0:00

Hello, I'm Ted Sides, and this

0:02

is Capital Allocators. This

0:10

show is an open exploration of

0:13

the people and process behind capital

0:15

allocation. Through conversations with

0:17

leaders in the money game, we learn

0:19

how these holders of the keys to

0:21

the kingdom allocate their time

0:23

and their capital. You

0:25

can join our mailing list

0:27

and access premium content at

0:30

capitalallocators.com. All

0:32

opinions expressed by Ted and podcast guests

0:34

are solely their own opinions and do

0:36

not reflect the opinion of capital allocators

0:38

or their firms. This podcast is for

0:41

informational purposes only and should not be

0:43

relied upon as a basis for investment

0:45

decisions. Clients of capital allocators or podcast

0:47

guests may maintain positions in securities discussed

0:49

on this podcast. My

0:52

guest on today's sponsored insight

0:54

are Chad Sumi and Mike

0:56

Vith, partners at E-Gateway Capital,

0:58

a Cincinnati-based thesis-driven firm that

1:01

focuses on growth stage enablement

1:03

technologies that drive the future

1:05

of digital supply chains, marketing,

1:08

and commerce. Our

1:10

conversation covers their path to

1:12

creating E-Gateway, their investment strategy,

1:14

and process. Chad and

1:17

Mike highlight the firm's regional and

1:19

relationship-based sourcing and value-out opportunities

1:21

that benefit from the importance

1:23

of the Midwest in supply

1:25

chains and commerce. Before

1:28

we get going, my son Ryan wants

1:30

to share his take on spreading the

1:32

word. When I'm

1:34

warming up for a wrestling match, I

1:37

jump some rope and get focused by

1:39

listening to anything but the

1:41

Capital Allocators podcast. It's

1:44

not that my dad can't help you compound

1:46

capital, but let's just say it doesn't help me

1:48

get pumped up for matches. But

1:50

for any other use case, I'd highly recommend this

1:52

show. Thanks so much for spreading

1:55

the word about Capital Allocators. Please

1:57

enjoy my conversation with Chad Sumi.

1:59

to me and Mike. Chad,

2:03

Mike, thanks so much for joining me. Ted,

2:05

thanks for having us. Well, why

2:07

don't we start with your respective backgrounds?

2:10

And Chad, I know there's a path before

2:12

investing for you. Why don't we dive right

2:14

into that? Yeah, I definitely

2:16

have taken a non-traditional route. I

2:19

started my career after the Naval Academy and

2:21

submarines in the back of an engine room.

2:23

I had a wonderful time and experience in

2:25

the service, climbed out of

2:27

a hatch and found myself at Procter & Gamble.

2:30

I was really a formative state to understand

2:32

the consumer at such a great company and

2:34

the maker of big brands and

2:37

spent most of my time in baby care, their

2:39

biggest division around the globe, marketing

2:41

baby diapers. Funny enough, I have a family

2:43

of four, so it was very apropos. Ended

2:46

up on a smaller brand that we were taking

2:48

digital and really became enamored

2:50

with the tech space and digital

2:53

solutions that were helping brands grow

2:55

and jumped into one of our

2:58

partners, coupons.com, and

3:00

had a wonderful eight-year experience

3:03

helping that company grow from a

3:05

variety of different positions, running sales, ultimately

3:08

becoming their chief

3:10

operating officer, chief strategy officer, and

3:13

serving both CPG space and

3:16

retail. Started out digitizing

3:18

promotions and went into digital media and being

3:20

pioneers of what today is one of the

3:22

fastest spaces in all digital

3:24

media, which is retail media. So

3:27

we launched some of the first media

3:29

platforms for big retailers

3:31

like Albertson Safeway and Dollar General and

3:33

others. And it was just a really

3:35

fun space to be pioneering

3:37

and setting the course forward, which

3:40

then brought me to E Gateway. In 2020, Mike

3:43

and I and some other partners came

3:45

together with a shared vision to really

3:47

build a firm and not just

3:49

a fund. That was my non-traditional

3:52

route to investing. So

3:54

Chad, before we turn this over to Mike, I got to

3:56

have you bring me through some of these three big steps

3:58

along the way. years in

4:00

the submarine, what do you learn

4:02

most from that experience that's carried you through today?

4:06

Oh my gosh, I always say close the hatch

4:08

for six months and you can get a lot

4:10

done. I've tried to bring that experience into my

4:12

civilian life. I was a young

4:14

person and the most formidable experience of

4:16

any person that's ever served is a

4:18

higher order call and mission,

4:20

which I really respect to this day. And

4:23

it was such a gift to serve our

4:25

nation. The submarine community, it's a

4:27

small tight-knit community. So there's a lot of

4:29

high stakes environments that give

4:31

you places to really learn leadership

4:33

early on in high pressure

4:35

situations. There's a

4:38

22-year-old, 23-year-old walking on a submarine and

4:40

suggesting that you have a division that's

4:42

quote unquote reporting to you. They've

4:44

lost more knowledge than you'll ever have. So

4:47

that line and understanding of how to lead

4:49

others is just ingrained to you from day

4:51

one. What were some of

4:53

those big leadership lessons? You

4:55

quickly learn that leadership is not a title

4:58

when you're a young ensign on

5:00

a submarine commanding head of a division

5:02

of enlisted folks that have just a

5:04

tremendous amount of knowledge more than you

5:07

ever have. You have to earn their

5:09

respect and to earn respect is hard

5:11

work. And I think on

5:13

a submarine to earn your qualifications, it's

5:15

a tough environment and it's through

5:17

just doing that work every day

5:19

that your ultimate ability to

5:21

lead others comes from that. And

5:24

so you learn quickly, it's not what rank you

5:26

are, it's what you're bringing to others around. At

5:30

that early age, how did you think about what it

5:32

was you were bringing to the others? It's

5:34

a really good question because in the military, it's

5:37

a lot of specific knowledge around what

5:40

you're leading. In our case, it was a

5:42

nuclear reactor and an engine room and driving

5:44

a ship. And so when you

5:46

walk on, you don't have a lot of knowledge at all and

5:49

you don't feel very well equipped. Let's

5:51

just start eating, start going

5:54

in and learning very methodically,

5:56

academically, and then in a practicum.

6:00

going situation by situation and over

6:02

time you start to gain confidence.

