"Private equity rarely loses." George Baker says it as a director of the company he founded, watching his own shareholder value climb. Lane Carrick, who sells founder-owned businesses to private equity for a living, pushes back: you think it's about the math? "I know it's about the math."George Baker Sr. is the founder of ParkHub, now JustPark, and the founder and managing partner of 2 the Moon Ventures in Dallas. He swept his father's commercial parking lots downtown at 12, founded ParkHub in 2010 to attack cash leakage in a $40 billion industry that had seen almost no technology, and built it into a B2B parking and mobility platform serving stadiums and airports. Jerry Jones was an early investor. LLR Partners put in $100 million of growth equity. More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions followed, then a merger with UK-based JustPark and an FTV Capital recap that moved Baker from chairman to director.The mechanism was boring and enormous: digitize the cash. Parking operators saw revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent. Inside the venue the transaction fell from over 20 seconds to under five, congestion dropped and food and beverage sales rose 19 percent. In 2014, reading the consumer window closing, he shut down his own reservation engine, called Ticketmaster, and rebuilt the entire company as B2B software. Growth ran 400 percent, then 300, then 200.What he gave up was not the money. "We were a band of brothers. I don't think I will ever have that much fun." He has not seen much private equity put weight on culture or job creation, and he does not believe founder culture survives the invitation. He has made peace with that, and he is specific about the trade: four years of school runs and family dinners after a decade of not being around.Also in this episode: why an operator turned investor now buys Texas consumer brands instead of software, why western wear is a $130 billion market, how he judges a founding team in a single conversation, and the advice he gives anyone entering a transaction, which is to write down what success looks like in one sentence, date it, and seal it in an envelope, because the deal will take two to three times longer than the LOI says.Hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick. Produced by Harper Belmont Media.CHAPTERS0:00 Intro1:40 Sponsors3:35 Sweeping his father's parking lots at 126:02 The problem statement was cash leakage18:29 Revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent20:07 Destroying his own business model21:12 Shutting it down and calling Ticketmaster21:39 Jerry Jones invests, then 400, 300, 200 percent growth22:20 EOS, traction, and a band of brothers23:26 A $40 billion market with zero technology28:28 Twenty seconds to five, and what it did to the venue30:06 More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions31:17 The JustPark merger31:52 The FTV recap, chairman to director32:27 Founders backing founders at 2 the Moon36:23 From parking software to boots and cookies39:12 Western wear is a $130 billion market44:20 "You think it's about the math?"44:49 "Private equity rarely loses"44:55 Can founder culture survive private equity?46:26 Contact tracing and reopening Live Nation47:07 The capital he had to give back47:41 Making peace with it not being his baby48:19 The trade: four years of school runs and dinners52:09 Write it down, date it, seal the envelope1:02:10 It is not the company, it is the entrepreneur1:03:40 Book recommendations1:07:03 CloseSPONSORED BYCapital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.comSecurity National Bank | https://securitynational.bankBlockchain.com | https://www.blockchain.com2 the Moon Ventures: https://2themoon.venturesThe Deal Table: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/Lane's book, The Optima Advantage: https://amzn.to/48nLElW

