Yards After the Catch with TA’s Hythem El-Nazer

Previously on Dry Powder, I asked Hythem El-Nazer, comanaging partner of TA Associates, how the firm finds the time—and the manpower—to sift through 40,000 companies each year. Now we turn our attention to what TA does the day after the deal closes.

You can listen to this episode of Dry Powder and catch future episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you may listen.

“Our business, and I mean private equity, has really seen a heightened emphasis on what I describe as yards after the catch,” Hythem says. “What are you gonna do when you catch the ball?”

To drive those extra yards, TA has built a 40-person Strategic Resource Group (SRG) that works shoulder to shoulder with deal teams and management, effectively blurring the line between sourcing, investing, and operating.

“The day after the investment, we start building the exit deck,” Hythem says. “What does the business need to look like in five years? And we start mapping back to all the initiatives we need to work on.”

I ask Hythem how the SRG helps flesh out those initiatives, how that differs from the traditional approach to value creation, and how it can yield surprising benefits from day one of the deal all the way out to exit strategies.

MORE PODCASTS

The Private Equity Podcast

In our podcast series, Bain's Hugh MacArthur interviews leading experts on the trends and opportunities that will redefine the private equity industry.