Building a Business with Purpose: Six Months Decide Everything on the Capitalist Culture® Podcast
Private equity success in the lower middle market depends far more on leadership, culture, and alignment than on financial engineering. While financial statements reveal the initial health and cash flow of a business, the people running the organization ultimately determine whether an investment scales or stalls.
On an episode of the Capitalist Culture Podcast, Sequoya Borgman, Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital, joined host Kip Knippel to break down his approach to investing in founder- and family-owned businesses. Grounded in his transition from public accounting to private equity, Sequoya shares how to evaluate lower-middle-market companies, build long-term trust with business owners, navigate leadership transitions, and drive sustainable growth without micromanaging daily operations.
Press play for a fresh perspective on private equity, leadership, and building businesses that stand the test of time.
Key Takeaways
People and Leadership Drive Private Equity Returns
Financial analysis quickly determines whether a company has the strong, steady cash flow required for a transaction. However, roughly 80% of post-acquisition success comes down to leadership. Evaluating the owner, incoming executives, and broader management team is the single most critical factor in achieving strong investment returns. When a business faces a rocky start after an acquisition, it is rarely due to the core business model; it is almost always tied to a poor leadership hire that takes 6 to 18 months to correct.
Company Culture Is Fixed Early and Hard to Change
A business’s culture is typically established within its first six months by its founder and remains deeply ingrained over decades. Attempting to overhaul an existing organizational culture after an acquisition carries immense operational risk. Instead of forcing a company into a new mold, investors must evaluate candidates to ensure their leadership style fits the existing culture, or be prepared to replace the entire management team.
Founder Trust Requires Time and Shared Values
The most compelling acquisition opportunities rarely emerge from rushed, blind auction processes. Building real trust with a founder requires 6 to 18 months of ongoing relationship-building. Founders care deeply about their employees, their communities, and the legacy of what they built. Demonstrating alignment on stewardship, charitable giving, and post-transaction roles is what earns a seat at the table when an owner is ready to step back.
Value Creation Requires Priority and Focus
Lower-middle-market companies often possess a dozen clear opportunities for growth and operational improvement. However, because these businesses operate with limited internal resources, attempting to tackle every operational initiative at once spreads the team too thin. High-performing investors identify the one or two high-value initiatives that will truly move the needle and execute those first before pursuing further expansion.
Questions Addressed in the Conversation
Why does Borgman Capital focus exclusively on the lower middle market?
Borgman Capital focuses on founder- and family-owned businesses with under $150 million in revenue and under $20 million in EBITDA because it is a less competitive segment of the market. Larger institutional private equity firms often avoid these opportunities due to the heavy lifting required to professionalize small operations. While these companies carry operational risks and lower cash flows, they also offer proven business models built over generations that provide attractive avenues for growth.
When should private equity investors intervene in portfolio company operations?
Investors should maintain a fiduciary and strategic oversight role—focusing on long-term strategy, risk management, and enterprise value growth—rather than micromanaging daily operations. Management is hired to run the business. If an investor continuously has to instruct a president on how to handle day-to-day operational issues, it indicates that the wrong leader is in place.
How can business owners maximize company value before selling?
Owners can significantly improve their valuation by eliminating founder reliance long before going to market. When a seller personally fulfills multiple executive roles, a buyer must deduct the cost of hiring replacements directly from EBITDA, which lowers the purchase multiple. Hiring and delegating those responsibilities to a capable team a couple of years before a sale demonstrates business independence and commands a higher price.
From the Conversation
“If we say we are going to do something, we do it. Looking back, I hope people will say we did what we said we would do. That’s the legacy of our firm.”
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This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability. Please refer to the original podcast recording for the complete conversation.
Kip Knippel: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is Sequoya Borgman, Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital. After advising on hundreds of mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and financings at firms like KPMG and RSM, Sequoya launched Borgman Capital to invest in founder- and family-owned lower-middle-market businesses.
His philosophy is simple but powerful: The best investments begin with trust, shared values and great people. Today, we’re talking about private equity, entrepreneurship, culture and what it takes to build lasting enterprise value. Sequoya, welcome to Capitalist Culture.
Sequoya Borgman: Thanks for having me on the podcast.
