Subscribe to Smart Business Dealmakers
April 17, 2025
Announcing the Detroit Smart Business Dealmaker Award Winners and 2025 Dealmakers Hall of Fame Class
By Dealmakers Staff
We celebrated the accomplishments of the 2025 class of winners at the Detroit Smart Business Dealmakers Conference. See who we recognized!
February 6, 2025
University of Michigan’s Warde Manuel on The Business of Athletics
In this episode of the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast, Warde Manuel, University of Michigan’s Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics, talks about hiring top talent, maintaining culture, funding in the age of NIL, and how much running an athletic department is like running a business.
January 10, 2025
Tighter Market Still Yields Opportunity For Those Who Adjust
Naimish Patel of Providus Capital Partners on how market factors and seller attitudes are affecting buyer math.
December 5, 2024
Smoothing Out The Deal Process
Huron Capital’s Cale Kaczmarek on the steps his firm takes to improve efficiency when buying family-owned companies.
October 31, 2024
Seeing Growth In The Messes
Jax Kar Wash’s Jon Zimmerman on how problem areas in a deal can turn out to be opportunities after the sale.
October 3, 2024
Creativity, Relationships Become Critical In Tough Times
Viscogliosi Brothers’ Rob Grimaldi on the importance of relationships in dealmaking
September 5, 2024
How Interest Rates Are Transforming Deal Math
Evergreen Capital Partners’ Dominick Schiano on how conditions in the deal market are affecting transactions.
August 1, 2024
"Why" Carries More Weight In Today's Deals
Wolverine World Wide's Jim Zwiers on the seller and buyer trend of emphasizing why a business is bought or sold.
July 11, 2024
Planning Ahead Makes A Process Smooth
365 Retail Markets' Brittany Westerman on the steps the company takes very early in a process to make a transaction go smoothly.
May 30, 2024
Patience, Relationship Building, Help Today's Buyers
Serent Capital's Kellie Kucik on the state of buying, and how relationship building is helping to get deals across the finish line
April 25, 2024
To Grow Or Not Depends On Your People
The midday panel at this year's Detroit Smart Business Dealmakers Conference covers how to assess the right time to make an investment — whether the decision is to sell or grow.
April 18, 2024
Recognizing Detroit's Smart Business Network Dealmaker Award Winners and 2024 Dealmakers Hall of Fame Class!
We celebrated the accomplishments of the 2024 class of winners April 18 at the Detroit Smart Business Dealmakers Conference. Together, they provide a strong picture of the Detroit business community.
April 4, 2024
How to Maximize PE Value Creation by Better Assessing Growth Potential in Due Diligence
Chief Outsiders Managing Partner, Private Equity, Slade Kobran outlines and approach to value creation that starts in due diligence.
March 14, 2024
To Close Deals, Get Personal
LUXIT Group's Stephane Vedie on the impact relationships can have in M&A
March 7, 2024
AI Trends for the Progressive CEO: Navigating the Transformative Landscape
Chief Outsiders' Ed Valdez and Angus Robertson rank the eight most important factors in the AI scene to pay attention to right now.
February 9, 2024
Firing Sisters And Setting Up A Son's First LLC
Preferred Data Systems' Kelly Comeaux on life growing up in a family business.
January 18, 2024
Tune Your PE Growth Engine With These 4 Principles
Chief Outsiders columnist Jack Bowen outlines how to optimize portfolio-company performance and maximize growth opportunities.
January 12, 2024
Financial Issues To Consider When Doing International Acquisitions
Gentherm closed two deals in July of 2022. One was a German multinational that added to the company's automotive space. The other was a domestic acquisition in China for its medical business. The deal
December 7, 2023
Buyers, Take It One Deal At A Time
Stellex Capital Management's Shankar Kiru on the importance of approaching deals on a case-by-case basis.
October 27, 2023
The Search For Clean Deals
No deal is perfect, but Dan Weingartz, CEO of W&P Management, says that it's just gotten to where there needs to be cleanliness across everything — the financials, the strategy, the leadership and
September 22, 2023
How Not Listening To Advice Benefitted SkySpecs
SkySpecs CEO Danny Ellis has raised a few rounds of funding — six in total — and has learned several lessons from the experience. "A lot of mistakes in the early days," Ellis says. "We probably over
August 25, 2023
People On A Deal P&L
As Detroit Manufacturing Systems sets out to make acquisitions, people are top of mind, says then CFO, now EVP of Sales, Purchasing and Strategy Scott Cieslak. "One of the first things we had to do
July 21, 2023
Lessons Learned From Selling A Business ... Twice
Bruce Milen, Chairman of the Board of Jax Kar Wash, first sold his business back in 1998 during a period of consolidation and roll ups. He had and took the opportunity to buy it back three years later
June 23, 2023
Trust Your Gut And Get Good Advice
Kathleen Craig, founder and CEO Plinqit, has raised more than $10 million in venture funding for the SaaS fintech company, which licenses its software to banks and credit unions across the country.
May 26, 2023
Stifel Financial Corp.'s Greg Urban On The Mixed M&A Market and Its Culprits
Confidence in the macro environment is a significant driver of M&A activity in this uneven market, says Stifel Financial Corp Managing Director Greg Urban. "The availability of equity capital —
April 26, 2023
Hall of Fame Roundtable Weighs In On Today's Deal Challenges
Valenti Capital's Sam Valenti III, along with MSX International's Fred Minturn, BELLE Michigan Impact Fund's Carolyn Cassin, and BDO Consulting Group's Robert Berdanier share their view on the current M&A climate.
