Caprae Capital Partners

Finance is at a bifurcation. On the one hand, traditional private equity is still daydreaming of financial engineering. On the other, operators-led businesses are set to take off 🚀 Blue-pill: outdated IRR Math. Red-pill: value creation through entrepreneurship and the capacity to leverage the founder’s legacy to foster mission-alignment and growth. Plus, Kevin Hong’s matrix avatar looks so sharp! #PrivateEquity #ETA #Matrix #CapraeCapital #BleedAndBuild

Everyone in PE talks about “proprietary deal flow”. Few admit it’s a mirage. Bain’s data shows that even so-called “proprietary” carve-outs are earning only ~1.5x MOIC, barely in line with average buyouts. And when surveyed, firms confessed that nearly half their “proprietary” deals still came through bankers. The real edge isn’t in chasing exclusivity. It’s in building a sourcing machine that survives personalities, cycles, and luck. Read the full piece on why the myth of proprietary deals has buried more funds than it has saved, and why systems are the only survivors. #PrivateEquity #DealSourcing #InvestmentStrategy #SystemsThinking #ContrarianThinking #OperationalDNA #Leadership 

Are rising board demands pushing more CEOs to resign from PE-backed companies? Research from AlixPartners shows that 58% of portfolio CEOs are replaced within two years. The reason? 61% of the leaders of Portfolio Companies find meeting their boards’ expectations increasingly difficult, and many feel a lack of support. On the other end, 41% of PE executives say the quality of senior operational leadership is a significant challenge. This points to a structural tension: 🔹Boards expect transformation on compressed timelines. 🔹CEOs struggle to balance those demands with execution realities. 🔹Replacement often introduces more disruption than continuity. For investors, that raises the question: Is rapid CEO turnover becoming a hidden cost of the model? While operators might start asking themselves: How sustainable is leadership under PE ownership without stronger alignment and support? Either way, the churn rate is no longer just noise. It’s a signal shaping how deals, governance, and value creation will be judged in the years ahead. #PrivateEquity #SearchFunds #ETA #CapraeCapital #BleedAndBuild

Not every niche shines in daylight. Some live in the shadows. Compliance gray zones where margins are fat, but risks run deeper. SaaSquatch went hunting, and here’s what he found in the firearms industry: 🔇 Suppressor Compliance & Trust Services Explosive growth: 2.2M silencers registered in just 3 years, TAM ~$34M with 20% CAGR. But it’s fragile: one change to NFA rules and the entire business model vanishes 🏹 Range Safety & Air Filtration Systems A $3–5B compliance-driven market across ~6,000 indoor ranges. Recurring contracts for filters, audits, and OSHA/EPA testing growing at 8–10% CAGR, with no scaled national operator. One niche burns bright but could collapse overnight. The other is a slow, relentless cash machine waiting for a consolidator. Links to the full research papers are in the comments. #bleedandbuild #industryresearch #richesinniches #eta #searchfunds #lowermiddlemarket #pe

Leadership isn't posting the 100th case study on earnouts or seller notes, nor is it recycling the same case study results for the 20th year. Leadership is speaking the unspoken. Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. Stepping up and being a voice when times are uncertain. That's what true leadership looks like Thank you, Sandro Mina for joining me in this conversation on some of the toughest topics in search: CEO terminations and the evolving landscape. Over the past year, I’ve spoken with 30+ terminated searchers — many fighting legal battles with their investors. Their stories rarely match the polished narratives promoted at conferences, in case studies, or on social media I reached out to several legends “legends” and industry experts. Only one stepped up so far For search to evolve, we need more leaders willing to share both sides of the story - not just the version that protects professional interests or romanticizes the past. Thank you, Sandro, for stepping up and lending your voice. This conversation is just the beginning. Stay tuned #Leadership #Authenticity #SearchFunds #PrivateEquity #EntrepreneurshipThroughAcquisition #SpeakingTheUnspoken

The average conversion rate for B2B cold calling is about 1-3%, with over 80% going straight to voicemail. You’re basically dialing into silence. That’s when Clutch, our coldest cold caller, shows up! Who else needs a cold calling master like Clutch on their team? #ColdCalls #SearchFunds #ETA #CapraeCapital #BleedAndBuild

Private equity has a massive speed problem. Funds are sitting on record dry powder but can't deploy fast enough. Competition for good assets has intensified, and multiple term sheets hit the same company at once. Meanwhile, megafunds that used to ignore smaller deals are now moving downstream because they need to put money to work somewhere. The constraint is beyond capital now; it's about how fast you can get from first meeting to offer. Speed literally wins deals now, sometimes more than paying a premium. Most firms can only properly diligence a fraction of what they see. That's not a people problem, it's a tooling problem. From my stint in the Global Markets space, where I have seen the rise of Algo trading/HFT shops, I think its the same time for PE. They are about to have their "algorithmic trading" moment with AI. Read more of my thoughts here: https://lnkd.in/eVzWvhWD

The search fund "gold rush" could be creating a bubble. Is this sustainable? The flood of capital into the search fund space could be inflating valuations and rewarding financial engineering over operational grit.  Our new article breaks down why this "deal fever" could be dangerous and argues that the real test isn't winning the auction, but having the discipline to walk away. Read our analysis on why the market is rewarding the wrong skills. #SearchFunds #PrivateEquity #ETA #BusinessAcquisition #MandA

Ever heard someone say: “Back in my day, we juiced IRR with cheap debt and a Blackberry”? Cool story. But today’s operators face different bills: Search now costs more just to exist: the median capital raised per searcher rose to ~$500k in the latest Stanford GSB study. And that’s even before you buy anything. The tech stack tax is real: SaaS now runs at $9,100 per employee (up from $7,900 in 2023), a 15% jump in two years as vendors push AI add-ons and usage-based pricing. Cost of capital: Even after the Fed’s cut, the funds rate sits at 4.00-4.25%, a long way from ZIRP fairyland. The new game is about demand generation, product velocity, and contract literacy, not spreadsheet cosplay. Grandpa had leverage. Today’s game requires talent #SearchFunds #ETA #PrivateEquity #CapraeCapital #BleedAndBuild

Did you know that a year after selling their business, 75% of founders profoundly regret the decision? Our latest article explores this "Founder's Void" and makes the case that a seller's psychological readiness is the most critical and most overlooked risk in any deal. What do you think is the biggest blind spot in M&A? Read our unfiltered take on the human cost of an exit here. #CapraeCapital #SearchFund #PrivateEquity #Founder #Legacy #MergersAndAcquisitions #ExitPlanning #Entrepreneurship