Kip: Absolutely. My pleasure. Your career began in public accounting before evolving into M&A and, ultimately, private equity. What first drew you into this world of dealmaking?
Sequoya: My background is a little different than most. Most people in private equity come out of investment banking. I started out with Arthur Andersen after school. I went to college and graduate school for accounting and started with one of the Big Five at the time.
I was introduced to M&A and transactions by sitting on that side of the table. I worked with a lot of private equity firms all over the country and did that for about 20 years. I made partner and really had a great time, but I was looking to do something a little more entrepreneurial.
I worked with a lot of lower-middle-market private equity firms around the country, really enjoyed what they were doing, and was good friends with individuals at different firms. I saw an opportunity to launch a firm here in the Midwest and did that about a decade ago. We’re coming up on our 10-year anniversary and haven’t looked back. It’s been a lot of fun.
I actually wish I’d done it earlier in my career, but 20 years of experience in public accounting really helped with what we look at. That’s how we got here.
Kip: Looking back on those years in public accounting, were there any experiences that particularly shaped the investor you’ve become today?
Sequoya: Accounting is the language of business. You can analyze a company in a couple of minutes if you look at its cash flow statements and really assess the health of the business.
We look at about 1,500 businesses a year. Having that background lets us quickly decide whether something is worth the time, money and effort to dig into and pursue, or whether it’s something we can pass on.
In the leveraged buyout model we work with, it’s all based on buying businesses with strong, steady cash flow. You can tell whether a business has that potential from its cash flow statement, balance sheet, income statement and other financial statements.
Why People Matter More Than the Numbers
Kip: You’ve done hundreds of acquisitions, restructurings and financings. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned that most first-time buyers completely miss?
Sequoya: People think it’s all about the numbers, but it’s really about the people. The biggest thing is evaluating the owner of the business and the management team, or, if we’re bringing in a new management team, really evaluating that individual.
That’s the biggest driver of high returns in this business: strong leadership. It’s all about culture, leadership and taking care of your people. That’s the one thing people probably underestimate. They spend more time on diligence, numbers, risks and all the other underlying factors that go into the business. But I’d say 80% of the success is due to who is running the business, who is in charge and who is really leading the organization.
Kip: What’s the most difficult transaction you’ve had to deal with, and what made it so challenging?
Sequoya: All of them have different challenges. The easier ones are when the transition goes very smoothly from the founder or previous owner to the new CEO.
But we’ve had plenty of rocky starts. We’ve made poor hires when replacing a founder or family owner, and we’ve had to replace that individual in a short period of time. That’s never easy, and it sets back our investment six, 12 or 18 months. It takes a while for a new leader to get up to speed on a business or company. Those have probably been the biggest mistakes we’ve made over the last decade or so.
Kip: When deals fall apart, is it usually the financials, or is it the people?
Sequoya: For deals that don’t close, it’s usually the financials. Something comes up in diligence. We do pretty deep diligence around financial, legal, environmental and customer matters—you name it.
I’d say the deals that don’t get over the finish line usually fail because the numbers don’t come in line with what we were expecting. That’s probably the number one reason a deal doesn’t close.
Finding Opportunity in the Lower Middle Market
Kip: You focus on founder-owned, lower-middle-market businesses, an area that most institutional investors overlook. Why was that your focus?
Sequoya: We feel that’s probably a less competitive area of the market. A lot of larger private equity firms around the country are going after the middle market or larger businesses.
All the businesses we’ve invested in have under $150 million in revenue and under $20 million of EBITDA. They’re all family- or entrepreneur-led businesses. That’s an area where some of the bigger firms don’t want to go through the heavy lifting of professionalizing those businesses.
There’s more risk, too. They have lower cash flow and more risk. Banks don’t love them as much, and you don’t put as much leverage on those businesses. There are a lot of factors that make the space less competitive, but you can find really nice businesses there.
These businesses may have been around for two, three or four generations, with really nice, proven business models. They just haven’t grown as much as some larger companies, so you can find really nice opportunities.
It’s also fun talking to those entrepreneurs about how they started their businesses. You always hear that the business was started in a garage or basement, and 90% of the time that’s true. Some entrepreneur took a risk, started from scratch and grew a really nice business. We love talking to those entrepreneurs, getting up to speed on their businesses and buying those types of companies.
Partnership, Culture and Founder Trust
Kip: Borgman Capital emphasizes partnership over ownership. How does that philosophy influence the companies you acquire?
Sequoya: In most of the businesses, the owners are rolling over a big chunk of equity and staying involved, either sitting on the board or continuing to run the business for a period of time. So it really is a partnership.
Half the evaluation is how well we’re going to work together. Are our interests aligned? Is our vision for the business aligned? Is what the owner wants to do with the business really what we need to do to generate the returns our investors need? If those things align, those are the best investment opportunities.
Kip: One of the biggest criticisms private equity gets is that it’s too focused on financial engineering and not enough on people. How do you think about culture when you’re evaluating an acquisition?
Sequoya: Some of the bad reputation private equity gets from financial engineering comes from the 1980s and 1990s—the Barbarians at the Gate era and things like that. It takes a long time for those reputations to change.
There’s very little financial engineering these days. You really have to create value. You have to grow the business or do some add-ons.
From our standpoint, culture is number one. I read somewhere that the culture in a business is established within the first six months after that business is founded. It’s really built around the founder, and changing a culture is extremely difficult.
If it’s a poor culture, those aren’t great investment opportunities. Even if you bring in the best president, CEO or leader for that business, it’s very difficult to change one culture into another.
When we buy a business, we do cultural evaluations for the new leaders and make sure their culture aligns with the business. That’s a bigger factor in determining their success. They may come from what they consider a better culture, but trying to change the culture of the business is extremely difficult unless you want to replace the entire management team, and that’s a huge risk.
Kip: When you’re meeting with a founder who has built a business over decades, how do you earn that person’s trust?
Sequoya: It takes time. The best deals for us aren’t blind auction processes, because you don’t get to know the founder as well and can’t build that trust.
For many of the companies we buy, we’ve known the owner for years. We’re there when they’re ready to transact, sell or step away from the business, and we’ve built a relationship over six, 12 or 18 months. It isn’t something you do in a management meeting or over one or two dinners. It takes a long time. You have to trust each other.
A lot of times, sitting across the table from somebody, you can tell whether their interests and values are aligned with yours. We take care of employees and communities, and we continue the charitable giving of the founders. If that’s what the owner was already doing, then our interests are aligned.
If the owner is really focused on what’s in it for them and getting the highest price for the business, that might not be the best fit for us.
Building Value Without Losing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Kip: What separates great private equity firms from average ones?
Sequoya: It isn’t easy for any of them. I’d say the firms that have been around 10, 20 or 30 years are doing something right. There’s a lot of competition out there, with new firms popping up every day. It’s extremely difficult.
Managing one business is very hard and very lumpy, as anybody who owns a business knows. Imagine managing 10, 12, 20 or more at the same time. There are always challenges, and you’re always facing something unexpected.
A lot of times, it’s people issues. I’m always surprised. I get calls at all hours about some crazy thing somebody did at some company that you would never expect.
The better-performing private equity firms have learned a lot of lessons the hard way. They’ve made it through those challenges and have been in it for the long run. A lot of firms don’t make it because they encounter challenges early in the firm’s life cycle that they aren’t able to overcome.
Kip: How do you think about preserving the entrepreneurial spirit after the acquisition?
Sequoya: It’s really difficult. That’s a great question. There’s nothing like an entrepreneur. They’re always a little different for some reason, and that makes them successful.
When you bring in a new president or leader, that person is usually more of a professional manager or businessperson. They may have an MBA and all the business knowledge, and they’re more focused on margins, revenue, productivity and all the things you need to focus on. But it’s less entrepreneurial, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
A lot of entrepreneurs tap out at some point. They may be really good at R&D, engineering or sales, but they can’t do it all. That’s why a lot of these businesses tap out at $20 million, $50 million or $80 million in revenue—whatever the number is. The entrepreneur sometimes holds the business back.
When you bring in a professional manager, the business may be less entrepreneurial, but it can scale more and reach the next level.
Kip: When should an investor leave management alone, and when should the investor step in?
Sequoya: Management is there to run the business. Investors aren’t there to micromanage management or run operations.
I always say that if I’m having to tell a president how to run the business, we have the wrong president. My background is accounting, finance and doing deals. It’s not running production on a production floor or dealing with HR issues.
If I’m having to push a president—or if our value creation team is pushing a president—to do something that person should already be doing, we probably have the wrong president leading the company.
As an investor, our role is fiduciary: doing what’s in the best interest of our investors. How do we drive value? How do we increase the enterprise value of the business? What risks do we need to watch? What’s the long-term strategy?
Presidents and management teams often get stuck in the day-to-day operational challenges of the business and don’t step back enough to think about the big picture and drive strategy. I’d say that’s more our role than being micromanagers.
Preparing a Business for a Successful Transition
Kip: For founders thinking about selling, what should they evaluate beyond the purchase price?
Sequoya: In these lower-middle-market businesses, founders are often going to be involved for the long term. They may roll over some equity, or they may have an earnout or seller note.
Most of these founders care about their employees. They don’t want their employees to lose their jobs. I’d say a founder needs to look for someone who is aligned, who will take care of the business and be a steward of it—someone who will take care of the employees and the community and continue to grow the business.
Some of these businesses took 80 or 100 years to get where they are. In a two- or three-year period, you won’t build as much value as was built over those 80 years. We aren’t flippers like some firms. We don’t sell companies in three years. We’re more of a long-term investor.
Founders who are thinking about their employees have lots of options. They don’t have to sell to private equity. They may get the highest price from private equity, but they can sell to their employees, do a management buyout, pursue an ESOP or sell to a strategic buyer. There are all kinds of options.
I’d say: Look for someone you’re aligned with and who you feel will take care of what you’ve built.
Kip: What are some of the biggest mistakes owners make before taking their company to market?
Sequoya: I see a lot of ways to create value in a business before going to market. Address the risks and the things a buyer is going to ding you for—all the issues that will come up in diligence. Make sure you address those.
Anything you can do to improve working capital is additional cash in your pocket. You can’t do that a month before selling. You have to do it a couple of years before selling to show that the business really doesn’t need that working capital to run.
The biggest issue these businesses get dinged for is when the seller does a lot and is hard to replace. If the seller is doing three roles and you have to hire three people to replace that person, EBITDA is going to be reduced by that cost.
If the seller hires three people to take over those roles and has already stepped back before selling, the business will get a better value, a better price and a higher multiple. The more significant the seller’s role is in the business, the lower the multiple will be. As much as the seller can replace what they’re doing, that will improve the value of the business.
Kip: When you’re doing diligence, how do you determine whether the business has a leadership team capable of scaling?
Sequoya: It’s difficult. We spend a lot of time with them, but you really don’t know until probably six months after you buy a business how good the management team is. You have to work with somebody.
It’s no different than hiring somebody. A lot of times, candidates look really good on paper and interview really well. You go through all the assessments and may get the board involved in the hire, but you don’t know how they’ll work out until one, two or three months down the road. Then it becomes very evident whether you’ve made a poor hire.
It’s no different when you’re evaluating a management team. You can see how their performance has been over a long period of time, and that helps.
When you’re hiring somebody, you do reference checks, but everybody says good things. Nobody says poor things in those reference checks. You don’t know their real performance. But with a management team, we see all the numbers. That’s one way to evaluate them. If the company is doing well, the management team must be doing something right.
Relationships, Reputation and Long-Term Stewardship
Kip: You’ve built your firm around relationships, trust and shared values. Why has that become such an important differentiator for Borgman Capital?
Sequoya: It’s all about our network. Every business we’ve invested in came through an introduction from someone in our network. People need to trust you and know that you’re going to do the right thing by them and by the business. That’s very important in this industry.
We have five offices around the country. We’re in secondary or second-tier cities where networks, relationships and reputation really matter. If you’re in those cities, you may be talking to a neighbor who introduces you to a business owner who is thinking of selling. Or you may go to church with someone who wants to sell a business.
That’s how you find the best opportunities. You’re going direct, you can build a relationship and you can really trust the individual.
