Tom Barber on the Design of Winning Private Equity Firms

Today’s conversation is with Tom Barber, Co-Founder and Managing Director 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

Masters in Small Business M&A (sign up for podcast drops here) is produced by its host Peter Lehrman and the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially explore growth capital and exit transactions with top-ranked lower middle market M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

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Resources:

Peter Lehrman on LinkedIn

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Tom Barber LinkedIn

SBJ Capital

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