Dry Powder: The Private Equity Podcast
David Sambur has spent more than two decades at Apollo Global Management—long enough to watch private equity mature from a wide-open field into a crowded, competitive industry.
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“In general, we try to avoid—and we're successful in avoiding—competitive situations,” David says. “In other words, we're not waiting for the phone to ring.”
Today on Dry Powder, I’ll ask David how his investment team sources deals in what he calls the “less trafficked” parts of the market. We’ll see how a combination of scale and deep sector expertise enables Apollo to pursue complex deals—the type of deals that only a handful of firms could realistically execute.
“It doesn't guarantee you're getting a bargain or you’re getting a good price,” David explains, “and we're taking risk in exchange. We're seeing something, and we're willing to bet on something, that other people aren't seeing, and you should get paid for that bet.”
We’ll also see how that discipline extends to a strikingly disparate set of sectors, from casinos to automotive suppliers to airlines, and how great ideas tend to spread from one industry to the next.
“Although it's industry-based sourcing,” David says, “although it's with industry experts and leading management teams, we take a good idea that we see in one place and we all talk about it on Monday and then we share it in four or five different places—and it's that culture that I think is very unique to Apollo.”
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.
First published in mayo 2026