Our focus from day one has been to buy really nice businesses. We don’t invest in turnarounds, restructurings or anything that isn’t doing well. We invest in really nice businesses, and we try to maintain and continue what they’ve built. That’s really our M.O.
Kip: When people look back on your career, what do you hope they remember about the way you invested?
Sequoya: One thing I really emphasize with our team is: Do what you say you’re going to do. When we tell a seller we’re going to close a deal or do something, we do it.
It isn’t always easy. Mistakes happen and things come up, but when that happens, you make it right. Looking back, I hope people will say we did what we said we would do. That’s really our legacy as a firm.
Kip: What responsibility do private equity firms have to employees, communities and the families behind the companies they acquire?
Sequoya: There are clearly deals that don’t go well in private equity, and nobody wins. Employees lose worse than anybody. That’s their livelihood; they’re taking care of their families through those jobs.
But there’s no private equity person who isn’t trying to get a really nice return. The only way you’re going to get a really nice return is if the business thrives and grows, you create value, you take care of those employees, and you hire more employees and grow the business.
Everybody hears about the bad deals—the ones that don’t go well—and how they affect employees. But that’s not the intention going in. Everybody is trying to make a really nice return for their investors, and the best returns happen when the businesses and employees do really well.
In every business we buy, we set aside a chunk of equity for the management team and employees who are creating value to earn. That’s a differentiator. It’s huge for some employees.
We’ve sold businesses where employees made life-changing amounts of money—an opportunity they didn’t have when it was a family or founder-owned business. Because their interests are aligned with ours and they’re creating a lot of the value, they should share in a lot of that upside.
Leadership, Incentives and Continuous Learning
Kip: On the topic of leadership, how has your personal definition of leadership evolved over time and as the business has grown?
Sequoya: It depends on the business, the culture and the type of leadership the business needs. I believe in being a servant leader—leading from the front, not the back. That has never changed.
But each business we invest in is different. Each culture is different, and you need to evaluate what’s best for that organization and type of business. It may be a manufacturer, distributor or service business. All of those need different types of leadership. You have to evaluate what’s best for that particular investment.
Kip: Is there one leadership lesson you’ve learned that has proven particularly valuable in your life?
Sequoya: I don’t know if I can put my finger on one at the moment, but, like I said earlier, do what you say you’re going to do. Be open and honest with people and with your employees.
That’s the best advice I’ve ever received. You have to share bad news. Don’t sit on it. That’s the number one thing I tell our presidents: If something bad is happening, I want to know immediately.
That applies to anybody who works with me. I share that news immediately with our investors if it’s going to affect their investment. Good news seems to bubble up a little more slowly, but I like to hear good news as well.
The main thing is: Be open and honest, tell the truth and do what you say you’re going to do.
Kip: How do you approach attracting and retaining high-performing leaders within your firm or portfolio companies? How do you find those rock stars and get them to stay?
Sequoya: The people attracted to private equity and to leading private equity-backed companies all have an entrepreneurial side. They’re risk-takers.
In the private equity industry, you don’t get paid much upfront. You get paid on the back end if you do well on the investment. It has to be someone willing to take a lower base salary for the upside at the end of the day. That end of the day might not be for 10 years, so the person is taking a risk and betting on themselves.
The leaders and management teams of these companies participate in the upside, so they’re in the same boat. A lot of their incentive compensation is tied to growing enterprise value. If they’re able to grow enterprise value, they get paid really well. When we sell the businesses, they do even better.
But if they don’t perform and create value, their pay is lower than it would be working for a large company or public company. It has to be someone who is very confident in their own ability and is a bit of an entrepreneur.
Kip: What practices do you employ to ensure the ongoing growth and development of employees?
Sequoya: It’s constant learning. We’re a small firm, so it’s not like we have training academies and all the programs that bigger firms have. But I’m a huge reader. I read everything out there and listen to a ton of podcasts.
I think it’s partly on the employee to take on that education. We go to conferences and trainings, but you have to be a constant learner.
The best lessons come when we meet with management teams and companies. Even the companies we don’t buy may be doing really well, and you learn something every time you talk to somebody.
Be a lifetime learner, read everything that’s going on in private equity and keep learning across the board.