6:04

The military is a unique training ground because

6:07

you become unconsciously competent more

6:09

so than any experience I've

6:11

had to date through

6:13

a tremendous amount of preparation. You

6:16

can start acting without thinking and

6:18

those are the type of environments that we were living in every

6:21

day. So P&G for

6:23

a long time had this great

6:25

brand training program. I'd love

6:27

to hear what you were in

6:29

there and how you think about applying it today. I

6:33

joke often and say I just went from

6:35

one uniform into a next. Proctor

6:37

they put on khakis and a blue shirt

6:40

versus a military uniform, but it was

6:42

such a formative experience for me coming out

6:44

of the service. Maybe you can't

6:47

rely upon all the training that I had and

6:49

go into a world that's just centered on something

6:51

so different at the time on the consumer. There's

6:54

so much I took away from Proctor is

6:56

just one big training ground. There's

6:59

very few companies that have

7:01

had just amazing success over a

7:03

hundred years of building

7:05

great brands and it was

7:07

just such an opportunity to learn

7:10

from so many great people, great

7:12

brands all centered around

7:14

a common belief that the consumers

7:16

at the center of everything. The

7:19

big takeaways for me of my Proctor six and

7:21

a half years was just

7:23

to always be the consumer first.

7:26

They also taught of communication skills. Everything at

7:29

Proctor is a one-pager. I still try to

7:31

do that to this day of

7:33

just being able to concisely share your

7:35

thoughts and rationale for why you have

7:37

your beliefs. The people you get

7:39

to work with it sounds trite, but

7:42

I think as we go through our careers and Mike

7:44

and I will share our journey, a big part of

7:46

starting a gateway was this desire

7:48

to be around people we wanted to build

7:50

something with. I would say it's more

7:52

wisdom with age, but you don't respect it

7:54

probably early on, but it is Proctor is

7:56

just having the opportunity to be around such

7:58

quality human. beings was something

8:01

that I still take with me today.

8:04

As you're trying to drive profitability of a brand,

8:06

really curious how much of that is some

8:08

form of science and how much of it is

8:10

some form of art. It's

8:13

a combination of two. I mean Proctor is really

8:15

good on the machine of efficiencies of driving out

8:17

costs out of it. You have

8:19

just an incredible access to

8:22

scaling operations, which

8:24

is something also is a gift to be

8:26

exposed to early in your career of

8:28

just doing things on a big amount of scale.

8:32

But really the art comes in

8:34

just having an appreciation for talking

8:36

and engaging with consumers and

8:38

really building a relationship. I share that

8:41

I spent most of my career on

8:43

the baby care brands and that's a

8:45

unique dynamic. It's Proctor's biggest brand. I

8:48

jokingly say, Ted, there's probably a handful

8:50

of brands that translate every language in the

8:52

world called McDonald's and Budweiser and Coca-Cola

8:54

and Pampers is one of them. So

8:57

just to get a grasp to do

8:59

that at such level across so many

9:01

cultures and ethnicities, it's just remarkable that

9:04

you have such a tight-knit understanding of

9:06

what moms care about. And

9:08

to see that across such massive

9:10

scales of country and language barriers

9:13

was quite remarkable. So to your question, it

9:15

really is an art and a science. You're

9:18

only as good of what you were yesterday. You

9:21

have to build that relationship with every new

9:23

mom on a day-to-day basis and

9:26

you can't rest on your laurels. When

9:28

you're coming in to work with a brand that's been

9:30

around for as long as Pampers, how

9:32

do you think about driving incremental

9:34

value over what was already there

9:36

at Proctor for so many years?

9:40

Incremental is a word used often

9:43

at Proctor, whether it's measuring your

9:45

media, what incrementality am I driving

9:47

versus just talking to moms that

9:49

are already buying Pampers.

9:52

When I think incremental, I think it goes

9:54

back to what I just mentioned. There's new

9:57

moms coming into the category every day. And

10:00

you have to earn their trust. I

10:04

just was blessed to have worked on such an unbelievable

10:07

brand that carries

10:09

such trust with moms. And

10:12

to earn that trust has

10:15

to be one each and every moment that

10:17

they're putting a product on their most

10:20

valuable thing that they've ever had, their

10:22

new baby. I view

10:24

it as incremental as just simply waking

10:27

up every day, putting your boots on and

10:29

saying, I have to do the work today because yesterday

10:31

really didn't matter. So

10:33

when you moved from the big conglomerate to

10:35

the faster paced digital ad tech

10:37

business, what did you learn

10:40

from being in that environment that was different from

10:42

what you had seen at Proctor? I

10:45

think the biggest thing was I was wired

10:47

for a little faster environment. I think Proctor

10:49

was wonderful. My last assignment there, I was

10:51

working on a North American brand where we

10:54

got to restage it completely. And I actually,

10:56

I think my biggest fame at Proctor

10:58

was I put my daughter on pack. So

11:00

she was on every size two loves diaper in

11:02

America. She loves that, that we walked

11:04

into Walmart and saw her on the wall. It was so

11:06

fun. I think what I

11:08

realized is I had an entrepreneurial appetite

11:11

that I really didn't exercise much in

11:13

the Navy and in my first chapter

11:15

at Proctor. And I

11:17

exercised in my last assignment and just as we

11:19

were taking the brand digital, we got to see

11:22

the environment of tech out in Silicon

11:25

Valley that was working so closely with

11:27

all of our brands. Just

11:29

how everything was changing, the speed of movement

11:32

and the opportunity for growth, which attracted me.

11:34

So I think that was the first inkling

11:36

that I would really desire to be in

11:38

a faster growth environment. And it proved to

11:40

be true. Jumping into my next chapter, I

11:42

couldn't have written it up. It was just such

11:44

a fun hyper growth experience in the eight years

11:47

that I was blessed to be part of it.

11:50

We took the company public. We

11:52

changed our name from coupons.com to

11:54

Quotient Technology. And we just

11:56

kept on reinventing ourselves every six months. It

11:59

just gave me so much. such an

12:01

appreciation for speed and changing environments and

12:03

just how fast you had to respond

12:05

in the world of tech and digital.

12:09

One last question, and then we'll turn it over

12:11

to Mike's perspective, which is, how

12:14

did you end up deciding to leave

12:17

joining up with Mike and others

12:19

informing you gateway? The

12:21

opportunity presented itself actually during

12:23

COVID. You could call us

12:25

COVID babies, because that's when we decided to come

12:28

together and build a firm. Really,

12:30

it all came together

12:32

somewhat providentially. Never

12:34

having worked together, we formed a

12:36

unique team, finding a wide range

12:38

of both operator experience and

12:41

investment experience. While

12:43

all of our team brought super

12:45

diverse expertise, it just was all

12:47

in different arenas. We weren't

12:50

your traditional emerging manager profile at all,

12:52

meaning we didn't specifically have a track

12:54

record of running past funds or the

12:56

return profiles that accompany them. We

12:59

did, though, however, share a common vision

13:01

to build a firm and

13:03

not simply a fund. We

13:05

often say that in the words, growth

13:07

capital, too much emphasis has been put

13:09

on capital. It's become somewhat

13:11

of a commodity. Our

13:14

interest on the other hand was to focus on the

13:16

word growth. We thought

13:18

there was a lack of operator expertise

13:20

and true knowledge around growth. And

13:22

our desire was to help these companies

13:24

in an impactful way reach their revenue

13:26

goals. So Mike

13:29

and I, along with three other

13:31

partners in early 21 formed

13:33

the gateway capital. And with Mike and I

13:35

both being from Cincinnati, we shared a strong

13:37

desire to raise the profile of our region.

