If you're a PE investor or executive, you know the job: to make the investment thesis happen. Sounds straightforward. But it’s hard (especially nowadays). 

And usually, it's not the deal structure or market forces that get you. It's the people stuff:

• Leaders who aren’t moving at the pace of PE
• Talent gaps you acted on 18 months too late
• Strategy decks that never translate to execution
• Boards and management firing past each other

If you know, you know. 

I'm Dan. I've spent nearly two decades in PE—as an investor at a top-decile firm, as a portfolio company CEO/operator, and as an advisor to dozens of PE-backed companies. I’ve played across the positions. 

These days, I help PE-backed companies get 3 things right: 

→ Value Creation READINESS – Pre-close org and leadership diligence. Does a target actually have the leadership, talent, and culture to deliver your thesis?

→ Value Creation PLANNING – Getting the board and ELT aligned on the value creation plan, usually within the first 100 days post-acquisition.

→ Value Creation LEADERSHIP – Executive assessment and leadership development to ensure you have leaders who can deliver. 

Beyond advisory work: 

→  Wrote Winning Moves, the bestselling playbook on PE value creation
→  Co-founded Ascend, a leadership accelerator for execs in PE-backed companies
→  Teach a first-of-its-kind course on value creation at Chicago Booth
→  Guest lectured at Kellogg, Haas, MIT, HBS, and GSB
→  Now living that sweet suburban dad life in Cincy after years in SF and Chicago

Want to see how I think about this stuff?

•  Grab a copy of Winning Moves @ Amazon
•  Learn about our PE executive accelerator @ ascendforleaders.com 
•  Follow me for perspectives on value creation, leadership, and pizza

Dan Cremons

Lots of early/mid-career PE investors think they understand how these MM businesses work. I did too. Until I became an operator. 

And my, it was humbling.

Turns out there's a term for this gap between what we THINK we know and what we ACTUALLY know: "the illusion of explanatory depth."

It's all over PE. We've all done this.

→ We talk about "improving GTM." But do we understand how to rebuild a sales process? Redesign territories? Structure comp that actually motivates?

→ We talk about "upleveling talent." But do we understand how to attract great talent? Assess and hire talent? Develop talent? Performance management?

→ We talk about "fixing culture." But could we diagnose the root issues? Understand human and org complexities? Change peoples' hearts/minds?

→ We push for "pricing optimization." But could we build the analysis, test elasticity, roll out changes without torching customer relationships?

→ We advocate for "operational improvements." But could we map workflows, spot bottlenecks, redesign processes ourselves?

To be clear, not saying PE professionals need to have this expertise, nor should they be the ones pushing every button. That's why you hire competent leaders. 

But my operating experience gave me a double dose of humility--and probably would have changed how I engaged when I was on the deal side.

Worth remembering next time we're advising from 30,000 feet:
Knowing something conceptually isn't the same as knowing how to make it happen.

Former PE Investor & CEO // Current PE Advisor // Author // 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘗𝘌-𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

If you've only ever sat on one side of the private equity table, you're missing half the story.

Investors can see the big picture in a way operators can't. 

But until you've walked in their shoes, you can't truly understand the realities of operating a business. 

Operators can make execution happen in a way investors can't. 

But until you've walked in their shoes, you may not fully understand capital allocation and value creation. 

Two-cents for early-career PE folks: spend a tour of duty on both sides of the table.

You will: 

→ Become bilingual
→ Develop "double vision"
→ Build an invaluable 360-degree view

Each will make you way better at the other.

Interviewing hundreds of PE CEOs/execs over the last 15 yrs has taught me a lot about effective executive communication. 

