In this episode of Ventures, my guests Bill Murphy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamwmurphy/), Sol Cates (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sol-cates-649736/), and I discuss the worlds of private equity and investment banking, how founders should think about engaging strategic investors, the different stages of technology leadership as a company grows, and the services that Cresting Wave (https://www.crestingwave.com/) offers to help tech companies mature operations and execute go-to-market strategies.

You can watch this episode below or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts (search for “Ventures”).

In this episode we cover the following:  

1:35 - Sol tee up and intro of Bill

3:03 - Bill introduction, initial stories from being part of the founding teaming of CapitalIQ, CTO of Blackstone, and Managing Partner at Cresting Wave.

10:15 - From an education standpoint, what is investment banking? Why should people care about it?

12:04 - What is private equity (PE)? At what point should founders think about having meetings with PE folks?

16:11 - Interacting with PEs/VCs that can bring real value-add, i.e. those that want to go on that journey with you.

19:14 - Getting the early company engine started - first customer and first loss.

20:30 - The balance of having a “north star” versus pivoting.

21:22 - Brief background of Sol and how his journey interacts with these topics.

25:30 - Customer segments/targets: broad vs. specialized.

30:12 - Stages of technology leadership: beginning phase to that first transition into management/delegation?

33:51 - Where can Cresting Wave help as technology founders grow their companies? (the go-to-market side).

36:47 - Creating a good culture when company building

37:35 - Personality diversity / personality tests

40:15 - The next horizon in the growth of a technology leader, after the delegation mode has been in place for a while.  

42:18 - Communication and processes, openness and transparency.

44:00 - Commentary on waterfall design vs. agile.

45:13 - More about Cresting Wave. Who is the ideal customer? (Free services and ideas to tech leaders curious about optimizing their game, and go-to-market services for technology companies...helping the first handful of conversations with potential clients)

48:48 - Where can people follow up and learn more? https://www.crestingwave.com/ // https://www.linkedin.com/in/sol-cates-649736/