13:40

We were both united from the beginning in the belief

13:42

that capital will play the most

13:45

important role in seizing its future

13:47

growth opportunities. Well, Mike, I'm

13:49

guessing that in that blend of operating and

13:51

investing that Chad's the operator. So why don't

13:54

you bring me back in your path on

13:56

the investing side? Sure, Ted.

13:59

Yeah, so why? I used to wear a

14:01

uniform too, not in the military service,

14:03

but eGateways populated with a lot of

14:05

former athletes as well as

14:07

seasoned folks from the private equity space. My

14:10

background after playing basketball at a small division

14:13

two school in Florida was I

14:15

always wanted to be an investor, but

14:17

I wanted to live in Cincinnati and

14:19

there weren't many investment firms in Cincinnati in

14:21

the early 2000s. We

14:24

talked about brands earlier. I turned to a big

14:26

brand at the time, Merrill Lynch, thinking it was

14:28

an investment job and quickly

14:30

found out it was the ultimate entrepreneurial

14:32

experience. But I learned a lot about

14:35

investing there. I learned a lot

14:37

about how to build a business

14:39

and build a firm and what

14:41

a good partnership is and what a not

14:43

so good partnership is. So I learned a

14:45

lot that's helped shape what we're trying to

14:47

build here at eGateway through that process. Along

14:50

the way, 0809 happened. I

14:52

really had a chance to pick my head up, look

14:55

around and see what clients,

14:57

the private client world deserved, what they

14:59

were asking for, listening to the customer.

15:02

And they were asking for things that I couldn't provide at Merrill Lynch.

15:04

So I ended up leaving to go

15:06

to the fiduciary model, spent time

15:08

at an independent firm and then launched a

15:11

multifamily office platform with some partners. And

15:13

we did a lot of very unique

15:15

investing into bonds and direct investments. And

15:17

so I like you have seen a

15:20

lot of investment firms over time, the

15:23

good, the bad, the other. So I think I'm

15:25

trying to learn from my past and from

15:27

all the people that I've met to

15:29

build a special type of firm as Chad

15:31

mentioned. And a lot of those

15:33

elements come into being thesis driven as opposed to

15:35

a generalist firm, staying focused,

15:38

being the right size for the team in terms of

15:40

the size of the fund and

15:42

being very much focused on to Chad's point, a

15:45

true partner that's on the field in

15:47

the arena with our portfolio companies, helping

15:50

them grow. We just believe

15:52

it's more fun and impactful that way. So

15:54

anyway, hopefully that brings to life my investment

15:56

background, but also spend time building firms as

15:59

well. Mike, you said two things at

16:01

the onset. I want to double click in a little bit.

16:03

One is that you knew you wanted to be involved in

16:05

investing. Where did that passion come from? I

16:07

can't think of a job that would be more fun

16:09

and really aligned with how I'm wired. As

16:12

a naturally curious person, I get to

16:14

spend time with and learn from some

16:16

very interesting and incredible entrepreneurs and leaders,

16:19

as well as go deep on themes and

16:21

trends that are shaping the future of the

16:23

economy to identify patterns. It's

16:25

also fun to be different and take a stand,

16:27

which is a natural part of being a successful

16:29

investor. I also have a passion to

16:32

serve and partner with others, and we get to do

16:34

that every day with our companies. Lastly,

16:36

I'm not sure if it's the athlete or the

16:38

middle child in me, but I do love to

16:40

compete. And investing to me is the ultimate form

16:42

of competition. As much as

16:44

I do have a passion for investing, I'm

16:47

even more passionate about building an investment business

16:49

and all that comes with starting, growing, and nurturing

16:52

a culture and a firm here at E-Gateway. Mike,

16:54

the other one is, you said you wanted to

16:57

be in Cincinnati. Now that isn't always something that

16:59

pops the top of people's heads in the investment

17:01

world. So where'd that come about? I'm

17:03

a middle child from a large middle

17:06

class Catholic family in Cincinnati that was

17:08

raised in the Jesuit education system where

17:10

the motto was meant for others. And there's just this community

17:14

component, the Midwest values, however

17:16

you want to say it, that as I always

17:18

take the long view, this is where I wanted

17:20

to raise my kids and

17:22

build a career. And so it's just a special place.

17:24

And I think all the people that

17:26

we engage with, a lot of our investors today are

17:28

from the region, but those that aren't, I

17:31

think they're getting appreciation for all that we have to

17:33

offer here in the greater Cincinnati area.

17:35

It's very important to us. And I think through

17:38

our efforts, we're trying to raise

17:40

the profile of what's going on

17:42

here in this corridor of commerce. How

17:44

did you guys come together? We've been

17:47

friends for a long time. Cincinnati is

17:49

often called the smallest biggest town. We

17:51

both came from big families all by different sides

17:53

of the river. I'm Mike

17:56

from Cincinnati. I'm from Kentucky. It's funny if you

17:58

knew us, we're both wired quite differently. But

18:00

over the years, it became evident as

18:02

our relationship grew that we shared a

18:05

lot of similar values and beliefs, specifically

18:07

things like gratitude, service, thinking

18:09

big, always with a purpose to

18:11

positively impact those around us. Our

18:14

firm intentionally signs off all of our

18:16

correspondence and emails to this day with

18:18

the words, with gratitude. And we

18:20

do this, Ted, because it captures our commitment to

18:22

serve and it's really authentically who we are. So

18:25

you both mentioned this idea of forming

18:27

a firm and not a fund. What does

18:29

that mean to you? I'll take

18:31

a stab at that. That was one of

18:33

the big onsets is we had an idea around

18:36

the platform to build something

18:38

to bring back these elements that we

18:40

thought were missing in a lot

18:42

of private capital and harkens back to its roots,

18:45

which was to be a partner to

18:47

our companies and to all of our stakeholders and

18:49

be beyond the check. We

18:51

also thought we'd form a firm

18:54

of lasting significance around bringing

18:56

a combination of operator-led with

18:59

investors because we thought there's just been some

19:01

expertise that's been missing in a lot of

19:03

firms that they've scaled. And

19:06

I think we have purposely, Ted,

19:08

built a product outside the bell

19:10

curve intentionally. And

19:13

we've done it through positive diversification

19:16

around our portfolio and our

19:18

thesis that we're investing in.

