Accelera Partners

Helping PE investors unlock people-powered value creation in their portfolio companies. We do this through leadership due diligence, assessment, alignment, and development.

Founder

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship

Winning Moves  |  Accelerate Value Creation

Book + online platform + advisory. Helping PE-backed companies to make value creation happen more consistently, predictably, and reliably.

Author & Creator

Various Growth-Stage Companies

Board of Directors

Alpine Investors

Principal & Operating Exec within top-decile mid-market PE firm. Within the firm, focused on portfolio management: eg. board leadership; growth & acquisition strategy; portfolio leadership & talent. Within the portfolio, took on several leadership assignments within portfolio companies in "moments of transition" — turnaround, carve-out, management rebuild.

Principal

Riverside Insights

Partnered with an amazing, purposeful team to lead the PE-backed carve-out of educational & clinical assessment business from a publically-traded publishing company. Achieved carve-out under-budget and ahead-of-schedule.

COO / GM

Beneco

CEO / Board of Directors

Citi

Consultant (Private Wealth Management Group)

Retirement Capital Advisors

Investment Research and Portfolio Management

Privately Held Business

Operations Management

Nearly two decades in private equity have taught me one thing: the game is changing. Fast. 

Gone are the days when investors could bank on financial engineering and multiple arbitrage to generate outsized returns. 

Welcome to the Value Creation Era of PE. The winners in this era? They'll be the firms that are surgical and systematic about driving value creation—and the ones that recognize you need the right leadership and talent in place to make it happen.

But here's the uncomfortable truth: many PE firms and portfolio companies aren't built to win in this new era.

→ Shoddy hiring and talent practices
→ Skipping org due diligence pre-deal 
→ No systematic approach to value creation planning
→ Failing to get the right team in place to drive that plan 

We see these same mistakes over and over. And early on in my own PE career, I learned the hard way that these things can be supremely costly. 

🚫 Lose precious time
🚫 Put value creation at risk
🚫 Leave returns on the table

Luckily, over years in the trenches at a top-decile PE firm—as an investor, operator, and board member—I figured out a thing or two about:

→ How to size up a target’s value creation readiness before investing.
→ How to get newly-acquired companies off to a strong start in the First 100.
→ How to ensure you have the right leaders in the most critical port-co roles.
→ How to develop leaders capable of meeting PE’s sky-high demands. 

In 2021, I made the leap: left a cushy role in PE to help more firms win in this new era. Through Accelera Partners, I help PE firms accelerate what I call "people-powered value creation" in four ways:

• Org due diligence - https://bit.ly/orgduedili
• Executive assessment - https://bit.ly/execassmnt
• Executive development - https://bit.ly/leadershipalpha
• Value creation planning - https://bit.ly/fst100

The bigger vision beyond advisory work? I’m building a constellation of businesses, projects and partnerships to help PE leaders accelerate people-powered value creation in their companies. Recent projects: 

→ Wrote the bestseller Winning Moves (the “defacto playbook” for PE value creation)
→ Created Ascend, a group-based leadership accelerator for PE-backed executives
→ Dropping a new book/product in 2025 on turbo-boosting value creation with AI
→ Teaching the next gen of value creators at Chicago Booth

Want to learn more?
→ My bestselling book on PE value creation >> https://amzn.to/3WsV0XP
→ Leadership accelerator for PE-backed execs >> https://bit.ly/ascendla
→ Loads of resources for PE professionals and execs >> https://bit.ly/dcremons

Dan Cremons

"Value creation" has lost its punch. 

Not because it's unimportant, but because it's overused to the point of exhaustion. 

Every IC deck mentions it. 
Every consultant sells it. 
Every board preaches it. 

This has diluted & confused the meaning. So let's simplify: 

Value creation = anything that creates equity value. 

And in a PE-backed company, there are only 5 ways to do that:

① Grow your revenue
② Expand your margins
③ Complete strategic acquisitions
④ Pay down debt
⑤ Expand your exit multiple

The rest is just details.

Driving equity value isn’t easy, but got to start with stripping away the fluff and focusing on the fundamentals. 

* * * * * 

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

I’ve done the 8am CVG → LGA flight probably a half dozen times for work this year. But flying with a little travel buddy hit differently.

Been thinking a lot about work/life integration. And I'm considering making this a more regular thing next year.

Anyone cracked the code on how to do business travel with a kid in tow?

