Business
Today I am welcoming Sunny Vanderbeck, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Satori Capital, back to the show for a second conversation about his experiences in the world of private equity. Sunny started his career as an Army Ranger before working at Microsoft in the 90’s. He then founded Data Return, a provider of managed services and utility computing, where he helped grow the company 40% every quarter for three years. His decade at Data Return included a $3 billion market capitalization and multiple sales, giving him unique expertise as an entrepreneur. His current company, Satori Capital, is a private equity firm that focuses on long-term growth and investment, that keeps the principles of conscious capitalism at the forefront of their approach. He is also the author of the book Selling Without Selling Out: How to Sell Your Business Without Selling Your Soul, which is about how business owners should navigate a sale or taking on a new partner. In today’s episode, Sunny explains to us how the world of private equity operates, from the structure and lifecycle of the fund to considering a sale’s debt versus equity. Well be delving into how private equity firms raise money, where the money comes from, what types of investors they work with, how the general partners of a private equity firm get paid, how they start the fund and what the fund structure looks like, and what the timeline means for the fund. What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview Sunny’s background in the military and business Satori Capital What is time horizon and how do they have indefinite life capital Conscious Capitalism Sunny’s explanation of PE Firms The “customer” is the fund What is the lifecycle of the fund PE is buying a majority of the company with debt and equity How Sunny started his own PE firm His community of CEOs Are You Growing The Value of Your Business Take The 2-Minute Assessment To Get Your Intentional Growth Score™ And 1-Page Vision Board. Are you company's current initiatives intentionally designed to increase the value of the business? Do you know what you want from your business long term and why? Do you know what your company is worth? Do you know the differences between Management, Family Transitions, PE Firms, ESOPs and Strategic Buyers? Does the business have a written strategic plan on how to achieve the desired normalized EBITDA and valuation? About the Guest: Sunny Vanderbeck is an investor, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and former military leader focused on accelerating the growth of mid-market companies and creating best-in-class, built-to-last businesses. Sunny is co-founder of Satori Capital, a multi-strategy investment firm founded on the principles of conscious capitalism. By providing real-world insights from its experienced team and long-term funding with no fixed time constraints, Satori acts as a true partner for its portfolio companies as it challenges them to pursue extraordinary outcomes for all stakeholder groups. Quotes: 14:31 – “If I can sell a stock tomorrow, it’s theoretically worth a little more than if I can’t sell it for years.” – Sunny Vanderbeck, on liquidity premium 16:28 – “To put some precise language on it, in our case: so we manage a billion dollars, we don’t have a billion dollars. They’re very differen