In this episode I talk with Amanda Steele, Executive Managing Director at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. I worked with Amanda in a previous company, Stockland, where we worked on getting stakeholder engagement on many initiatives. In this episode, Amanda shares some amazing stories of how she has continued to be a pioneer for sustainability and other worthy initiatives, and breaks down how she has managed to consistently achieve success in bringing a range of stakeholders on the journey.  ..read more

In this episode I interview my business partner and co-founder of Alpin, Iain Morris. We talk through the approach of 'five minutes, five hours and five days' as a step by step framework that is an iterative approach to assess a deal or an opportunity.  ..read more

Steve Ressler is an entrepreneur and an experienced investor and advisor in the Search Fund space. He's originally from Ohio and presently based in Washinton DC.  Steve was attracted to the Search Fund model because it had similarities to private equity, where you buy great businesses or invest in one at a fair price, but also having the responsibility of an entrepreneur, where you reform and manage a business to reach new heights.  Steve is now backing over 30 searchers and has followed on into over 30 individual acquisitions in the small business space in America. In this episode ..read more

Ahron Oddman is the CEO of PSS, a small business he bought in early 2020 that provides software and learning on demand for school students in America. Ahron has a diverse background, including spending 15 years in the military as a Marine and five years working in sales for a startup. He's also done an MBA at Harvard.  Through all of that experience, he concluded that the next step for him was to commence a Search. He did a self-funded Search in late 2019 and acquired his business in early 2020, an interesting and challenging time as the world was dealing with the start of the COVID 19 pa ..read more

Alex Simmons is the founder of Voyager Equity, Australia's first traditional Search Fund launched in early 2019. Before launching that fund, Alex was a manager with Partners in Performance in Sydney and prior to that, an investment manager in the UK. He's had some interesting experience across management, consulting, and also private equity.  In this episode, I get Alex's perspective on the search phase as he prepares to complete an acquisition later this year. We discuss in this conversation how he's used a steady approach to ensuring that he doesn't just buy any business, he wants to bu ..read more

Paul O'Farrell is an experienced banking professional and chartered accountant with over 30 years of international banking and risk management experience with companies such as PwC, National Australia Bank and Bankwest.  He has an in-depth understanding of the issues facing businesses when applying for finance and a strong network of relationships throughout the banking industry. Paul's blend of corporate banking, credit risk, and business assessment across a range of industries provides an interesting perspective for those looking to be proactive with their financial position and also th ..read more

Nima Sedaghat is the co-founder of Wayfinder Capital, the first institutional fund of search funds and searcher-led transactions in Australia and a partner of Australian law firm HWL Ebsworth, a full-service commercial law firm with offices all around Australia.  He's been advising business owners, executives, Australian and foreign investors, as well as sponsors on restructures, mergers, acquisitions, and investment transactions for almost 15 years. Since 2017, he's been active in the Australian search fund ecosystem.  He was introduced to the search fund model by a well-known perso ..read more

Frank Versace is the Chief Risk Officer at Judo bank, one of Australia's newest banks. Judo is taking on the long-established big four banks in the Australian market, with a focus on Small to Medium Businesses... and they're doing a great job at it, too! Through his broad banking experience and first hand involvement building Judo, Frank has a wealth of knowledge and insights in relation to Small Business Lending, including the things that Searchers should consider when preparing for those initial discussions with a bank. I was excited to have Frank on this week's podcast because of the clea ..read more

Rob Gaunt is the Chief Executive Officer of Ace Training who recently took on that role after successfully completing an acquisition of it as a searcher (potentially Australia’s first traditionally funded successful search!). Through his time searching, Rob had the opportunity to look at a whole range of businesses across Australia before pinning one down to acquire, so he has plenty of great insights to share. In this episode of The Next Step Podcast, I speak to Rob about how he came to search in the first place, what his reflections on the search phase were, and what it looked like to actu ..read more

In this episode of the Next Step Podcast, I speak to Jack Lancaster. Jack's currently the director and CEO of Evolution Surgical, a business he acquired as part of a self-funded search. Jack's got a broad and diverse background, including spending time studying in the UK and even attempting to start up his own business from scratch. Jack went into search in early 2020 (an interesting time to start a search with COVID 19 hitting!) and successfully acquired Evolution Surgical in October 2020. I spend some time with Jack talking around the different aspects of search, with most of the discussi ..read more