19:20

And we believe it has a lot of

19:22

tailwinds for the next couple of decades with

19:24

regards to our thesis. So

19:26

to encapsulate another commonality is

19:29

we often talk to BF service. Mike

19:31

mentioned the Jesuit background. I was the youngest of

19:34

a big family as well. But to

19:36

BF service is something we put front and

19:38

center to our entire stakeholder community, it's the

19:40

how we do things. And

19:43

I think when we think of a firm

19:45

and not just a fund, it all starts

19:47

with the same thing first on our scorecard

19:49

when we look at companies to invest in.

19:51

That is with people, our team.

19:55

And so we have brought together

19:57

a group with diverse backgrounds and

19:59

experiences. experience to serve this

20:01

higher order calling of how can we

20:03

serve our stakeholder community in a unique

20:05

way, our companies in an impactful

20:07

way post investment with their growth, but

20:10

also our community of investors. Where

20:13

do we meet them where they're

20:15

at? We've built a really strategic

20:17

community, LPs that have a ton

20:19

of expertise in and around the

20:21

areas that we're investing. So think

20:23

CPG and retail and supply chain

20:26

executives. And then last but not least,

20:28

when we think of firm and not a fund is to

20:30

reiterate some of the stuff around

20:32

our location, around the Midwest, we

20:34

think the Midwest is under

20:36

capitalized. We believe in that. We think there's

20:39

an arbitrage opportunity as a lot of US

20:41

industry sits here with not a lot of

20:43

the capital. And we think

20:45

most importantly, our region heads value

20:47

to our companies as a nexus

20:49

of industry that happens to overlay

20:52

with what we're investing behind. So

20:54

you have Procter & Gamble, the

20:56

world's largest consumer products good company

20:58

here. You have Kroger, one

21:00

of the countries and probably soon to

21:02

be largest standalone grocer if the Albertsons

21:04

merger were to go through. And then

21:07

you have maybe a third leg, which is

21:09

a center of supply chain. So

21:11

it is a geographic superiority of reaching a

21:13

vast majority of the US population within two

21:16

days. So you've always had our history rooted

21:18

from the Ohio River and the movement of

21:20

goods. And it's no different today. I happen

21:22

to have been on our airport board. Many

21:25

may not know that our airport sits in the

21:27

Northern Kentucky side of the river. So you

21:30

fly into Northern Kentucky and it serves

21:32

the Cincinnati region. But our

21:34

airport CPG had been on their board for

21:36

the last decade. And it's been such an

21:38

honor to watch our transformation into one of

21:40

the country's fastest growing cargo airports with

21:43

the Amazon mega hub for all

21:45

their air operations, putting their

21:47

home there over four years ago. And

21:49

then us being the North American hub

21:51

for DHL, their second largest

21:53

operation in the world. Then 100

21:55

miles south, Ted, you have UPS's

21:57

air operations in Louisville. What

22:00

we like to say is within 100 miles

22:02

of Cincinnati region, you have three of the

22:04

top four physical assets around the country, around

22:06

the movement of goods. So when

22:08

we think of firm and not a fund, there's some adjacent

22:11

stories of why we get up every

22:13

morning with a level of commitment that

22:15

we do believe is higher order, why

22:17

this team's come together to serve. We

22:19

do believe there's a communal aspect to what we're

22:22

doing and we're excited about it. So

22:24

Mike, if you bring what Chad said

22:27

together to build a firm that can

22:29

partner with companies serving this community and

22:31

their certain sectors, CPG, supply chain, how

22:34

do you turn that into an investment

22:36

strategy? Yeah, Ted, our

22:38

investment strategy centers around our belief that

22:40

the economy looks much more digital in

22:42

the decades to come. We

22:44

often say here at the firm that the

22:46

opportunity is big, it's early and it's urgent. To

22:49

be clear, we're more focused on the B2B

22:51

components of this digital transformation and the growth

22:53

stage technologies that are enabling this future of

22:56

commerce. We define commerce

22:58

across four distinct investment pillars. The

23:01

first is how things are made. The second

23:03

is how things are marketed. The third

23:05

is how things are sold. And the

23:07

fourth, ultimately, how things are distributed. When

23:10

we think of how things are

23:12

made, we think the technology is

23:14

driving advanced manufacturing or the sourcing

23:16

and procurement processes inside of large

23:18

companies. When we think marketed,

23:20

we think how new mediums like

23:22

video commerce platforms are driving consumer

23:24

engagement and how data is driving

23:26

measurable outcomes for brands and retailers.

23:29

When we think sold, we

23:31

think social commerce, B2B marketplaces,

23:34

FinTech, brand and price protection

23:36

online, and several more. And

23:38

when we think distributed, we think first, middle,

23:40

and last mile supply chain and logistics technologies.

23:44

What's the target company that you're

23:46

looking for? For

23:49

all the reasons we've talked about, we want to

23:51

engage differently. We want to be operator-led and bring

23:53

this expertise. That's all let us

23:55

down to go beyond

23:57

venture. We call it growth capital. What's

24:00

that mean? Growth Capital to us is

24:02

finding a company that has a validated product,

24:05

that has an established commercial market fit,

24:07

that's going upstream of call it north

24:10

of 10 million in reoccurring revenue

24:13

and has demonstrated an enormous

24:15

TAM around solving a problem

24:18

of our thesis is the future of

24:20

commerce, technology that's enabling that future of

24:22

commerce. So we think everything from early

24:24

supply chain, how things are sourced and

24:26

produced, we think how things are marketed

24:28

where I've spent most of my career,

24:30

how things are sold and transacted so

24:32

much is happening with omni-channel commerce and

24:34

we're very interested in all the pixels

24:36

and axes that have to be true

24:38

to make that world effective and efficient.

24:41

And then last our pillar we how

24:43

things are distributed and delivered. So

24:45

I've just described to you this value

24:47

chain of commerce, it's pretty linear, pretty

24:49

intuitive. Let's

24:52

turn to the investment process. Why don't you

24:54

take me through it? Any

24:56

great investment process starts with a great

24:58

sourcing engine. We're excited about both the

25:00

quantity and the quality of our deal

25:02

flow. As it relates to our diligence

25:05

process, of course it includes all the

25:07

standard legal, technical, commercial and general deal

25:09

diligence items. But the core of

25:11

our diligence process starts and ends with can

25:13

we be the most impactful investment partner to

25:15

the company? We go deep on getting

25:18

to know the management teams and the leadership styles

25:20

along with the company cultures. We

25:22

always look for talent magnets in our companies,

25:24

ensuring alignment on the cap table and good

25:26

governance at the board level is also very

25:28

important. Along with understanding the

25:30

competitive landscape and talking to a lot

25:32

of customers and potential customers about the

25:34

companies. Ultimately the purpose

25:36

of our diligence process is to determine if

25:38

we truly have an edge

25:40

that can deliver the outcomes that our investors

25:43

are expecting. We spend a lot

25:45

of time as a research driven firm going down

25:47

on each of those pillars into

25:49

the sector, into the sub sector,

25:51

identifying when companies are emerging at

25:53

the stage we are best a

25:55

fit to align ourselves with them. In

25:58

our first three years, most of them have all been. sourced from

26:00

companies we built relationships with over a

26:02

year in certain circumstances. And

26:05

our perfect scenario is doing exactly that.