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #talent, #leadership, #humancapital, #privateequity, and #valuecreation

I relearned an important lesson this year: 

I was talking to a PE-backed CEO in Q1, and came across my notes today. 

As a first-time CEO, he's grown his company from $3m ARR at time of original acquisition to $30m ARR today. 2 recaps, and has grown equity value something like 20x. 

He mentioned something that stuck, along the lines of: 

"Many of the things that have driven our success I hadn't done before. (...) There were a lot of new challenges for me."

I was looking at my chicken scratch notes from our call this morning, and I got to thinking: 

I'll take...

→ learning aptitude
→ growth mindset
→ persistence 

...over a been-there-done-that exec who scores lower in those areas any day of the week.

When I wrote Winning Moves 3 years ago, a few firms declined to be interviewed. Why? "Our value creation playbook is proprietary." 

That's fine. But don't kid yourself: A value creation playbook is hardly like the recipe for Coca Cola. In most cases, that secret sauce isn't all that secret. 

Lot's of PE firms are running the same plays. 

Yet some still operate from scarcity mindset: "We can't share our playbook! It's our competitive advantage!"

A working theory of mine: 

The firms who proactively share what they're learning will win bigger long-term.

Why? Because sharing creates a flywheel. A virtuous cycle. 

Putting your thoughts & learnings into the ether will help: 

→ Attract talent
→ Attract investors
→ Attract target companies

It's like what happened in B2B with inbound a decade ago. The companies that taught the most also grew the most.

Cool to see that PE is catching on. Love seeing more investment in thought leadership marketing. 

Scarcity thinking = hoard knowledge 
Abundance thinking = share knowledge

Sometimes, a PE port-co mgmt teams just want to hear their board say:

"We've got your back."
"We believe in you."
"We trust your call."
"Go for it." 

They don't always need strategic input.
Sometimes, they just need confidence.

PE Career Lesson #74: Results don't just magically happen. 

What some PE folks think happens:

→ Write the check
→ Share some best practices
→ Watch numbers go up
→ Collect returns

What actually happens:

→ People challenges
→ Execution roadblocks
→ Founder disagreements
→ Daily operational battles
→ Unexpected market shifts
→ Constant problem-solving
→ Unexpected customer issues

The gap is massive. And distance can create delusion. 

For this reason, my rule for any PE firm I'd one day start:

Everyone spends 6+ months in a portfolio company.

Not visiting. 
Not observing. 
Actually working.

You can't add value to what you don't understand.
And you can't understand from 30,000 feet.

IYKYK

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Apparently Winning Moves is the #3 most gifted PE/M&A book on Amazon. Who knew?

PE folks apparently love gifting this book. 

Show some love to the PE operator in your life this Black Friday. Forget the coffee mug. Give the gift of knowledge. 👊

No alternative text description for this image

I'm inventing a new LinkedIn term: "value-jack" (v.) (val·yew·jak)

It’s when a service provider latches onto some random subpoint in your post, bends it just enough to make it about their offering, and drops a two-paragraph sales pitch disguised as a comment.

Cool to see new data from the World Economic Forum backing up what’s been our hunch since we started our Ascend executive accelerator:

The skills expected to matter most by 2030 aren’t technical. 
They’re leadership and human.

In the top-right quadrant (skills that are both core today and growing in importance):

→ Leadership & social influence
→ Resilience, flexibility & agility
→ Motivation & self-awareness
→ Empathy & active listening
→ Talent management

That list looks a lot like the focus areas we’ve been building around in Ascend.
Excited to keep helping more PE execs skate to where the puck is going.

(Info about the program is in the comments below.)

Ever seen a 100,000x MOIC deal in private equity? Found one: 

Got a message from a reader of Winning Moves. A CRO at a smaller PE-backed software biz. 

He paid $10 for the book. 

Said the book helped give him the confidence to pull the pricing lever (chapter 9): 

• Ending excessive discounting 
• Shifting to value-based pricing 
• Raising price after years of no change 

Result: $1M+ boost to Y1 ARR & EBITDA.

LOVE seeing people put these ideas into action and capture big gains. 