Private equity principals do not say this out loud: "We need to sell this company before something bad happens." Ralph Manning did it for years, not because the market was right, but because he could not see far enough into his own businesses to know what was hiding.Edward Crawford and Ralph Manning are co-founders and co-CEOs of Coltala Holdings, a permanent capital holding company in Fort Worth and Dallas. Since 2017 they have deployed more than $400 million across 24 transactions in aerospace, home health, water, and engineering. No fund sits behind it, so there is no seventh-year clock and no forced sale to raise the next one.What replaced the fear is the Coltala Enterprise System, a lean operating playbook out of Danaher and Toyota by way of Larry Culp, who took Danaher's market cap from $3 billion to $30 billion and now chairs GE Aerospace. The proof is their aerospace business. Lead times sat at 164 days. Two weeks of kaizen on three bottlenecks, one an $80,000 paint shop, brought it to 32 days. Every employee at every Coltala company, forklift operator included, gets a quarterly check from 8 to 10 percent of after-tax profits.Crawford came to private equity from the Peace Corps, where he built a 300-farmer coffee cooperative, and from naval intelligence in Afghanistan, where he earned a Bronze Star with SEAL Teams 2 and 4, by way of Goldman Sachs. He is blunt about the fit: "If you want a guy from New York who has a Harvard MBA who's going to tell you how great they are, then you can maybe go work with them. But if you want a real partner, we're your guys."Also in this episode: why mission and margin are not opposites, what mission critical means after the pandemic, how defense tech changed once Ash Carter stood up Unit X, the knower versus learner test they run on every founder, and why yellow lights never turn green. The last twenty minutes go elsewhere, to Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and the banana peddler who overthrew a government.Hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick. Produced by Harper Belmont Media.CHAPTERS0:00 Intro1:44 Sponsors2:59 Ralph in the hot seat4:46 Where the name Coltala comes from7:48 The nonprofit that was going under9:34 Why mission and margin are not opposites13:18 What "mission critical" actually means19:31 Unit X and Ash Carter23:21 Where founders hit the ceiling25:03 The Coltala Enterprise System26:25 The $80,000 paint shop26:47 164 days down to 3227:08 The best ideas come from the people doing the work29:39 Profit share for the forklift operator31:45 Meeting Larry Culp34:09 Process is speed, not bureaucracy37:23 Three credit cards to $400 million39:22 "We need to sell before something bad happens"40:47 No fund, so no forced sale41:27 Growth makes complexity, complexity kills growth43:05 Going deeper beats being a generalist44:26 The MRO moat, $1.2 million and three years47:44 The anti private equity pitch48:27 30,000 subscribers and fifty relationships49:40 They are Luke Skywalker, we are Yoda52:37 Knower mindset versus learner mindset54:19 If the seller wants top dollar, it is not for us59:58 "Yellow lights don't turn green"1:00:49 Peace Corps, intelligence, and ground truth1:03:19 Andrew Jackson goes to the gemba1:06:16 Seabiscuit and walking the track at 2 a.m.1:07:27 The Banana King of New Orleans1:11:39 Jim Collins on being in frame1:14:43 Jiu-Jitsu, do not white knuckle everything1:16:58 Give and Take, givers, takers, matchers1:18:07 CloseSPONSORED BYCapital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.comSecurity National Bank | https://securitynational.bankBlockchain.com | https://www.blockchain.comColtala Holdings: https://coltala.comThe Deal Table: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/Ryan Harper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/Lane Carrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/Lane's book, The Optima Advantage: https://amzn.to/48nLElW

Google's AI answers took 60 to 80% of the clicks businesses used to get. Rex Kurzius rebuilt his entire company around the thing that did it.

More on Rex Kurzius and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/rex-kurzius

Kurzius founded Asset Panda in 2012 to solve the least glamorous problem in business, knowing where your stuff is. It now tracks assets for customers including Amazon, Toyota, Dyson and Carnival, and runs in 67 languages. Eighteen months ago he tore the platform down and rebuilt it around AI, and he calls that stretch the most stress he has ever endured.

His framing is that the product went from a noun to a verb. It used to be a container you filled in. Now a movie studio asks it which props in inventory fit a 1901 to 1925 production, a utility technician asks which tools and training he needs before he leaves the yard, and an inspector photographs a generator instead of filling out a form. When he could not find a tool to replace the search traffic AI took away, he built a generative engine optimization studio in house, and he is about to sell it as a product.

Then the part nobody expects from an asset tracking founder. His father was a German immigrant who named a bakery in Albuquerque after his two sons, Dan Rex Bakery, and died of a heart attack when Rex was 10. The family was nearly homeless and moved in with grandparents in Dallas. That older brother, Dan Kurzius, went on to co-found Mailchimp. Rex's daughter picked the name Asset Panda off a list as a kid and now works there as an account executive, alongside her brother who runs AI. He is blunt about the rest: career silos dissolve, he hires athletes rather than job titles, and if you are not replaced by AI you will be replaced by someone who uses it.

Rex Kurzius is the founder and CEO of Asset Panda, the Dallas-based asset intelligence platform he founded in 2012, used by customers including Amazon, Toyota, Dyson and Carnival and running in 67 languages. Asset Panda reached number 104 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 with 3,552 percent three-year growth. He previously founded Timberhorn IT Solutions and sold it to the Ettain Group in 2015. He has been named to the D CEO Dallas 500 and was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 We track endangered chickens

06:16 Google's AI took 80% of the clicks

07:27 "It's underhyped"

09:46 A studio asks for 1901 to 1925

12:37 The survey that got the model wrong

24:44 Building the tool nobody sold him

25:46 His brother founded Mailchimp

38:24 The most stressful 18 months

53:13 "I call them athletes"

01:05:37 Losing his father at 10

Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect

Asset Panda: assetpanda.com

Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW

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The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Sponsored by Capital Southwest, Security National Bank and Blockchain.com.

