All right.
We made it.
Welcome everyone.
So even though no one is probably asking how we started, I think it's important that we
share our origin story here today, just to get things kicked off on the right foot, so
to speak.
So James, correct me if I'm wrong, but we were in Atlanta.
It was a long day in the car.
I forget where we were driving from and to, but we were doing some work together and we
were talking about a lot of different things in the car that day.
Our business, some of our clients' businesses, some trials and tribulations that we were
having, they were having.
And from the back seat, I believe it was the gentleman who is now known as Producer Matt.
He was just Matt at the time, but Producer Matt planted the idea that maybe we should
start a podcast.
Is that right, James?
Am I remembering that right?
Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, I think we latched onto that idea primarily because it was something that
we had kind of toyed around with for the last couple of years.
You know, I've seen obviously that channel or that medium growing in popularity.
We've had a lot of banter back and forth over the years, worked together for about five
years now, and we thought it would be a good idea.
So who knows?
Maybe we'll get no listeners.
We may be the only people to ever hear this first recording, but we'll see where we go
from there.
And I'm glad Matt gave us the suggestion and I'm glad that we're giving it a shot, right?
So welcome everyone.
And James, out of curiosity, how much time did it take you to buy the equipment we needed
for this podcast recording?
Well, to buy was quite quick.
The copious amounts of research and toiling was the thing that really took the longest.
But about 14 clicks and three shipments later, we got it all in.
Here we are.
Excellent.
It's also important to share with folks that I think coming up with the name was probably
the hardest part.
I was pretty dead set on the first name that I came up with.
And for those of you who don't know, James and I, we share a lot in common, work-wise,
personal-wise.
We're both recently turned 40.
And the idea that I had was that we should call the podcast Middle Aged in the Middle
Market because I thought it reflected where we were in our lives.
I think our wives voted that down.
Was that correct?
Yeah.
And we felt like maybe Growing EBITDA was a little bit more relevant to what it was that
we were trying to convey expertise in.
So here we are, Growing EBITDA.
We're running with that until somebody tells us that we can't.
So here we go.
So let's talk for a minute, James, about what this is.
What are we trying to do here?
The Growing EBITDA podcast, we're trying to unlock management and technology insights
or share management and technology insights in the middle market, right?
Where we spend the vast majority of our time and have spent the vast majority of our careers.
We're going to cover a range of topics, all focused on growing EBITDA in middle market
companies.
For those of you who are less familiar with what EBITDA means, we're going to cover that.
But the key takeaway there with the name should just be, we're trying to grow businesses,
right?
We're trying to grow profitable businesses under control.
And hopefully our listeners will gain some knowledge from whatever it is that we end
up sharing with them over time.
And hopefully we'll get some guests to join us so we can actually have some experts on
the line.
I think that's probably a first step in the right direction.
And we get some actually smart people on here.
Definitely.
So looking forward to that.
What we're going to talk about, digital and tech.
Obviously, James, where you spend a lot of your time, operations management and operations
efficiency, something near and dear to our hearts at TriVista.
We'll talk a little bit more about TriVista in a few minutes.
And private equity, which is increasingly a hot topic in the middle market.
And then last but not least, like we talked about, we're going to have some experts on
who are going to share their career stories and hopefully some insights and some knowledge
and best practices that they've learned growing their respective companies.
Really excited.
So what do you think?
Introduce ourselves a little bit.
Sure.
Hopefully people are still listening.
Who knows if they make it to this point.
Hopefully your bio won't bore them too much.
But give it a shot.
Tell us who you are.
Yeah.
So James Bandy.
I've been at TriVista for five years, but prior to that began my career owning my own
business, starting out really kind of growing my own EBITDA from scratch and experiencing
that.
So I got to live and learn in that.
And then I went in to go work at corporate organizations throughout North and South America
and then did some work in Europe for a while as well.
I really focused on the operational side of IT and then e-commerce and digital transformation.
And I joined TriVista about five years ago to launch a digital and technology practice.
And Mike, now I help companies get more other technology investments.
Yeah.
And you guys have been doing a great, great job with that.
Been one of the fastest, the fastest growing part of our business since you joined.
So we're excited to have you.
I'm pumped to be here with you.
And I've learned a lot from you about technology and I'm sure everybody else will too.
So I'm Mike McSweeney, also a partner at TriVista.
My background, considerably different than yours.
I started working for a large Fortune 300 business, large industrial conglomerate.
Fairly early on in my career though, I had an opportunity to start TriVista with some
of our other partners and spent a lot of my career building an advisory business where
I ultimately transitioned about five or six years ago to running an investment business
called TriVista Capital.
We'll talk about that a little bit more later.
My background really is in the private equity ecosystem, fairly deep in operations, but
consider myself really an expert in private equity and M&A.
Also have a strong background in sales and marketing.
So very different yet hopefully for our listeners, complementary skill sets.
We'll get the banter going here pretty soon too, once we get through this first episode.
So who is TriVista?
Well, we're a leading operations and technology consulting firm.
We help middle market companies streamline their processes, enhance productivity and achieve
sustainable growth.
We do a lot of work in the mid-market.
We do a lot of work in the private equity ecosystem.
That's where we started and that's where we're still very active today.
Although we do a lot of work outside of that realm as well.
Who is TriVista Capital?
I mentioned earlier, I run TriVista Capital.
That's the strategic co-investment affiliate of TriVista Consulting.
In that business, we align TriVista's broader interests with those of some of our private
equity clients.
So I spend most of my time collaborating with those clients on co-investments and helping
to grow and improve the value of some of those entities.
So not dissimilar from the work that the consulting group does just in a slightly different capacity,
more of a complementary capacity.
So what are our goals with this podcast, James?
My opinion, hopefully provide some valuable insights to folks, help them make some informed
decisions, drive their own growth, maximize their own companies, EBITDA, and who knows,
maybe create kind of a community where business leaders can learn from other industry experts
and share their experiences.
We're trying for bi-weekly aspirational goal.
I think we can do it.
You think we can do it?
100%.
I think we can do that.
Episode format is going to change a little bit probably from episode to episode, do some
interviews, do some topical focused episodes, and who knows what this will evolve into.
So don't miss out on the upcoming ones.
Subscribe on wherever it is that you even listen to podcasts.
I'm still learning about the podcast game.
I use Spotify.
Apparently, Apple has their own podcast thing.
I'm sure there's like 15 more.
James probably knows all of them.
And follow us on Travis's LinkedIn for updates and other content we might post there.
And we want this to be informative and also engaging.
So if you're an audience member, you have topics that you want us to address, give us
a shout.
Email, drop us a DM as the kids would say.
There, James, you like that?
Yeah.
And thanks for tuning into our first episode.
If you're listening to this, know that you're listener number one.
And we're hopefully going to get 10 or 12 over the next couple of years.
We'll see.
We'll see how we go.
Thanks everyone.
Bye bye.