Focusing Growth Where It Matters Most
Kip: You’ve talked a lot about relationships and their importance in investing. What strategies have proven most effective in identifying and capitalizing on high-growth opportunities?
Sequoya: Most of these family businesses are very happy. The families are making a lot of money every year and living good lives. They aren’t necessarily focused on growing the business, because growth takes on a lot of risk. It requires more working capital, or they have to take on debt to pursue those opportunities.
When we buy a business, there are probably 10 low-hanging-fruit opportunities—easy things to do to create value or grow the business. All 10 have some risk associated with them.
The biggest thing is not to go after all 10. You need to pick one, two or maybe three really high-value areas and focus on those. These businesses don’t have a lot of resources, so you can’t spread them too thin or nothing gets done.
The biggest lesson is that instead of identifying 10 value-creation areas and trying to do it all, pick one or two that will really move the needle and execute on those.
Leading Through Uncertainty
Kip: What has been one of the biggest challenges you faced while building your firm or one of your portfolio companies, and how did you overcome it?
Sequoya: We’ve built the firm over the last 10 years, so there have been a lot of challenges. We never expected COVID and everything that came with it, and it’s been constant. It hasn’t stopped.
I feel like the 2010s were a calm decade. There wasn’t a lot of uncertainty. Once we got through 2008, 2009 and 2010, the next 10 years were pretty good times for private equity.
Fortunately, we launched during that period. Financing was easy, rates were low, and lots of businesses were selling. They had been through the 2008–2009 period, their expectations were low, and it was a great time to be investing.
Then COVID hit, and it felt like the sky was falling. Supply chain, people—you name it—everything was a challenge. That hasn’t stopped over the last five or six years. There’s something every day.
We’re dealing with fuel costs right now from this conflict in Iran. Every week, prices are going one way or another, and pricing all of that in is a challenge.
I feel like that’s just part of business now. You have to expect the unexpected, focus on what’s within your control and do whatever is in the best interest of the business.
Capitalism, Entrepreneurship and Access to Opportunity
Kip: The name of this podcast is Capitalist Culture. In what ways has embracing our capitalist, free-market system benefited your business model?
Sequoya: Private equity is probably one of the best benefits of capitalism. Borgman Capital is Capitalism 101.
I wish everybody knew the magic and secrets of capitalism. If you have access to capital—and there’s a lot of it out there—you can do really well.
I’ve been very fortunate. I wasn’t born into it. I was raised by a single mother who dropped out of high school, so she didn’t have many choices. She probably didn’t even know what capitalism was.
Fortunately, I did well in school, got a good degree and kind of lucked into it. If you’re inquisitive and enjoy learning, learning about capitalism is valuable.
We’re very fortunate to live in this country, with its free-market enterprise and as much access to capital as we have. We just celebrated America’s 250th anniversary, and it’s really a blessing to everyone who has access and knows how to use it and pull the levers.
Something I wish I’d known earlier in my career is how available capital is in this country.
Kip: Are there ways you advocate for capitalism and free enterprise outside your direct business activities?
Sequoya: I wish there were more education around it, especially earlier—maybe in middle school or high school—so people coming up could learn more about economics, capitalism and the benefits of the free market.
I also wish there were more entrepreneurs. Looking back, we see businesses where entrepreneurs are making $4 million, $5 million or $6 million a year running an electrical contractor, HVAC contractor or plumbing contractor, and they didn’t go to college. They went into the trades out of school.
I wish kids knew that if you’re ambitious, work hard and go into something like that, you can build one crew, then two crews, and before you know it, you’re running 10 crews and making millions of dollars a year. They really don’t teach you about that in high school.
Those are very successful individuals. At that age, when you’re coming out of high school or college, you have much less risk in starting something entrepreneurial. What do you really have to lose? You don’t have kids, a mortgage and all the responsibilities that come with that. If you fail, you go get a job. That’s your fallback plan.
I wish there were more focus on entrepreneurship early in people’s lives.
Kip: Looking back, is there a particular decision or action that has proven most pivotal to your success so far?
Sequoya: I think our biggest success is that we hit the ground running. We were successful right off the bat.
I know a lot of people who start firms or go out and try to buy a business, and it’s tough. It’s very competitive. There are a lot of buyers out there, and if you don’t find something in the first couple of years, you tend to run out of capital and do something else.