26:07

We're a relationship led, we try every

26:09

day not to be transactional. We

26:12

think about what we're calling this eGateway edge.

26:14

Preinvestment we try to get to the

26:17

10 yard line is much faster than

26:19

generalists can. So when we

26:21

engage with the company, even on that

26:23

first engagement, often they can recognize that

26:25

we're bringing a level of expertise that's

26:27

just a little unique to being a

26:29

thesis driven firm. So that's

26:31

always a positive and we build relationships from

26:33

then on and our ask is simply to

26:35

be their first call. So and

26:37

the next time that they're raising, they think

26:39

of us to play a strategic capital role

26:41

in their cap table. We

26:44

just made our ninth investment over

26:46

the past two plus years and we feel

26:48

really good about how that process has occurred

26:50

of coming to us. Once

26:53

you're finding companies that sit into

26:55

your thesis, you see how

26:57

you might be able to add value in scaling. It's

27:00

a competitive world. And I'm curious

27:02

how you go about winning the deals you want to be

27:04

in. I think the short answer

27:06

is doing the work. I

27:08

think the biggest differentiation is doing what

27:11

you say you're going to do. I

27:13

think everybody mentions they'll add value post

27:15

investment and I think humans are

27:17

pretty predictable and a certain percentage of them

27:20

not doing that work. So

27:22

I think the biggest thing eGateway is trying

27:24

to live up to our commitment and we

27:26

take this super seriously. So

27:29

where that manifests itself is often doing work

27:31

prior to making the investment. So

27:33

it's not going and taking our word for

27:35

it but actually seeing those motions and that

27:37

muscle take place. We bring them in. We

27:40

have great corporate relationships. We're building across

27:43

the industries. We mentioned CPG and retail

27:45

and supply chain. We demonstrate some of

27:47

that value early on. I

27:49

think we've been very successful finding

27:51

human capital around what they need

27:53

as well. And as you know,

27:56

being in C as an operator, there's

27:58

nothing you value more. and finding

28:01

great people to help you reach

28:03

your objectives. We just try to

28:05

go about it methodically. We're not

28:07

going to be your everyday call,

28:09

just a deep trusted relationship that

28:11

there's expertise and competence around

28:14

what I need and what I need now. And

28:16

so what we spend a lot of time focused on

28:18

is impactful things

28:21

that we can do that

28:23

facilitate their growth. We

28:26

take this as our metric of success

28:28

every day and the best

28:30

references are companies and who's in seat

28:32

and we feel get every day there's

28:34

always more work to do but we're

28:36

doing what we set out to do. The

28:39

only build I have to that Ted is that one

28:42

of our core principles at the firm is having

28:44

an abundant mentality and we try to find that

28:46

in everybody that we partner with and so we

28:49

have 15-ish slots in this fund

28:51

and we're seeing so many companies. So

28:53

we're not scared of missing out on

28:55

anything and we have to really

28:57

find alignment as well as check all the

29:00

boxes from a quantitative perspective. How

29:02

do you engage with companies once they're

29:04

in your portfolio? Post

29:07

investment we really focus on organic

29:09

growth of helping at the go-to-market

29:11

side whether that be walking them

29:14

in to bigger customers often we

29:16

do that motion prior to investing.

29:18

We also take our network of human capital

29:21

around the go-to-market. We've had great success

29:23

putting chief revenue officers and VP of

29:25

sales and revenue ops experts into our

29:27

companies to help with the motions that

29:29

we think are really important at that

29:31

growth stage of scaling and then last

29:33

is M&A. One of our

29:36

partners is a longtime investment banker in this

29:38

space and we have a boutique M&A shop

29:40

that's under the eGateway banner and

29:42

if we can help with non-organic growth we're really

29:44

excited to do so. That's manifested

29:46

itself well with one of our

29:48

portfolio companies recently where we were

29:50

able to identify their first acquisition

29:52

and run the process and close

29:55

on really a non-organic growth

29:57

opportunity for them. ways

30:00

that we think every day, how can we

30:02

serve them, how can we be differentiated with

30:04

our backgrounds and expertise that we're bringing to

30:06

the market and that's how it's manifesting itself

30:08

today. You mentioned 15 slots

30:10

for portfolio companies. How do you

30:12

think about the construction of your portfolios

30:15

in each vintage? There's

30:17

inherent diversification as we talk about our

30:19

pillars. These businesses are all very

30:21

different and play differently in different cycles. We

30:24

love the diversification that's inherent in our

30:26

strategy. Middle of the

30:28

fairway for us would be if we're playing the

30:31

alphabet game of B or a C round and

30:33

that'll be the core of our portfolio and

30:36

we could go a little earlier or

30:38

a little later. That's an extension round all the

30:40

way up to a D round

30:42

but the core of the portfolio is going

30:44

to be that B or C round company

30:47

and we're reserving naturally about 20%

30:49

for follow-ons in the portfolio. We

30:51

monitor that very closely and talk

30:54

about it a lot because every pillar is not

30:56

going to be equally represented but they will all

30:58

be represented in the portfolio. One

31:00

build to that is our underwriting process

31:03

playing at this growth stage. It is

31:05

distinctly different from our view of venture

31:07

and a lot of that comes around

31:09

to the risk adjusted returns and the

31:11

profile looking for 3 to 5x return

31:13

profile in that similar time period. So,

31:16

investing in technology that's changing

31:18

commerce is most of our

31:20

companies are solving big problems

31:22

with big tamps. Generally

31:24

finding their plan to deliver greater

31:26

than a 5x is not

31:29

always super challenging. We spend

31:31

a lot of time though on the downside

31:33

protection that comes in a lot of forms.

31:36

We've seen structure return in the

31:38

marketplace in the form of liquidation

31:40

preferences. We're excited about that

31:43

as that gives you more beyond portfolio construction

31:45

of how we're looking at that return profile

31:47

as well. I'd love to

31:49

have you take me through an example, soup to

31:52

nuts and maybe start with the four

31:54

pillars and how each of

31:56

the four pillars exemplified what you were looking for

31:58

in this company. I'll take

32:00

you through the company called Overhaul. So

32:04

Overhaul sits on our how things are

32:06

distributed and delivered pillar. So

32:09

if you start with sourcing, Ted, we

32:11

identified supply chain visibility early on

32:13

as a space that we

32:16

really wanted to go deep on and find

32:18

an opportunity. Through those

32:20

efforts at the time, there's a couple of

32:22

big players that have raised a lot of

32:24

money, evaluations that we wouldn't

32:26

have been comfortable at, but we kept

32:28

at it. One of the co-investors of

32:31

a Fund One company gave us a

32:33

call and said, hey, I got this interesting company. It's

32:35

in Austin, Texas. They have an operation in

32:38

Dublin. Really incredible people, leaders.

32:40

And so when we hear that, we're naturally attracted

32:42

to it and said, okay, we'd love

32:44

to take a call. We spent about

32:46

10 months getting to know the Overhaul team. One

32:49

of our partners, Chad's classmate from the

32:51

Naval Academy, Josh Aewak, he spent

32:53

time going to the Dublin office meeting the team.

32:56

Some of us went down to Austin to meet

32:58

the team and just built this

33:00

relationship. They weren't raising capital, but

33:02

we really liked what we heard. And

33:05

they're doing something remote that we always look

33:07

for in our investments where there's this

33:09

supply chain visibility dashboard and platform

33:11

that others have built.

33:14

But Overhaul has this managed

33:16

service layer on top of

33:18

their technology. That's a

33:20

control tower that's really helping their customers.

33:23

So anyway, we're learning all these things and

33:25

they said, hey, we may be in the

33:28

market to raise some capital to make an

33:30

acquisition. When we do that, we'll

33:32

give you a call. And we got this

33:34

call from Barry, the CEO of Overhaul late

33:36

last year. And then we went

33:39

through our process, dug in, did our work and

33:41

actually brought them in to a

33:44

big corporate partner Innovation Day we

33:46

hosted. And so Overhaul saw the value

33:48

we could bring. They made space for us on this

33:50

race because there weren't many people invited to the party.

33:53

So that's sourcing to the

33:55

making the investment. And we're very involved

33:57

with helping them grow through Customer engagement.

34:00

That auctions. Quick. Overview on

34:02

their business. Ted is really interesting

34:04

their customers or. Think. High

34:06

value goods. So apple. Dell.

34:10

Microsoft. Bizer, Bristol

34:12

Myers, Some. Cold Storage where

34:14

they're. Tracking and monitoring the

34:16

environment of this high value cargo from

34:19

beginning point the endpoint. And

34:21

they have eyes. I mentioned this control tower

34:23

of. Tracking it so that

34:25

the routes are optimized to minimize

34:27

transport costs. But. Even more importantly,

34:29

should something happen? And. There's a lot

34:32

of stuff gets stolen all the time, specially

34:34

high value goods. Where. They can

34:36

actually drive the insight to action. With.

34:38

Er plugged into law enforcement agencies around

34:40

the world to recover this stuff. So

34:42

again, That's. Overhaul. it's or largest

34:44

position in the fond. We don't have

34:47

any favorite children. There. Are special

34:49

copy doing. Special thanks for lot of big brands.

34:52

That. A business like that mentioned based

34:54

in Austin said you think about.

34:57

We're. Cincinnati sits in

34:59

to. The. Or investable universe.

35:02

I'm glad you asked. That said, it's

35:04

a good clarification more not geographically bounce.

35:07

on any of our investment so nobody

35:09

should take their way. We're.

35:11

Excitement about building a foreign that happens

35:13

to be headquartered here. Are

35:15

thesis of investing around the future

35:17

of commerce happens to align well

35:20

with the historical a natural strengths

35:22

of the region. And

35:24

being undercapitalised both as a region

35:26

and then a smaller city within

35:28

Outreach and we're excited where he

35:30

gave can play a positive role

35:32

progressing our future forward over the

35:34

next two decades with disintegrates. Attractive

35:36

place to post scale. I had

35:38

that experience and my former company

35:40

we built Cincinnati as the Mountain

35:42

View Days Company and to our

35:44

largest global office. It's a great

35:46

place to scale a company. And.

35:49

So we're excited about that And that brings us

35:51

to your question. We. Really think

35:53

we're intersecting with gross stage

35:55

companies? They're all at this

35:57

s curve of scaling up.

36:00

And usually that's the same playbook

36:02

of going up the

36:04

food chain with bigger customers, but

36:06

also scaling their operations and

36:08

scaling people. And

36:11

we love to bring the story

36:13

of the region to these

36:15

companies where and when it makes sense. It's

36:17

not a requirement, of course, but

36:19

we have great alignment working with them every day

36:21

to help them with everything they're

36:24

trying to achieve and just build awareness around

36:26

the middle of the country, being a great

36:28

place to scale. And I think it's way

36:30

beyond cost benefits of not being on the

36:32

coast. It's really more around

36:34

being closer to your customer. So

36:37

much of US industry sits right here in the

36:39

middle of the country. And when you're a startup

36:41

moving to growth stage on the coast, sometimes serving

36:44

those customers as effectively as you need to,

36:47

as you're getting on bigger and bigger

36:49

enterprise accounts just becomes more difficult. So

36:52

I think that's the story we're sharing over

36:54

time. We think there's a great opportunity to

36:56

scale and it's already happening with several of

36:58

our portfolio companies here in the region and

37:00

where we can facilitate it. We view it

37:02

as a win for them, first

37:04

and foremost, and a win for Northern

37:07

Kentucky and greater Cincinnati. Who

37:09

is the team around you, this? Our

37:12

seasoned veteran on the squad is the gentleman by

37:14

the name of Mike Dutton. Mike

37:16

has lived and worked in the private

37:18

equity world for over 30 years, was

37:21

early on at the Carlyle Group and then moved

37:23

out west as he says to do

37:25

his service as the co-ed of private

37:28

capital at CalPERS. So

37:30

he has seated and advised a lot

37:32

of emerging managers like us. So not

37:34

to mention his network and wisdom around

37:36

seeing investments and making decisions, but

37:38

just what it takes to build a firm, not

37:40

just raise a fund. And so we're very

37:43

blessed to have Mike. He

37:45

lived in Covington, Kentucky for two and a half years

37:47

as we launched. And so we're very grateful to he

37:50

and his wife for doing that. They live

37:52

out in California. We mentioned

37:55

Josh A. Wadd. Josh is a Naval Academy

37:57

classmate of Chadd's. They go way

37:59

back in that respect. He

38:01

went to Harvard Business School and then was at Bain

38:04

consulting in tech and private equity

38:06

and then launched a portfolio of

38:08

direct-to-consumer pet brands. So

38:10

he has seen a lot of the picks

38:13

and shovels technologies we're investing in, has done

38:15

a lot of other investing along the way. So

38:17

tremendous asset to the team. Kevin

38:19

Gus Weiler is a Cincinnati native.

38:22

I have known Kevin for a long time.