$10 book → $1M+ in value

Time to settle the greatest, nerdiest, most consequential debate of the modern PE era: 

"EBITDA" = 

A) EE-buh-duh 

B) EE-bit-dah 

C) EH-buh-dah 

D) EH-bit-dah 

E) EE-bit-dee-A 

F) Some questions are better left unanswered


(P.S. If you say "EH-buh-dah" we need to talk)

Hot take: Human psychology should be a prereq in ANY business curriculum. It is very difficult to...

→ Hire well
→ Built trust
→ Lead others
→ Drive change
→ Sell effectively
→ Negotiate deals
→ Influence others
→ Make quality decisions

...if we don't understand how human beings (ourselves and others) work.

Wish I would have taken more courses on this stuff in my school days. But been trying to play catch-up since. 

Who's with me?

Struggling to retain good people in your company? Welp, you don’t actually have a “retention” problem...

You have a: 

→ Trust problem
→ Cultural problem
→ Leadership problem
→ Recognition problem
→ Compensation problem
→ Employee experience problem
→ Employee development problem

Retention is not the problem.
That's the result of the problem.

It's Q4 board meeting season in PE Land. 3 valuable ways a PE board member can contribute in a board meeting ⤵️

#1. - APPRECIATIONS
↳ Call out what's working and what's going well
↳ Acknowledge effort, progress, and wins publicly
↳ Reinforce the specific behaviors you want repeated

#2 - QUESTIONS
↳ Ask the question that unlock fresh thinking
↳ Expand management's thinking on critical decisions
↳ Challenge underlying assumptions without being combative

#3 - CONSIDERATIONS
↳ Share battle-tested experience
↳ Give management your best thinking 
↳ Offer new perspective on the thorniest issues

Most of us will overindex on #3. 

But an old mentor taught me a good rule of thumb:
Aim for a roughly balanced mix across all three.

10 powerful phrases I've heard empowering leaders use, and added to my repertoire. Add them to yours ⤵️ 

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10 Phrases Empowering Leaders Use

If you’re a PE leader, stop asking "What should our AI strategy be?" It's the wrong question. 

Here's why:

An economic theory of mine: avocado toast is a fairly reliable barometer for inflation. And my oh my... avocadoflation is hitting NYC harrrrd.

The Fed should hire a millennial and start brunching.

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

The C-Suite has rules no one teaches.

You’re expected to move fast, take risks, and make calls that will follow you for years. Most days, you don’t know who you can trust. 

I know, because I’ve sat across from 10,000+ C-Suite operators (as their go-to recruiter/career therapist) right when impostor syndrome, burnout, and pressure were at their peak.

Here’s what I saw:

The top 1% built and nurture trusted relationships long before they needed help.

The rest waited to “network” until transition hit—and found themselves alone and overwhelmed.

The real problem isn’t talent or effort. 

It’s not having one or more of these connections in your corner:

1️⃣ Sponsors who will vouch for you out loud. 
2️⃣ Connectors who introduce you to the right people at the right time.
3️⃣ Collaborators who sharpen your thinking.
4️⃣ Challengers who push you out of your comfort zone and give honest feedback. 
5️⃣ Supporters who keep you grounded and confident when the pain hits. 


Without these relationships, leaders slow down, doubt themselves, and make bad decisions in isolation.

That’s my why. 

I built SuiteC so leaders don’t have to learn the hard way anymore.  It’s a curated, high-trust room where operators can speak honestly, think clearly, and make stronger decisions with people who understand the pressure of leading real companies.  

SuiteC delivers three things that you can’t find anywhere else:

1️⃣ VALUABLE CONNECTIONS
Curated, high-trust interactions with operators who’ve lived what you’re facing. No noise. No vendors. No sales agendas.

2️⃣ TRUTH
Candid conversations that surface blind spots, reframe problems, and give you the clarity you won’t get inside your own company.

3️⃣ MOMENTUM
The information you need to make better calls—so you stop learning the hard way and start leading with confidence.

“It’s the room I wish I’d walked into every time I left another ‘industry conference’ that turned out to be a string of sponsor sales pitches.”
— John McCarvel, former CEO of Crocs + SuiteC Advisory Board Member

We guide the conversations about real problems you can’t Google: what actually worked, what failed- the hard truths most never admit in public.

No noise.
No posturing.
No vendors.
No jerks.

No narcissists. 

The ROI is real:
Board seats.
$350K raises.
$10M mistakes avoided.
2 Hours back every day. 

If you want to make better decisions, go where people tell the truth. All. The. Time. 