Every buyer says culture is everything. No buyer puts culture in diligence. Tony Bridwell has spent 25 years inside that gap.

More on Tony Bridwell and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/tony-bridwell

Lane Carrick opens with the paradox he has watched his whole career on the sellside: every buyer says culture makes or breaks an acquisition, and no buyer ever builds a process around it. Bridwell ran people strategy for 60,000 team members across 1,600 Chili's and Maggiano's restaurants at Brinker International, then did the same at Ryan LLC.

What follows is a working manual for the part of a deal nobody underwrites. Why toxicity only surfaces after the letter of intent. Why 3 percent of an organization moves 90 percent of its culture, and why it is never the 3 percent you would guess. What breaks the day the founder who was the de facto mission hands over the keys.

Then Frank, the brilliant jerk everyone tolerates because he produces, and the four options: tolerate, isolate, eliminate, rehabilitate. All four carry a cost. Chasing Frank sent Bridwell into a doctorate, where the research turned out not to be about leadership at all. Roughly $60 billion a year goes into leadership development in the United States. There is no comparable number for followership.

Dr. Tony Bridwell is Chief Talent Officer at The Encompass Group, where he leads the organizational consulting practice and the E3 Leadership Academy, and Adjunct Professor of Executive Leadership at SMU Cox School of Business. He was previously Chief People Officer at Brinker International and at Ryan LLC. He is the author of eight books, including The Follower Effect (Wiley, 2026), and is a living organ donor.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 The deal that died 30 minutes out

08:08 Culture never shows up in diligence

11:10 Brint Ryan: tighten the lug nuts

20:21 3% of a company moves 90% of it

25:21 When the founder is the mission

34:35 What you hear in the word follower

38:41 $60 billion on leadership, zero here

49:40 Tolerate, isolate, eliminate, rehab

01:12:00 30% logic, 70% emotion

01:17:57 Why he gave a friend a kidney

Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect

The Follower Effect: amazon.com/dp/1394375034

The Courage to Be Disliked: amzn.to/45s5Npo

Man's Search for Meaning: amzn.to/4xxm4VK

What to Make of a Life: amzn.to/4gy5JdK

Dr. Tony Bridwell: drtonybridwell.com

Southwest Transplant Alliance: organ.org

Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW

Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X

The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Sponsored by Capital Southwest, Security National Bank and Blockchain.com.

A private jet is not a luxury purchase, it is a time-value-of-money decision. Here is what flying private actually costs, all in.

More on David Henry and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/david-henry

David Henry spent 18 years at CBS Radio in Dallas-Fort Worth, ultimately as senior vice president, before he started selling aircraft. He is not a pilot. He left after a student in the class he taught at SMU asked a question he could not answer: what happens to all those radio towers once phones are 5G?

This is the most transparent conversation about private aviation economics the show has had. Real numbers, not brochure language. What a turboprop runs against a midsize jet. What Dallas to New Orleans costs round trip, everything in. Why ownership carries roughly $800,000 a year in fixed overhead before you buy the plane and before you burn a gallon of fuel. How charter, fractional and outright ownership actually compare, and why family offices keep choosing pay as you go over a five year fractional contract.

Then the part nobody publishes. The operator who books your jet, quietly swaps it for a cheaper one and calls it a mechanical. The catering order that never made it onto the plane in Kentucky. The liability you take on when you let a friend just pay for the fuel and pilots. Why buyers sign NDAs to keep a tail number quiet, why someone once sat at Love Field with binoculars, and why charter became the anonymous option for executives who would rather not be tracked.

David Henry is the founder and CEO of Vue Jet, a Dallas based private aviation brokerage and worldwide charter company that buys and sells aircraft and sources flights from thousands of vetted operators. Before aviation he spent 18 years at CBS Radio in Dallas-Fort Worth. He is a graduate of the SMU Cox School of Business and teaches a private aviation seminar, "Jets for Dummies," for Tiger 21 and R360.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 Three ways to fly, and the real math

05:20 What COVID did to private aviation

08:42 Charter costs, turboprop to Gulfstream

09:34 Dallas to New Orleans, all in

10:58 The industry's gotchas

17:01 The student who asked about 5G

24:44 $800,000 a year before fuel

32:28 The liability of lending your jet

38:50 Tracking tail numbers to front-run deals

50:21 The debit account model

Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect

Vue Jet: vuejet.com

Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW

Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X

The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Security National Bank.

