Buyers and Builders

What does it really take to build a successful private equity firm from scratch, and what can 30 years and more than 150 transactions teach you about investing?

I sit down with James Andersen, co-founder of Clearview Capital, a lower middle market private equity firm managing approximately $2 billion in assets, to unpack the journey of building the firm since 1999. James shares how Clearview navigated difficult early investments, turned one healthcare investment into a 29x return and developed an investment philosophy built around backing exceptional people.

We also explore why the golden era of private equity may be over, the hidden costs of ambition, and James's decision to step back from day-to-day leadership to invest his own capital and pursue a new chapter.

We discuss:
- What it really takes to build a private equity firm from scratch.
- How Clearview survived an early investment that nearly went to zero.
- The story behind a 29x return in healthcare.
- Why great people matter more than great business models.
- The costly lessons of partnering with the wrong founder.
- How Clearview creates value without relying on financial engineering or cost-cutting.
- Why incentives often fail to motivate management teams.
- Why 40 years of falling interest rates created an illusion of private equity outperformance.
- Where James still sees opportunities in the lower middle market.
- Why humility, transparency, and self-awareness matter when evaluating founders.
- How James thinks about deploying his own capital and backing the next generation of entrepreneurs.
- The trade-offs between ambition, family, and building a life well lived.

Guest:
James Andersen is the co-founder of Clearview Capital, a Connecticut-based private equity firm founded in 1999. Over its history, Clearview has completed more than 150 transactions and grown to approximately $2 billion in assets under management. James has recently stepped back from day-to-day leadership to focus on investing his own capital, advising entrepreneurs, and writing about business, investing, and life through his Substack, You Read It Here.

Are you interested in sponsoring the Buyers & Builders Podcast? Please email Mikk Markus at mikk@privatequityguy.com.

Let's Stay Connected (Mikk Markus):
X/Twitter: @PrivatEquityGuy
LinkedIn: Mikk Markus

Stay Connected with James Andersen:
LinkedIn: James Andersen
The Firm: https://www.clearviewcap.com/
SubStack: https://substack.com/@youredithere

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Building Clearview Capital: 27 Years and 150+ Deals
02:04 The Hidden Price of Ambition and Success
07:05 The Experience That Changed James's Approach to Failure
09:38 Why He Walked Away to Start His Own Firm
16:41 The $155M Deal That Proved Clearview Could Succeed
18:37 How Their First Investment Nearly Went to Zero
24:25 The Cost of Partnering With the Wrong Founder
29:25 Inside Clearview's Extraordinary 29x Return
32:49 Why Private Equity Is Ultimately a People Business
35:44 The Difference Between Rewards and Incentives
38:58 Why Great PE Firms Build Businesses Instead of Cutting Costs
42:08 The Great Private Equity Illusion: Why There Will Be Blood
47:29 Why James Stepped Back and How He'll Invest His Own Capital

#privatemarkets #privateequity #fundraising #familyoffice 

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

At 27, he had $0 in assets under management. By 32, he had raised $180 million. Today, Marc Stad's Dragoneer Investment Group manages over $40 billion.

How did he do it?

From getting rejected by TPG to being mentored by its legendary co-founder, David Bonderman, pitching Jeff Bezos in a bathroom, turning a $1 million investment into $4 million, and assembling a multibillion-dollar Uber deal with Warren Buffett, Marc Stad's story is a masterclass in ambition, persistence, relationships, and creative dealmaking.

In this episode of Buyers and Builders, we break down the extraordinary career of Dragoneer's founder, the principles behind his investments in companies like Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, and Meta, and what entrepreneurs, investors, and business buyers can learn from his approach.

The biggest lesson? Your current resources don't define the size of your opportunities.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The $12 Billion Uber Deal: Marc Stad's Extraordinary Story
3:44 From $180 Million to $40+ Billion: Building Dragoneer
7:22 The Inner Flame: From a Difficult Childhood to Harvard
9:23 Breaking the Rules: How Marc Got Into TPG After 25 Rejections
0:59 Creating Your Own Luck: The Jeff Bezos Bathroom Story
12:53 Turning $1 Million Into $4 Million With MercadoLibre
14:34 The Power of Mentorship: David Bonderman and the $5 Million IOU
17:25 Finding Opportunities Others Don't See
19:04 Lessons in Ambition, Leverage, and Building Great Businesses
20:34 Building Relationships Before You Need Them

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

What does it take to acquire companies, build a serial acquisition platform, and never sell?