March 31, 2023
Sylvester Hester On Partnership And Job Creation When Launching LM Manufacturing
LM Manufacturing President and CEO Sylvester Hester on launching the business, how the opportunity came about and the importance of being a job creator in Detroit
March 3, 2023
Overcome Buy-Side Arrogance, Or Risk Overpaying
Atlas Holdings Partner Ramzi Hermiz and Lorient Capital Vice President Doug Shinkle on de-risking a deal from the buy-side.
February 3, 2023
Functional Fluidics Looks To Expand Market For Unique Platform
Functional Fluidics CEO Patrick Hines spoke on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast about his company, its progress and fundraising.
January 6, 2023
Airspace Link Creates Drone Navigation Highway
In four short years, Detroit startup Airspace Link went from a couple founders and a few employees to recently raising $23 million in a Series B to aid its global expansion. It started with a $100,000 convertible note, a $3 million pre-seed, a $10 million Series A and now the global expansion raise. Michael Healander, co-founder, president and CEO, is a drone pilot enthusiast who envisions the positive impact drones could provide to economies and quality of life. His company is creating a roadmap in the sky for drones of all types and sizes.
December 9, 2022
Value Proposition Tops List In Battery Solutions' Deal Prep
Battery Solutions CFO Craig Fishel on preparing for his company's sale earlier this year to Retriev Technologies.
October 7, 2022
Funding options for health care companies
Lawrence, Evans & Co.'s Neil Johnson spoke on funding options for health care companies.
August 5, 2022
Life Remodeled CEO Chris Lambert On The Heart Of Fundraising
Life Remodeled CEO Chris Lambert on the organization's mission and accomplishments, as well as his approach to fundraising.
June 2, 2022
It’s All About Partnerships and Pitch Decks for Rambus
Mykolas Rambus is a serial entrepreneur who founded and sold two previous companies, including Wealth-X, where he served as CEO until its 2016 sale for more than $20 million. Most recently, Mykolas raised early-stage rounds of capital in 2021 to build out Hush, a company that offers cybersecurity services. Though the capital raise process went well, Mykolas talks about how better pitch materials would have made for a smoother raise.
April 8, 2022
M&A Human Capital Strategies
Aquila Equity Partners' Gary Lewis, along with Purple Squirrel Advisors' Carrie Schochet, Lockton Companies' Quinn Damon, Mission Veterinary Partners' Matthew Davis, Industrial Opportunity Partners' Philip Fioravante talk about lessons learned and best practices from growing portfolio companies in a labor-challenged environment.
March 11, 2022
Even for the best entrepreneurs, raising capital is always harder than it looks
Bloomscape Founder and CEO Justin Mast spoke with Dickinson Wright's Zan Nicolli about his venture and the process of raising capital from investors.
February 18, 2022
The material impact of ESG on M&A
Ancora's David Sowerby, MASCO's John Sznewajs and Cendrowski Corporate Advisors' Harry Cendrowski, talk about ESG, the M&A landscape, where corporations and private investors have made the biggest changes, and what to expect next.
January 14, 2022
Preparedness leads to best outcome when selling a family business
JAWOOD Founder Lynn Mustazza, along with PNC Bank's Jacob Taylor, PNC Wealth Management's Daniel Hoops and UHY Corporate Finance's Dan Sporka talk about plotting the future of a family business.
November 17, 2021
Doing double diligence during COVID
TGI Direct's Monica Weaver, Dickinson Wright’s Bill Rosin, Emagine Entertainment’s Paul Glantz and Huntington National Bank’s Eric Dietz talk about transacting during the pandemic, as well as adjustments buyers should make when acquiring a company during disruptions.
October 20, 2021
A look at the cyberthreat environment
Che Bhatia, along with Aon’s William Shortt and Kathy Weaver, and KeyBank’s Gregg Bach and Christopher Naso, explore cybersecurity and its impact on M&A.
September 17, 2021
Anatomy of distressed investments
James Loughlin, Mike Teplitsky, Robert Berdanier, Robert Diehl Jr., and Vlad Slapak dive into investing in distressed companies, as well as how to analyze your company’s people, operations, and finances to understand if you need to restructure.
August 13, 2021
How to secure a premium value for your company
Tom Zucker, Mark Jones and Art Anton discuss the factors that most often lead to securing a premium valuation.
July 16, 2021
David Sowerby on business owners’ post-exit popularity
David Sowerby, managing director and portfolio manager at Ancora, has some words of wisdom for eager, soon-to-be investors.
June 25, 2021
Brian Rassel: People make the deal
Brian Rassel, a partner at Huron, on his approach to analyzing the people aspect of a deal.
May 28, 2021
Paths to public: Mina Sooch on reverse merger vs IPO
Mina Sooch explains how the reverse merger process she took taking Ocuphire Pharma Inc. public compares to her prior IPO experiences.
March 5, 2021
David Brophy says organize the venture world!
David Brophy, Professor of Finance, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, talks about the venture capital ecosystem and what its continued growth means for Michigan, the Detroit region, and the scale-up community that’s looking for growth capital.
January 22, 2021
Carolyn Cassin on the good news/bad news of venture funding for women
Carolyn Cassin, BELLE Michigan Impact Fund founder and general partner talks about the challenges women entrepreneurs face and how her fund is designed to help.
December 22, 2020
The Softer Side of the Selling: Communications and Internal Prep
Jerrad Beauchamp, Andy Billman, Chris Meso and Tom Zucker explore the softer side of sell-side communications and internal deal prep.
November 24, 2020
Kathleen McCann sees a tale of two economies
Is it the best of times? Or is it the worst of times? The answer, according to Kathleen McCann, executive chairman of United Road Services and executive partner at Nonantum Capital Partners, is both.
October 16, 2020
Why Deals Fail
Deals can fail in the early stages. But if you can recognize the red flags and get out early from a bad deal, you won’t waste your time and money.