38:25

He comes with a little more of an investment background

38:27

as well. He was at Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati

38:30

doing a lot of CorpDev and FinTech

38:32

investing. So he has a lot

38:34

of network around the FinTech world which falls in our

38:36

thesis there and then was at Fort Washington

38:38

Capital Partners which is inside

38:41

of Western and Southern before he helped

38:43

us launch eGateway. And

38:45

last but certainly not least is Mattie

38:47

McIntyre. Mattie is from

38:49

San Diego, played softball for Ohio State,

38:52

then worked at Ohio State fundraising for

38:55

many years, set up a leadership

38:57

institute and then was at a family

38:59

office before joining us about a year ago

39:01

and just recently moved to Cincinnati. So we're

39:04

adding to the population here in Cincinnati through

39:06

our efforts of building the firms of what

39:08

are you most excited about? Kevin Gus That's really

39:11

simple. Nothing fires us up more than

39:13

thinking about all the technology that is

39:15

driving the transformation in our economy. We

39:18

really do get excited about all the companies

39:20

in our portfolio focused on solving big problems

39:22

across the investment pillars that we've talked about.

39:25

Starting with how things are made, take a company like 80

39:27

Acres. It's a vertical

39:29

farm that is doing something that has never been

39:31

done in the history of mankind producing

39:34

food indoors at

39:36

scale and actually making money. Changing

39:39

an industry of farming and food production that

39:41

has been really the same for a millennia.

39:44

Then we go to our second pillar, how things are marketed.

39:47

Things like fireworks, bringing shoppable,

39:49

swipeable, shareable video directly

39:52

to brands all

39:54

outside the walled gardens of social media

39:56

platforms. Allowing brands to again

39:58

have a direct relationship with the company. consumer

40:00

and ultimately build a first party

40:02

data source or companies like

40:04

VidMob, an AI driven company

40:06

in our portfolio who's creating an

40:08

entirely new space in performance marketing,

40:10

a space called Creative Intelligence, helping

40:12

brand marketers try better outcomes with

40:14

their video creative than ever before.

40:16

We're also excited about our third

40:19

pillar, how things are sold and

40:21

transacted. Companies like Samcart, the

40:23

Shopify for the creator economy, an

40:25

AI driven platform that helps creators

40:28

monetize their following through online courses,

40:30

podcasts, coaching and tons of

40:33

other digital products. Our

40:35

companies in the social commerce space, I

40:38

want to announce but I just can't

40:40

yet but our next portfolio company actually

40:42

plays directly in this space. We couldn't

40:44

be more excited about the opportunities to

40:47

bring a social media experience and a

40:49

commerce experience more seamlessly together. And

40:52

Ted, last but definitely not least,

40:54

all the technology around supply chain.

40:56

Companies like Flowspace, what we call

40:58

the Airbnb of warehousing and fulfillment,

41:01

helping brands reach the consumer more

41:03

efficiently and effectively providing access to

41:05

warehouses throughout the country with a

41:07

turnkey technology. Or Cargomatic, a

41:10

digital freight marketplace connecting truckers to

41:12

credential demand from nine of the

41:14

top 10 retailers, getting

41:16

things through ports to the first point

41:18

of distribution. And Overhaul, referenced by Mike

41:21

earlier, is another exciting company playing in

41:23

a space that only gets more important

41:25

each day and that's supply chain security

41:28

and visibility. And last,

41:30

we're super excited about reverse

41:32

logistics, the world of return

41:34

merchandise, especially relevant right now

41:36

after the holiday season and

41:38

$820 billion problem actually and

41:41

that it's getting bigger every year. NOC,

41:44

our most recent investment is focused on

41:46

solving this problem for consumer electronics and

41:48

durable goods. What other

41:50

themes are you seeing around your investment thesis?

41:54

There's two themes that we're thinking a lot

41:56

about. We believe that every company

41:58

in the world has put a

42:00

new lens on their supply chain visibility,

42:03

but also resiliency. And

42:05

we think we're just in the super

42:07

early innings of thinking about

42:10

this because these aren't yearly changes.

42:12

They're decades long to move

42:14

their supply chains in an environment that's going

42:16

to be a little more resilient. I

42:19

don't know if I'm allowed to say there were

42:21

blessings that came out of COVID, but I do

42:23

think that every C-suite is still

42:25

in the, assess the landscape

42:27

to what changes are really going to

42:29

be made over the next decade when

42:32

it comes to maybe nearshoring

42:35

or looking at the entire algorithm that

42:37

took their supply chain

42:39

in one direction and making sure that

42:42

every variable in that

42:44

algorithm is one, still true,

42:46

and two, how important. So

42:49

that's something we really are interested in. We're

42:51

spending a lot of time thinking about on

42:53

both the front end of supply chain, but also the

42:56

back. The other area that we

42:58

believe in is this whole pendulum

43:00

shift between retail and CPG that's

43:02

occurred over the last 30 years

43:04

as the power pendulum has swung

43:06

so dramatically over to retail and

43:09

to the intermediaries of distribution that

43:12

have now become data powerhouses.

43:14

This is a relatively new phenomena. I

43:17

always use the analogy of P&G's size

43:19

to Walmart in the 1980s versus today.

43:21

It's quite different.

43:24

P&G makes up maybe

43:26

1% of Walmart's business and

43:28

Walmart makes up today. I'm using

43:31

round numbers, maybe 30% of

43:34

P&G's business. So where do you think the

43:36

power lies between those worlds to stick fully

43:39

bring it home just how much has changed

43:41

over the last three decades? CPG's

43:44

power was really around the

43:46

consumer and they brought retailers

43:48

such knowledge to how to win the

43:50

aisle, how to win the category. And

43:52

now today with digital playing such a

43:55

role in purchase data being the

43:57

source data that matters, retailers have the power to make

43:59

the product. And so it

44:01

will be interesting in our view of how

44:03

this plays out. Either CPGs are going to

44:06

have to reconcile the fact that their gross

44:08

margins are going to be cut in

44:10

half over time, which I doubt they're

44:12

going to come to that conclusion super easily.

44:15

But there's going to be a battle around

44:17

how to get back access to my consumer.

44:20

Direct to consumer is going to be lumpy, but

44:22

I can assure you that the next

44:24

two decades, every executive in both CPG

44:26

and retail is thinking about this orientation

44:29

of cost to serve, how

44:31

expensive and how to serve that

44:33

ecosystem more effectively. Where

44:35

do you want to play in that space in your

44:38

investments? So there's

44:40

a punch line that goes through

44:42

some of our investments that plays

44:44

towards the decentralization of big

44:47

functions like we've just been talking about. So

44:50

Firework is an example of a

44:52

digital video commerce company. So

44:54

think of them as shoppable,

44:57

swipeable, shareable video, similar

44:59

to a TikTok experience, but unlike

45:01

TikTok, not in a walled garden,

45:03

so not in an app where

45:05

they own all the data, but

45:07

instead in a very

45:09

decentralized approach, enabling that technology

45:11

to brands themselves to

45:14

put that shoppable, shareable, swipeable

45:17

video on their own brand

45:19

websites, on brand.com. Now why does that

45:21

matter? Well, getting first

45:24

access to first party data is going to

45:26

be very important and

45:28

is very important to every brand.

