Perspectives

Insights on VC & PE Leadership

Practitioner perspectives on product talent, value creation, and leadership in VC- and PE-backed businesses.

Free PDF GuideCareer Guide · September 2026

Why Product Managers Are Getting Rejected Right Now

A practical PDF guide to 10 patterns that cut product candidates from live searches — and how to reframe them on paper and in the interview.

Get the guide →
Free PDF GuideCareer Guide · September 2026

Why Product Manager LinkedIn Profiles Get Passed Over

A practical PDF guide to 13 LinkedIn profile patterns that cause Product Managers to be passed over — with precise fixes for each.

Get the guide →
FeaturedLeadership

The CEO Decision Is the Investment Decision. Full Stop.

I've watched sponsors spend six months modelling a deal down to the decimal point — debt structure, EBITDA bridges, sensitivity analysis — and then spend six days thinking about who's going to run the business. That inversion is expensive.

March 2026Read article →
Value Creation

You're Hiring the Wrong CPO. Here's How I Know.

The most common product leadership mistake I see in VC- and PE-backed businesses is hiring a CPO who was exactly right for the company you bought, but is wrong for the company you need to build. The sponsor did not make a bad decision. They made a good decision for the wrong moment.

February 2026Read →
Talent Strategy

Your Job Brief Is Why You're Getting the Wrong Candidates

I read executive job briefs every week. And most of them are written for the wrong person. Not for the candidate. For the internal stakeholder who needs to sign off.

April 2026Read →
Diligence

You're Assessing the Wrong Thing in Diligence

Most PE firms assess management the same way they always have. A few reference calls. A leadership presentation. A gut feel that's built up over deal meetings. It's familiar. It's fast. And it produces the same blind spot, every single time.

January 2026Read →
Market Trends

The Operating Partner Model Has Changed. Most Executives Haven't Caught Up.

Ten years ago, an operating partner was often a senior advisor who showed up for board meetings and made a few intros. Today, at the more sophisticated end of the market, that model looks nothing like what it used to.

December 2025Read →
Portfolio Operations

Your 100-Day Plan Has a Talent Problem You Haven't Solved Yet

Every PE firm has a 100-day plan. Most of them treat talent as a parallel workstream. That's the mistake.

November 2025Read →
Leadership

The Leadership Risk Nobody Wants to Talk About

Here's a conversation I have more often than I should — six months into a hold period, a key executive has handed in their notice, and the sponsor is scrambling. Not because the departure was unpredictable. Because there was no plan.

October 2025Read →
Value Creation

The Leadership Team That Built the Platform Can't Always Scale It

I've had this conversation with sponsors more times than I can count, usually 12 months into a buy-and-build strategy when things have started to slow down. The platform business was excellent. The leadership team built it from scratch. And now they're starting to struggle.

September 2025Read →
Leadership

The CEO Who Built the Business Might Not Be the CEO Who Should Sell It

This is one of the most important conversations a sponsor needs to have with their portfolio CEO — and one of the most frequently avoided.

August 2025Read →
Due Diligence

The PE Talent Diligence Checklist: Your Guide to Evaluating Leadership Risk

More than 60% of private equity value creation plans depend on changing or upgrading the management team. Your investment diligence cannot stop at the financials. A systematic PE talent diligence checklist is the only way to uncover the human capital risks that erode equity value.

April 2026Read →