"If the president of the United States walks in the room, what's your ask?" Bill Bradley put that question to Kneeland Youngblood decades ago.

More on Kneeland Youngblood and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/kneeland-youngblood

He did not have an answer, and it reorganized his career. Youngblood practiced emergency medicine for 12 years at Parkland and Plano before leaving the ER to build Pharos Capital Group, a Dallas and Nashville private equity firm focused on middle market healthcare that has now completed 33 investments and manages more than $650 million.

The turn came as a cold call to the emergency room. A nurse handed him the phone mid shift: Don Williams, the CEO of Trammell Crow, calling a doctor he had never met about a Texas tax policy committee. Youngblood took the seat, took the jet to Austin alongside the managing partner of Goldman Sachs in Dallas, looked around the cabin and understood that he had money and no leverage.

What follows is the mechanics of access. How to build an actual thesis for why someone should hand you a board seat before you ever meet them. Why he turned down the chairmanship of the Texas Medical Board to sit on a tax committee instead. How value based care went from a market of zero to roughly $300 billion, and why he expects $2 trillion inside 15 years. And why he took "M.D." off his business card on purpose.

Dr. Kneeland Youngblood is the founding partner, chairman and CEO of Pharos Capital Group. A graduate of Princeton and UT Southwestern Medical Center, he practiced emergency medicine for 12 years before moving into finance under the mentorship of Richard Rainwater, David Bonderman and Michael Milken. He has served on the boards of Gap, Starwood Hotels, Burger King, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Energy Future Holdings, Light and Wonder, the Milken Institute and Caltech, and has held mayoral, gubernatorial and presidential appointments including the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 "What's your ask?"

05:00 A family built on giving back

11:43 The Princeton advice that reset it all

20:52 Twelve years in the emergency room

25:32 The Bill Bradley question

27:32 The jet to Austin: "I had no juice"

29:55 Rainwater, Bonderman, and Milken

38:07 Founding Pharos, narrowing to health

58:07 Value-based care: $0 to $2 trillion

01:21:46 The greatest lie told to young people

Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect

Pharos Capital Group: pharosfunds.com

Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW

Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X

The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Sponsored by Capital Southwest and Security National Bank.

"It's projected we'll exceed Chicago as the third largest metro in the country by 2030." Ken Malcolmson gives the mechanics, not the brochure.

More on Ken Malcolmson and this episode: thedealtablepodcast.com/episodes/ken-malcolmson

DFW Airport is third in the world by passenger volume behind Atlanta and Dubai and is midway through a $12 billion capital improvement project with a new Terminal F. Love Field went from a projected 8.5 million passengers to 18.5 million this year, with a $2.5 billion rebuild breaking ground in 2027. The convention center rebuild is $3.5 billion. Scotiabank came down to Charlotte or Dallas and picked Dallas for roughly a thousand jobs.

He credits culture as much as cost. Ross Perot's framing of hard advantages against soft ones, and the soft one that closes deals: Goldman Sachs came in part because the chief executive's daughter went to SMU. Fidelity now has more employees in Dallas than in Boston, Wells Fargo built a $450 million campus in Las Colinas, and Dallas will be the only city in the country with three exchanges.

He also names the weakness. Autonomy is the enemy: a 14 county region with 16 cities over 100,000 people that will not go to Austin with one voice. Plus the density argument, since almost all of the city's property tax revenue comes from downtown, Uptown and Preston Center, and the 2019 tornado that destroyed the Chamber's building and ended up funding an endowment.

Ken Malcolmson is president emeritus of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, which he led until February 1. He spent his corporate career at Humana and serves on roughly nine boards, including the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas.

KEY MOMENTS

00:00 DFW's $12 billion capital project

01:36 Passing Chicago by 2030

03:39 Ross Perot's hard advantages

04:26 "Culture wins": Goldman and SMU

11:56 Love Field: 8.5 million to 18.5

15:06 "We need to get used to more density"

17:29 The $3.5 billion convention center

30:20 "Autonomy is the enemy"

48:36 The tornado that took the building

54:06 Scotiabank picks Dallas

Newsletter: thedealtablepodcast.com/connect

Lane Carrick on selling a business, The Optima Advantage: amzn.to/48nLElW

Follow The Deal Table: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X

The Deal Table is hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick, filmed in Dallas, and produced by Harper Belmont Media.

Sponsored by Capital Southwest.