Bea Sonnendecker

Your reactions are your responsibility.
You have two options:

React fast…

To every word. 
To every insult. 
To every moment. 

…Or choose power.

Here’s what life keeps teaching me:
Power isn’t noise.

✔️ It’s logic. 
✔️ It’s silence. 
✔️ It’s restraint. 

Real power looks like:

↳ Responding with calm.
↳ Staying focused on truth.
↳ Breathing before reacting.
↳ Not letting words shake you.
↳ Observing instead of judging.
↳ Choosing peace over chaos.
↳ Not taking things personal.
↳ Letting “emotions” pass.
↳ Controlling your state.

Because your peace is your power.
And not everything deserves your energy.

The best advice I ever got:
“If they can control your reaction, they control you.”

That hit deep. So now…

I wait.
I watch.
I think before I speak.

And you know what happened?

Fewer regrets.
Better choices.
Stronger confidence.

Because silence isn’t weakness.
It’s leadership.

P.S. What helps you stay calm when emotions run high?

I️ help middle market C-Suite operators turn reputation into momentum inside a private, high-trust executive community.

The ego shows up quietly…
but it can ruin trust fast.

Good leadership starts with self-control.
And ego is usually the first thing to manage.

Here are 8 quick reminders to keep it in check:

1. Stop getting offended
- Not everything needs your energy. Protect your peace.

2. Don’t act superior
- Great leaders grow past their old selves, not past others.

3. You’re not your wins
- Achievements are nice but they’re not your worth.

4. Winning isn’t everything
- It’s okay to lose sometimes. Growth matters more.

5. Let go of control
- You don’t need to fix or manage everything.

6. Know when to stop
- The ego wants more. A wise mind knows enough.

7. You’re not always right
- Sometimes, letting others lead is the real win.

8. You’re still learning
- Stay curious. Ego stops when learning begins.

This isn’t soft leadership.
This is how strong leaders stay grounded.

P.S. Which of these 8 hit you the hardest today?

♻️ Share with someone who leads from calm, not ego.
👑 Follow for more grounded leadership insights.

Bad bosses don’t fire you.
They freeze your growth.

They:

➤ Keep you out of rooms that matter.
➤ Call only when things go wrong.
➤ Leave you out of key decisions.
➤ Give credit to someone louder.
➤ Ignore “your ideas.”
➤ Take your wins.

You stay stuck.
You start shrinking.

And worst of all…

- You think it’s normal.
- You say less in meetings.
- You lower your standards.
- You settle without noticing.
- You stop raising your hand.
- You wait for things to change.

P.S. Ever stayed in a job where you were slowly being sidelined? Let’s talk about it.

👑 Follow for bold takes on modern leadership.
♻️ Send this to someone who’s stuck under a bad boss.

7 Quiet Ways Bad Bosses Hold You Back:

We’ve been told a lot of lies about career growth.
And most people still believe them.

But here’s the truth:

Hard work helps…
But smart moves matter more.

Let’s break some myths:

1. Your boss is always right.
2. It’s selfish to ask for a raise.
3. Job titles show your real worth.
4. Comfort means you’ve “made it.” 
5. Stay loyal and you’ll be rewarded.
6. You must have a perfect career path.
7. Burnout means you’re doing great work.
8. The best jobs go to the smartest people.
9. Working long hours means you care more.
10. If you stay quiet, your work will speak for itself.

These lies keep people stuck.
Break free from them.

Remember:

Career growth doesn’t come from working harder.

It comes from thinking smarter.

– Say no to myths that slow you down.
– Focus on what moves you forward.
– Question the advice you follow.
– Choose your path, not theirs.

Keep it simple.
Keep it true to you.

P.S. Which of these lies did you believe the longest?

♻️ Share this with someone stuck in a job they’ve outgrown.
👑 Follow me for more career clarity and leadership content.

The right questions bring the right answers.
Think about that for a second.

Most people feel stuck because they stop asking questions that matter.

-> They stay busy.
-> They stay tired.
-> They stay stressed.

But never pause to check if their path still fits.

How does real clarity come?

Not through more hustle.
Not through outside advice.
Not even through major life changes.

But through small questions asked often.

Questions like:

- Is this job still good for my peace?
- Do I "pause" before I burn out?
- What’s draining my energy?
- Do I need a new path?
- Am I living my values?
- What’s still in my control?
- Where am I growing right now?
- Who can "help" me feel less alone?