My guest today is Giuseppe Balzano, founder of Novaterra, an Italian permanent capital holding company acquiring niche industrial businesses with defensible technology and intellectual property.

At just 30, Giuseppe has secured $25 million in equity commitments, pursued two acquisitions, and set out to build an industrial group that could endure for generations.

We discuss why Italy's overlooked industrial champions present an extraordinary opportunity, how to find businesses with near-monopoly positions, the realities of raising permanent capital, and why patience may be the greatest competitive advantage in investing.

We also explore Giuseppe's unconventional journey from venture capital to business ownership, his approach to acquiring and operating companies, and his ambition to build something his children might one day own.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Building a company he never wants to sell
3:56 The mentor who shaped his long-term thinking
7:20 Why he left venture capital to build something permanent
9:42 Why Italy's industrial businesses are overlooked
12:29 Solo founders, co-founders, and playing the long game
15:05 How he learns and makes investment decisions
18:29 Inside his first two industrial acquisitions
23:37 The next acquisition: water management
24:25 Growing businesses without chasing growth
29:44 Finding acquisition targets other buyers miss
34:14 How to win the trust of family business owners
40:07 The brutal reality of raising $25 million
44:22 The numbers behind his fundraising process
48:12 Deal structuring: debt, equity, and ownership
50:09 Managing acquisitions without replacing CEOs
57:22 Founder incentives and building an ownership culture
1:02:49 Why finding great people is harder than finding deals
1:05:11 Building a legacy despite the odds
1:10:49 The road to a self-funding industrial compounder

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

What does it actually take to build a world-class roll-up?

After spending a day at the RollUpEurope Serial Acquirers Summit with some of Europe’s most active serial acquirers, we break down the operating playbooks behind groups that have completed hundreds of acquisitions—and the lessons that matter whether you’re pursuing acquisition #1 or #50.

This episode covers how great acquirers choose markets, build proprietary deal flow, win sellers without simply paying the highest price, keep founders engaged after closing, integrate without destroying what made a business special, and eventually turn a collection of companies into an institutional platform.

The examples are remarkable: one group has acquired roughly 680 pharmacies. Evergreen has completed roughly 160 acquisitions. Another platform deliberately stopped acquiring for nearly a year after its first two deals because the founders wanted to understand the operating model before scaling it. Later, they completed an additional 18 acquisitions.

Roll-ups look like finance from a distance. Up close, they are a combination of sales, psychology, operations, hiring, negotiation, capital allocation, culture, and endurance.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Inside Europe’s most active roll-up builders
2:36 Find the pain you actually enjoy
6:11 Why the best roll-ups start extremely niche
7:22 Your acquisition pipeline is part of the research
9:23 Seller psychology: why the highest price doesn’t always win
11:58 Don’t scale a roll-up you don’t understand
13:09 M&A is not value creation
15:08 Integration, capital partners & building an institutional platform
18:54 Reputation as an economic asset
20:08 The roll-up flywheel

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

My guests today are Deiya and Dean Pernas, founders of Pernas Research, who have compounded capital at roughly 30% annually over the past nine years.

We explore their private equity-like approach to public markets: understanding businesses from the inside out, judging management teams and capital allocation, and finding inflection points before they show up in the financials.

We also discuss their “motor” investing framework, why trajectory matters more than absolute quality, lessons from poker and bankroll management, and how they think about position sizing, averaging down, and knowing when a thesis is broken.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The opportunity in public markets
2:49 From poker and engineering to investing
6:08 Private equity lessons for public investors
11:35 The Motor investing framework
14:40 Finding potential before the numbers
17:02 When to sell
19:20 How to judge great CEOs
23:39 Capital allocation: good and bad
29:59 Trajectory over quality
33:32 Finding inflection points
36:45 Incentives and shareholder alignment
41:48 Poker lessons for portfolio management
45:16 Position sizing, averaging down, and surviving mistakes

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.