The ones who rise to the top speak differently. The most effective communicators I've seen: 
 
→ Use short sentences and small words 
 
→ Adapt the message to fit the audience 
 
→ Lead w/ headline & support w/ details 
 
→ Answer closed-ended Q'swith a Y / N / # 
 
→ Use story strategically but don't overuse 
 
→ Recognize the power of metaphor (but don't overuse) 
 
→ Are comfortable being repetitive to drive home key ideas 
 
→ Check in with the receiver to see if the message is landing 
 
→ Read the room, and know when they're selling past the close 

→ Understand how you say something is as important as what you say. 
 
I'm working on making better use of a few of these learnings right now.

I wince a bit when I hear a PE port-co describe its culture as "a family."

Sure, it sounds nice and feels good.
→ Warmth. 
→ Belonging. 
→ Unconditional support.

But language matters.

Here's what I've noticed across dozens of organizational DD engagements:

Companies with "familial" cultures are more inclined to struggle with three things that matter enormously to investment returns:

🔴 Looking past performance issues
🔴 Keeping underperformers around
🔴 Failing to hold people accountable

The case for outsourcing human capital due diligence in PE deals in 17 words:

Management is more likely to be open and honest with someone who won't be their new boss.

<<End thinly-veiled plug>>

Advice for PEG's going about value creation planning: have a framework.

Use mine. 
Use someone else's. 
Or develop your own.

Whatever. Point is: have one. 

I know, I know. Frameworks can get a bad rap. 
"They're too MBAish." 
(insert joke about 2x2s)

But a clear framework to guide value creation planning:

→ Clarifies thinking
→ Creates shared language
→ Gets you to answers faster

undefined undefined

Ascend

Winning Moves

Ascend - New

Operator's Edge

Grab a copy here → https://www.ascendforleaders.com/the-operators-edge-sign-up

Former PE Investor & CEO  //  Current PE Advisor  //  Author  //  𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘗𝘌-𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯

Fellow PE professionals and execs: 

Wondering whether a target acquisition has the leadership and talent to make your investment thesis a reality? 

Not sure whether you have the right leaders in critical portfolio company roles?

Tired of losing time and momentum when a recently acquired company gets off to a slow start post-acquisition?

I get it. I’ve been in your shoes as a PE investor and CEO/CXO myself. 13+ amazing years with an innovative & top-performing MM PE firm.

Early on in my PE career, I learned the hard way that neglecting to (1) perform org due diligence, (2) get the right team onto the field quickly post-closing, (3) align on a clear value creation plan had costly consequences.  

🚫 Losing precious time
🚫 Putting growth & value creation at risk
🚫 Leaving returns on the table

But over years of learning from the best and lots of trial-and-error as a PE ops professional & executive, I figured out a thing or two about: 

→ How to size up a target’s leadership & value creation readiness BEFORE investing.
→ How to ensure you have the right leaders in the most critical port-co roles
→ How to get newly-acquired companies off to a strong start in the First 100. 

In 2021, I spun out of an in-house PE role so I could help more PE firms and their portfolio companies 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 in 3 specific ways:

• Assessing value creation readiness pre-acquisition → 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙪𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 - https://bit.ly/47HzPol

• Getting the right team onto the field post-acquisition → 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨: 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 // 𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 - https://bit.ly/3T9yO3Z

• Getting off to a fast and focused start in the critical First 100 days → 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙁𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 - https://bit.ly/3GtWj02

* * * * * 

Want to learn more about how to do these things, but don’t want to work with me yet? No prob. You can check out: 

→ My bestselling book on PE value creation >>  www.winningmoves.co

→ This free workshop on how to approach organizational due diligence >> https://bit.ly/3rCfWiL

→ This free workshop on leadership assessment >> https://bit.ly/3RJOIRU 

→ This free workshop on how to win the First 100 >> http://bit.ly/3rCjPEy 

→ Learnings, practical advice, and the occasional dog photo I post daily  >>  [hit “Follow”]

The sweetest 2-worders in the private equity language:

• “Add-back”
• “Off-market”
• "Ten bagger" 
• "Success fee"
• “Covenant lite”
• "Wire received"
• "Dividend recap"
• "Strategic buyer"
• "Proprietary deal"
• "Carry distribution"
• "Multiple arbitrage"
• “Proforma EBITDA"
• “Exclusivity granted”

What else?