These don’t just shift your mindset.
They shift your life.

This is how smart leaders protect their energy and lead with purpose…

By staying honest with themselves.

Every day.
Every week.

P.S. Want to lead better? Start by asking better questions.

👑 Follow me for simple truths on leadership and habits.
♻️ Share this with someone who’s building something that matters.

Teams don’t collapse overnight.
It happens step by step.

Stress builds in “silence.”
People stop speaking up.

Trust starts to fade.
And no one knows how it started.

The room feels polite… but not real.
Work happens… but purpose fades.

It happens when:

– Feedback is one-way.
– Boundaries get ignored.
– Some team members get special rules.
– Hard conversations keep getting pushed.
– People don’t know the “why” behind the work.

When these things stack up, good people check out.

Not loudly. Quietly.

By the time anyone notices, it’s already done damage.

The best teams don’t avoid conflict.
They create safety for it.

They don’t demand trust. 
They build it.

Culture isn’t loud.
It shows up in small, daily signals.

Watch those closely.
That’s where teams rise or slowly fall apart.

👑 Follow for more clear leadership insights.
♻️ Send this to someone building a stronger team.

8 Hidden Habits That Hurt Strong Teams:

Doubt is not a sign of weakness.
It’s a test of how fast you can recover.

Here’s how great leaders rebuild self-belief when it shakes:

1. They stay calm in the noise.
↳ Panic only magnifies the fear.

2.They act before they’re fully ready.
↳ Waiting too long builds hesitation.

3. They lean on their routines.
↳ Discipline makes belief easier to rebuild.

4. They speak to themselves with care.
↳ The tone in your head sets your pace.

5. They reflect on small wins.
↳ Confidence grows from evidence.

6. They move anyway.
↳ Even if it’s a small step, they take it.

7. They talk to someone they trust.
↳ Borrow belief until yours returns.

8. They separate emotion from facts.
↳ Not everything you feel is true.

9. They revisit their purpose.
↳ Clarity brings courage.

10. They reset daily.
↳ Confidence is a habit, not a trait.

Remember:

You don’t need to feel powerful to lead.
You need to move, even when belief wavers.

P.S. What’s one thing that helps you bounce back fast? 

👑 Follow me for more clear, calm leadership cues.
♻️ Save this post for when doubt shows up next.

Everyone talks about growth.

They read mindset books.
They set big goals for the year.
They buy new planners and routines.

But they forget what growth really feels like.

It doesn’t feel fun.
It feels hard.

You feel off.
You feel slow.
You feel like quitting.

Here’s what no one says:

- Growth feels like you’re doing it wrong.
- Selling feels like bothering people.
- Posting feels like no one cares.
- Sharing feels like oversharing.
- Learning feels like failing.
- Courage feels like fear.

But that’s how it works.

Growth feels bad before it feels good.
It feels messy before it feels clear.
It feels lonely before it feels seen.

What changed for me?

I stopped waiting to feel “ready.”
I started showing up messy.

I stopped overthinking the start.
I focused on building proof.

Growth is not a vibe.
It’s not a plan.

It’s a decision you make when it’s still hard.

You don’t grow when it’s easy.
You grow when you keep going.

P.S. What part of growth felt worst at the start for you?

👑 Follow me for more simple truths that hit hard.
♻️ Share this with someone stuck in the messy middle.

The CTO of a $600M business just told me something brutal:

His $20M AI initiative failed.
Less than 5% adoption.
Even with trainings.
Even with detailed instructions.

Here’s the truth:

This is normal.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology's State of AI in Business 2025 shows:
95% of generative AI pilots deliver no return.
85% fail to meet expectations.

The problem isn’t the tech.
It’s that AI is treated like a software rollout.

But AI isn’t software.
AI is behavior change.
And behavior change fails without trust.

We don’t adopt tools we don’t trust.
We don’t trust solutions we didn’t help shape.
We don’t trust tools that hallucinate.

Once trust breaks, momentum dies.

It’s like using an assistant who lies 15% of the time —
you stop relying on them.

That’s why 95% of AI investments fail.

The CEO fix: Build trust first, roll out tech second.  

People don’t resist change.
They resist fear, uncertainty, and having no voice.

That’s the opportunity.

P.S. What’s one change effort in your company that started strong but fizzled?

SuiteC

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