking shortage.
Most CEOs aren’t lying when they say they’re data-driven.
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You didn’t buy a roofing company.
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If I were building a sourcing engine in 2026, I would start with data.
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The team that sold the dream should not mark the homework.
Toolkit
What Is a Portfolio Operations Group? How PE Firms Build In-House Value Creation Teams
A portfolio operations group (also called a portfolio operations team, value creation team, or portfolio resources group) is the in-house team a private equity firm uses to improve the operating performance of the companies it owns, as opposed to sourcing and structuring the deals. The deal team buys the
Toolkit
Stewardship vs Transformation: The Two Operating Philosophies in Private Equity
Ask two private equity investors what happens after the wire hits and you will get two different answers. One buys a company to keep it: hold it indefinitely, keep the people, take the cash flows, and let compounding do the work. The other buys a company to change it: install
Toolkit
The Operator Supply Gap: Private Equity Bought the Operations Thesis. It Hasn't Hired the Operators to Deliver It.
Every private equity deck in 2026 says the same thing. Returns will come from operations, not leverage. The financial-engineering era is over, the operating era has begun, and the numbers now back the slogan: in S&P Global Market Intelligence's 2026 Private Equity Survey, 71% of
Toolkit
The Continuation Test: Five Operating Questions Before You Roll an Asset Into a Continuation Fund
We treat a continuation fund as what it is: a tool, not a verdict. The same vehicle that lets a genuinely strong company keep compounding under an owner who understands it can also let a tired one dodge the markdown it has already earned. Nothing in the structure tells you
Toolkit
What Is a Private Equity Carve-Out? A 2026 Operator's Guide
A private equity carve-out is when a buyer purchases a division, business unit or product line out of a larger parent company and stands it up as a separate, standalone business. The parent no longer wants the unit, or wants the cash more than the asset; the buyer thinks