Good PE leaders make clear tradeoffs between 2 choices.
Great PE leaders know that sometimes, you have to do both.

Reality of being a PE exec is: you have to get good at managing the tension between 2+ seemingly opposing/conflicting ideas: 

→ Strategic AND tactical
→ Focused AND flexible
→ Confident AND humble
→ Growth AND profitability
→ Short term AND long-term
→ Hard-edged AND compassionate

I've admired Marianne Lewis' book on this topic (Go Bearcats!). A recent client situation got me thinking about this topic of both/and thinking from a new vantage point. Wrote a piece on this little-talked-about, but highly important executive skill. 

Check it out. ↓

TL;DR Getting trapped in either/or thinking is a surefire way to limit your team and your results. But when you lead with a both/and mindset, you make

Open article: How Great PE Execs Lead Better By Outsmarting False Choices by Dan Cremons • 6 min read

How Great PE Execs Lead Better By Outsmarting False Choices

The impact port-co culture has on performance can feel too squishy for us left-brain PE folks to wrap our minds around. But here's a common-sensical stab at it:

→ Retaining great employees impacts performance. (nodding)
→ Culture impacts retaining great employees. (still nodding)
→ Ergo, culture impacts performance.

The transitive property.

Free thought: reflections on how to develop a deal sourcing advantage in PE ↓

PAST: Dial more often than others
PRESENT: Get to know business owners far ahead of sale
FUTURE: Add REAL VALUE to those same business owners far ahead of sale.

"Value" could be:

→ Provide advice (and actually listen)
→ Share proprietary content and insights
→ Give them battle tested ideas for growing 
→ Make introductions to customers or partners
→ Offer market perspective they can't get elsewhere
→ Anything that will help them build faster and exit better

The usual question: "How do we win the deal?"
The better question: "How do we help owners win (long before the deal)?"

QQ: Who out there is doing this really well?

Your board member just questioned your judgment in front of everyone. You can feel it:

Temperature rising.
Heart pounding.
Jaw clenched.

One wrong move in the next 30 seconds could cost you months of careful relationship-building.

In the pressure-packed world of PE, you're going to get triggered. A lot. It's part of being human.

But there's a lot at stake. One triggered reaction can undo months of solid leadership.

So how do you go from "Oh S***" to "OK" before you torch everything you've built?

Swipe through for the 5-step process we teach PE execs in Ascend. We help execs drill this process in the program so they can use it when they really need it.

(More on Ascend in the comments below)

"Oh S***" to "OK"

Think investing in leadership development is expensive?
Wait until you see what underdeveloped or ineffective leaders cost.

As a PE exec, your investors didn't hire you to maintain the status quo. They backed you to transform the business... and take it to exciting, bold new places.

In our Ascend program, we refer to this as "wearing the Captain hat." 

When you're wearing it, you're the compass-setter. 
You zoom-out from the daily scramble 
You paint a clear and bold picture of where you're headed.

In PE-backed companies, this isn't optional. 
It's the foundation of everything else a leader does.

Here are the 4 muscles that visionary PE leaders must build ↓↓

How to be a more visionary PE leader

Got a pedicure recently (long story), and the lady introduced me to something fascinating called "cognitive distortions." It's psychology-speak for mental glitches that mess with our heads. 

Essentially, ways your own brain works against you.

So I went down the rabbit hole. Wow - fascinating. 

Turns out psychologists have identified around 15 of these mental glitches that quietly sabotage how we think, decide, and act. As I read through them, two things hit me:

1. These explain so many times I've gotten sideways in my own life and leadership.

2. These explain so much of what I see tripping up PE leaders. Things like: 

→ Blaming
→ Labeling
→ Minimization
→ Mind reading
→ Magnification
→ Fortune telling
→ Personalization
→ Catastrophizing
→ Overgeneralizing
→ Emotional reasoning
→ "Should" statements
→ All-or-nothing thinking
→ Jumping to conclusions
→ Discounting the positive
→ Negative mental filtering

Google them. It's illuminating. And humbling.

