When a carve-out starts life as Company Holdings LLC, the first town hall gets awkward fast. Employees don't know what they're part of, customers don't know who they're doing business with, and competitors are happy to fill in the blanks.

Travis Dziubla, a carve-out operator at Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, joins Phillip McMillan to explain why he treats identity as part of the carve-out plan from the start. He came up through submarine operations and plant turnarounds, and he admits he didn't fully appreciate this work early in his career. Now he pushes for a name, a story, and a website before close.

In this episode:

• What makes the first 90 to 100 days of a carve-out different from other deals, and why that window closes
• What "identity" covers in practice, from email addresses and a website to values and heritage
• Why a clear identity helps recruit executives into a newly standalone company
• What has to be ready on day one: at minimum, a name and a website customers can find
• Who belongs in the room: a core decision group of 3 to 6 people, with broader employee input
• How sponsors stay involved without taking ownership of the identity away from management
• His one piece of advice for deal teams before they sign

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:12) Travis's path: submarine officer, McKinsey, Lion Equity, Pacific Avenue

(03:48) What makes carve-outs different in the first 90 days

(05:31) What identity means for a newly carved-out company

(07:34) What happens when you get it wrong

(09:37) Identity as a recruiting tool

(14:25) Why doing it earlier creates more value

(16:17) Identity work before close

(18:24) Getting executives and stakeholders to prioritize it

(22:03) Who should be at the table

(24:10) Balancing sponsor input with management ownership

(26:16) What every deal team should understand before they sign

Travis Dziubla is a carve-out operator at Pacific Avenue Capital Partners. He began his career as a submarine officer, led power plant and chemical plant turnarounds at McKinsey, and worked on lower middle market carve-outs at Lion Equity Capital Partners before joining Pacific Avenue.

Connect with Travis on LinkedIn.

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Show website: BuyBuildBrand.com

CS Brand Group: csbg.co

Hosted by Phillip McMillan, founder and Managing Director of CS Brand Group, the brand strategy firm for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies.