I’ve sat on both sides of the table.

Two years into my career I quit a perfectly good corporate job to start my first business. It was held together by ignorance and duct tape, and it didn’t last. It taught me more than any job could.

Since then I’ve spent more than 30 years in business: flying around the country on large technology projects, then serving twice as CEO and twice as COO, mostly in B2B software. For 12 of those years I worked inside private-equity-backed companies. I’ve led more than 15 acquisitions, been through two exits to private equity, and worked as a subject-matter expert in PE due diligence.

That’s where I learned what buyers actually look at. Not the logo or the culture deck, but the levers: how predictably you win customers, what each customer is worth, how long they stay, and how much of the business depends on you.

For the last eight years I’ve coached CEOs and founders across software, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and wellness. Many clients stay for years. The common thread is simple: small improvements across every lever compound into a far more valuable company.

I also hold a PhD in organization development, which mostly means I’m interested in how people actually make decisions under pressure.