Tom Barber on the Design of Winning Private Equity Firms
Episode description
Today’s conversation is with Tom Barber, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at SBJ Capital (https://www.sbjcap.com), a California-based private equity firm investing into the consumer and business services verticals.
In this episode, Tom dives into how he and his team continue to build SBJ Capital, paying special attention to some of the firm’s most unconventional beliefs and organizational design decisions. Tom is remarkably and refreshingly an “open book” about how he and SBJ have gone about building and differentiating their firm.
In this 50-minute conversation, we cover the following topics:
- What it Took to “Win” in the 2000s vs. What it Takes Today
- The Evolution of Teams & Talent in Private Equity
- How to Avoid Unintended Consequences with the Operating Partner Model
- SBJ Capital’s “Sourcing Partner” Program
- Investing in the “Boring” Supply Chain That Power Consumer Brands
And then we go into two case studies and some advice for young professionals
- The Perfect Purée: A Case Study in Substantial Growth via GTM and Sales Channels
- Troy Lee Designs: Tripling EBITDA in a Hyper-Niche Consumer Market
- How the Perfect Private Equity Resume is Changing for Young Professionals
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