We were fortunate to find some really nice investment opportunities within that first year. We hit the ground running and haven’t looked back.
Kip: What advice would you give young or aspiring entrepreneurs on how to succeed in today’s economic climate?
Sequoya: I don’t know if there’s one piece of advice. Every entrepreneur has been successful for a different reason. But I’d say: Outwork your competition and don’t give up.
The entrepreneurs who are successful are the ones who didn’t give up. Times are tough. Running a business is extremely difficult. It’s probably one of the hardest things you can do.
You put in far more hours than you would in any job. You have to love it, and you can’t give up when things get tough. Every business owner has gone through tough and difficult times and had to make really hard decisions.
You have to constantly think about what’s in the best interest of the business for the long term. Sometimes that affects people’s lives and livelihoods, and that isn’t easy as an entrepreneur.
Hang in there, work through it, figure it out and keep going.
Kip: Just don’t stop. I always think of that Jerry Maguire line: “It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege.” Keep going. Just keep going.
Sequoya: I was thinking of “Show me the money.”
Kip: “Show me the money,” too. That one too, for sure.
AI and the Next Wave of Value Creation
Kip: What future trends or opportunities are you most excited about, and how are you positioning your firm to benefit from them?
Sequoya: Everybody is focused on it right now, but I think AI is the most exciting thing on the horizon, particularly in how it will create value in these businesses.
We’re on the front side of it. Everybody is looking into it, adopting it and using it. It’s making their lives easier, but it hasn’t quite reached the point where it’s creating real enterprise value. I think that’s right around the corner, so I’m excited to see where it goes.
Kip: How are you using AI so far, either within the firm or at portfolio companies?
Sequoya: We’re using it within the firm. I use it every day. It makes my life easier. All our analysts and everybody else are using it to analyze businesses.
At the portfolio companies, every single one is looking into ways to adopt AI and simplify accounts receivable, accounts payable and other finance functions, as well as quoting and sales functions.
There are a lot of things AI can do better than the systems currently in place. We’ll see where it goes.
Success, Setbacks and Letting Go
Kip: Of the deals you’ve worked on so far, which have been the most successful, memorable or fun?
Sequoya: They’re all fun in some way. They’re like children. You said you have three kids, so you know how you always have a favorite child at different points.
I’m a numbers guy, and my number one responsibility is to our investors. When companies are doing great, those are my favorites. It tends to be a different one every quarter, every six months or every year.
They all go through challenging periods, too. That’s difficult. You do everything you can, do the right things, get things back on track or replace the management team if you have to, and get through the challenge. You dig in and spend the time to get through it. We take the same advice I gave entrepreneurs to heart.
They’re all different, with different challenges. As I said before, you’re in the people business. People are the biggest challenge in these businesses. The businesses would be really easy if you didn’t have to deal with the people part of it.
That’s probably the least fun part of the industry and what we do: making decisions that affect a person’s livelihood, family and everything along those lines.
Kip: Last question. You can take this in any direction you want: What’s your personal definition of success?
Sequoya: Like anybody, we set goals, and when we achieve them, that’s great. But we’re always looking at the next deal and the next opportunity.
You get really attached to these businesses. When we sell them, it’s sad. Even though the sale is very successful—my wife is always very happy because we get some money back, our investors are happy and everybody is celebrating—it’s also a sad point.
You’ve become very attached to the business. You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, and you’re handing it off to somebody else. It’s both sides of the coin. You’re happy about the success of the sale, but also sad that you’re no longer involved in the business. I’m sure the sellers who sell to us feel the same way.
Kip: To use your analogy, it’s like your children. You’ve poured into them, and now you’ve set them free to go off into the world.
Sequoya: Exactly. You’ve spent years and years with those employees, businesses and customers. Having to pass it off to somebody else is really hard.
Kip: Sequoya, this has been awesome. I really appreciate your time, your insights and your willingness to share more about Borgman Capital. We’ll share in the show notes how people can get in touch with you, learn more about the firm and see what you have going on. Thank you again. This has been an absolute pleasure.
Sequoya: Thanks for having me on the podcast.
Kip: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you.