There's a powerful thought exercise we've been doing with the execs in our Ascend program. It goes like this:

Close your eyes. 
Imagine your retirement party. 
However near or far it might be.

The room is full. People who worked for you. People who worked alongside you. People whose careers intersected with yours.

One by one, they stand to speak.

→ What do they say about your leadership?
→ What impact did you have on their lives?
→ What will they remember most?

Here's the thing about this exercise:

It's not really about retirement at all.
It's about today.

Psychologists call this "there-backward thinking."
Stephen Covey called it "begin with the end in mind."

Whatever you call it, the principle is the same:

When you get crystal clear on where you want to end up, the path forward as a leader becomes much clearer.

A simple, totally free way to unlock higher performance in a PE port-co: 

Set more challenging goals.

A meta-analysis on goal-setting research published in the Psychological Bulletin explained:

"In 90 percent of the studies, challenging goals led to higher performance than easy goals, "do your best" goals, or no goals."

The takeaway: challenging goals bring out the best in a team. 

The best teams don't need easy wins.
They need a challenge worthy of their ambition.

There's a hidden force limiting your port-co's results that most PE execs never realize...

Your own beliefs.

"I'm too inexperienced to be leading this." 
"Our margins can't improve further." 
"The board will never go for it." 
"The timing isn't right." 
"What if we fail?" 

These narratives run in the background, shaping every decision you make and every risk you don't take.

In our Ascend program, we help leaders understand and overcome these so they don't tank their leadership... and their company's potential. 

Here's a simple process for neutralizing these self-sabotaging limiting beliefs in the moment ↓

(Details on the Ascend PE executive accelerator in the comments below)

Limiting Belief Busting

In physics, there are universal laws that apply everywhere. Gravity works the same in Tokyo and Toronto.

Executive leadership has them too: fundamental truths that hold true no matter your industry, team size, or situation. 

I think of these as the Universal Laws of Leadership. And I came up with 5. 

They aren't sexy. But they're universally applicable... and non-negotiable.

What would you add to the list?

5 Universal Laws of Leadership

If you're a leader who has ever caught yourself saying, “It’s just faster if I do it myself,” this one’s for you.

In the fast-paced world of PE-backed companies, too many leaders default to telling instead of coaching. "It's faster that way." 

Or think they’re "coaching"... when they’re really just directing using nicer words.

Here’s how wearing the Coach Hat will help you unlock the untapped potential of your team ↓

Wearing the Coach Hat

Got a pedicure a few weeks back before a family beach trip. Didn’t expect to walk out with a sharper take on the inner game of leadership… but here we are. (Shoutout Anya!)

This week’s $0.02 is on cognitive distortions — the mental glitches that quietly trip up PE-backed execs every day. They muck up our leadership, and most of us don’t even realize they’re happening.

This one is relevant to 100% of PE execs out there. Check it. ↓

A few weeks ago, as we geared up for a family beach vacation, I found myself in a pedicure chair. My wife finally staged an intervention on my gangly 

How Your Brain is Quietly Sabotaging Your Leadership

I️ help Top 1% C-Suite operators turn reputation into momentum inside an exclusive, high-trust executive community.

If momentum has stalled, it is not a motivation problem.  It is a signal problem.

By the time your name reaches the CEO of a $10M-$2B company, skill is assumed. Value is comparable. Everyone in your space sounds competent.

What remains is reputation risk.  

At the moment of selection, the question in every ultimate decision maker's head sounds like:

“Is this the safest bet for me to choose?”
"Have they done this before, at my scale, in my context?"
"Has someone I trust seen them do it first hand?"