45:31

So they have the ability to directly

45:33

communicate and control their destiny. But to

45:35

do that, five players control 80% of

45:37

media spent. We

45:41

believe that has to revert back to the mean. brand.com

45:44

has to become more effective. And to do

45:46

that, they're going to have to engage with

45:48

the consumer in a way

45:50

that she wants to engage and consume

45:52

content. And that's not with

45:54

static sites anymore. So that's with live

45:57

shoppable. If you look at Asia as

45:59

an example. think they're out four to

46:01

five years in front of the US on

46:03

how to use video from

46:05

a concept of engaging the consumer. Live

46:08

feed, as an example, is blowing up

46:10

on that side of the world. Whether

46:12

that comes in its form over the US,

46:14

we shall see. But we definitely believe video

46:17

commerce is one way we

46:19

see helping brands retrieve some

46:21

of that back from retailers. What

46:24

have been some of the biggest challenges

46:26

in growing an emerging manager? It's

46:29

a virtual cycle that's hard to break.

46:31

So love your team, but no track

46:33

record. We

46:35

constantly suggest that there is a track record, but

46:38

just not in the traditional sense, and you go

46:40

around this. But it's something you

46:42

really just have to embrace. Mike and I

46:44

and the rest of the partners, this goes

46:46

back to building a firm over a fund.

46:48

We're on a journey. We're

46:50

committed to build something lasting. And

46:53

we're also committed to enroll

46:56

folks on that journey. Whenever

46:58

you're ready. So a

47:00

lot of folks aren't ready at the

47:02

emerging manager spot, and that's okay. I

47:04

really think it's getting out this

47:06

story of where are the advantages. I

47:09

think a lot of time, the connotation

47:11

and the emphasis on emerging managers is

47:13

negative. When data would

47:15

suggest, quite the contrary, data

47:18

would suggest that funds one through

47:20

three outperform. We believe that's

47:23

intuitive because we also believe very

47:25

firmly in alignment. And

47:27

we think there's a lot of alignments

47:29

and fund ones and twos and threes

47:32

that may depart in four, fives and

47:34

sixes. We also believe thesis,

47:37

not just because eGateway is taken. And

47:39

yes, we're biased, but we do believe

47:41

that we're bringing real differentiation.

47:44

We believe we built this firm to be

47:46

outside the bell curve intentionally. And

47:49

a lot of that is through how we're

47:51

investing with a thesis generated approach

47:53

where we can be research led

47:55

and find but also as an

47:57

operator led. I said in the beginning

48:00

of our discussion in growth capital, we

48:02

just believe at our core that more emphasis

48:04

needs to be put on growth and capital.

48:07

And we're finding that to be true and

48:10

the receptivity really high with our founders where

48:13

we're having ability to access. I

48:15

want to make sure I get a chance to ask you a

48:17

couple of closing questions. We'll

48:19

run through each with both of you. So what's your favorite

48:21

hobby or activity outside of work and family? Mike, why don't

48:23

you go ahead? I would

48:25

say running. I run every day. We have

48:28

five younger children building the

48:30

firm. It's my 50 minutes of quiet

48:33

thinking time. Chet? Fly

48:36

fishing. I love it. I'd say there's a few

48:39

things I've ever found where I'm more passionate about

48:41

something. And it's pretty easy. It just

48:43

unwinds me. I have a hard

48:45

time not moving at a fast speed and

48:47

I really appreciate fly fishing where it requires

48:49

just enough concentration to push everything out. What's

48:53

one fact that most people don't know about

48:55

you? My two front

48:57

teeth are completely fake. I got them knocked

48:59

out during college. One of the

49:01

more painful things I've ever been through. But yeah, the

49:03

kids have fun with that one too. I

49:07

don't think many people know that I'm the youngest of

49:09

a family of 10. I haven't been through

49:11

the military and some great experiences in my

49:14

life. I still hold true that it was

49:16

the most formative experience of my life. And

49:18

growing up in that slot of a big

49:20

family, the military gave me a whole new

49:22

level of adapt and overcome but I first learned at a

49:25

young age. What's your

49:27

biggest pet peeve? Being late. I

49:29

always tell my kids just respecting other

49:32

people's time is super important. Mine

49:34

would have to be when someone doesn't do what they

49:36

say they're going to do. All

49:38

right, Mike, which two people have

49:41

had the biggest impact on your professional life? Wow.

49:44

I'll start taking a partner in

49:46

life, whether it's your spouse or business

49:49

is the most important decision you'll make.

49:51

And I think I've

49:54

learned so much from Chad. We're very, very

49:56

different people. He inspires me in

49:58

many ways and we bring so much. many different things

50:00

at the table. And I would say that about the rest

50:02

of my partners. As hard

50:04

as this has been, it's been

50:06

the most enjoyable, impactful part

50:09

of my professional life because I'm around people

50:11

that do inspire me. And so I

50:13

would start there. And then obviously,

50:15

my father, he raised eight children, he and

50:17

my mother, and he had his

50:19

own law firm. And he is an entrepreneur. And

50:21

I've learned so much from him in many ways.

50:24

John? John Ligato Thanks, Mike. The feeling is

50:27

mutual. I've never been more inspired than over

50:29

the past three years launching Knee Gateway. I

50:31

feel very grateful for being on this journey

50:33

with you and the entire team and appreciate

50:36

the push to better myself each day. The

50:38

other person that comes to mind is a

50:40

friend who gave me an opportunity to be

50:42

successful at both P&G and Quotient. Despite

50:45

being a West Point graduate, he's a dear friend

50:47

to this day, and I'm grateful for him believing

50:49

in me. All right, last

50:51

one. What life lesson have you learned that you wish you

50:53

knew a lot earlier in life? Mike

50:55

Chilton Ownership. Somewhat attached

50:57

to that is launching a firm before

50:59

you have five kids. When

51:02

to take the risk? John Ligato Mike, Chad,

51:04

thanks so much for sharing your journey with

51:06

us. Chad Kupiec Likewise. Thanks, Ted. Mike Chilton

51:08

Thank you, Ted. Thanks

51:11

for listening to this sponsored insight.

51:14

Sponsored episodes are paid opportunities for

51:16

another 12 managers a

51:18

year to appear on the podcast.

51:21

If you're interested in telling your story

51:23

in front of the largest audience of investors

51:25

in the industry, please email

51:27

us at team at capital allocators.com

51:30

to apply for one of the

51:32

slots.