Dan Cremons - Winning Moves in Private Equity - Ep.222

Think Like an Owner

Ep. 222: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Dan Cremons (@DanCremons).

My guest today is Dan Cremons, author of Winning Moves, 105 Proven Ways to Create Value in Private Equity-Backed Companies, and founder of Accelera Partners where he focuses on helping private equity groups unlock people-powered value creation. Dan started at Alpine Investors for 12 years before leaving in 2021 to found Accelera, and his book is an incredibly thorough documentation of everything he learned about the private equity playbook and how it needs to evolve.

Dan and I talk about the five buckets of value creation and what the biggest drivers are, what great value creation looks like at a PE firm and company level, traps for first-time CEOs, and interviewing executives to make sure you have the right team in place.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

→ Buy Dan's bestselling book on PE value creation - Link

→ Resources for private equity professionals – Link

→ Resources for PE-backed executives – Link

→ Connect with Dan on LinkedIn – Link

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:13) - Dan’s career background and learnings from Alpine

(00:13:29) - How the Private Equity playbook has changed over time

(00:16:23) - What a 10/10 PE firm looks like

(00:25:40) - Categories of winning moves

(00:30:21) - What have been your biggest learnings about revenue growth?

(00:39:05) - First-time CEO traps

(00:46:36) - Identifying priorities

(00:53:39) - Alex’s perspective on finding focus

(00:58:58) - Dan’s formative experiences

(01:07:42) - Evaluating management teams

(01:15:36) - Upskilling team members

(01:20:02) - Winning the first few weeks in the CEO role