They will Google you. 
They will do a quiet back-channel reference to someone you both know.
(Even though HR and Legal told them not to)

I know this because I have spent 15 years inside thousands of executive conversations as a recruiter, advisor, and trusted peer, watching how middle market CEOs decide who to trust when growth, reputation, and income are on the line. 

Here is the pattern:

The ones who get chosen are not the leaders doing more networking.
They are the ones who reduce hesitation.

They give the right people clear language to advocate for them when it matters.

Signals that make them safer to choose.

Everyone else burns energy fixing the wrong problem. Polishing slide decks. Staying busy. Confused about why momentum stalls.

Most coaching, fractional, advisory, or full time executive opportunities are never posted. 
They live inside a small, identifiable part of your existing network, often second and third degree trust circles.

This is how influence actually moves inside markets.

This work applies to CEO-led growth and reputation decisions in established middle market companies.
It is not designed for early-stage businesses under $5M, bankruptcy or distress scenarios, or operational cash-crisis decisions.

That is my work.

Inside SuiteC, I built a system that shows B2B founders, senior executives, and fractional advisors how they are being read by Boards, CEOs, and ultimate decision makers-  and which signals they are sending that are accidentally increase risk instead of reducing it.

I write the words CEOs perk up to so you stop fixing the wrong problem.

So you become easier to name, easier to recommend, and easier to trust.

This work is for people whose outcomes are decided in CEO-led middle market rooms ($10M–$2B) and who want more wealth, more freedom, or more influence without more networking.

Bea Sonnendecker

It’s easy to notice who’s talking. 
But have you noticed who’s gone quiet?

Let’s talk about it…

Silence at work isn’t always a sign of peace.
Sometimes it’s a warning.

It means…

⇾ People agree just to move on
⇾ Hard work goes unnoticed
⇾ Everyone’s playing it safe
⇾ Feedback goes nowhere
⇾ Meetings feel unsafe
⇾ “Credit” is taken
⇾ Blame is passed
⇾ Ideas die in silence
⇾ Speaking up has a cost
⇾ Praise feels performative
⇾ Only “loud” voices are heard
⇾ Trust gets replaced with caution

So what happens?
Good people check out.

Not because they’re lazy.
But because the culture tells them they don’t matter.

If you’re worried about team silence…

Don’t look at the people.
Look at the system around them.

➤ Culture either invites voices in…
➤ Or slowly pushes them out.

P.S.  What’s one small thing you’ve done to make people feel heard at work?

👑 Follow for more honest takes on leadership and team culture.

♻️ Share this if you’ve seen voices disappear.

I fix the hesitation between “not yet” and “you’re hired.” | CEO, SuiteC | Featured in Forbes

No alternative text description for this image

Great leaders don’t use just one style.
Why does this matter so much?

Because teams change every day.
Different problems need different leadership.

But first, let’s clear up what leadership is not:

⇾ It’s not giving orders all day
⇾ It’s not avoiding hard decisions
⇾ It’s not chasing titles and status
⇾ It’s not ignoring your team’s ideas
⇾ It’s not talking more than listening
⇾ It’s not taking credit for team work
⇾ It’s not controlling every small task
⇾ It’s not blaming others when things fail

Here’s what strong leadership actually looks like:

⇾ Driving change when the old way stops working
⇾ Adapting your style when the moment changes
⇾ Listening so people feel safe to share ideas
⇾ Guiding people so they grow their skills
⇾ Protecting the team from noise and politics
⇾ Recognising good work so “effort” feels seen
⇾ Setting clear goals so people know the direction

Weak leaders repeat the same approach.
Strong leaders read the room.

They change how they lead based on the moment.

Because teams are different.
Situations are different.
People are different.

And leadership must adjust.

P.S. Which leadership style do you naturally use the most?

♻️ Share this with someone building a strong team.
👑 Follow for more leadership and networking insights.

I fix the hesitation between “not yet” and “you’re hired” | CEO, SuiteC | Featured in Forbes

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