Episode 02 | Guest conversation
A Sponsor’s View of Identity in a Carve-Out
With Travis Dziubla, Managing Director, Pacific Avenue Capital Partners · Hosted by Phillip McMillan · 29:57
When a carve-out starts life as “Company Holdings LLC,” the first town hall gets awkward fast. Employees don’t know what they’re part of, customers don’t know who they’re doing business with, and competitors are happy to fill in the blanks.
Travis Dziubla, a Managing Director at Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, joins Phillip McMillan to explain why he treats identity as part of the carve-out plan from the start. He came up through submarine operations and plant turnarounds, and he admits he didn’t fully appreciate this work early in his career. Now he pushes for a name, a story, and a website before close.
In this episode
- What makes the first 90 to 100 days of a carve-out different from other deals, and why that window closes
- What “identity” covers in practice, from email addresses and a website to values and heritage
- Why a clear identity helps recruit executives into a newly standalone company
- What has to be ready on day one: at minimum, a name and a website customers can find
- Who belongs in the room: a core decision group of 3 to 6 people, with broader employee input
- How sponsors stay involved without taking ownership of the identity away from management
- His one piece of advice for deal teams before they sign
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction
- 02:12Travis’s path: submarine officer, McKinsey, Lion Equity, Pacific Avenue
- 03:48What makes carve-outs different in the first 90 days
- 05:31What identity means for a newly carved-out company
- 07:34What happens when you get it wrong
- 09:37Identity as a recruiting tool
- 14:25Why doing it earlier creates more value
- 16:17Identity work before close
- 18:24Getting executives and stakeholders to prioritize it
- 22:03Who should be at the table
- 24:10Balancing sponsor input with management ownership
- 26:16What every deal team should understand before they sign
About the guest
Travis Dziubla
Managing Director, Pacific Avenue Capital Partners
Travis Dziubla is a Managing Director at Pacific Avenue Capital Partners. He began his career as a submarine officer, led power plant and chemical plant turnarounds at McKinsey, and worked on lower middle market carve-outs at Lion Equity Partners before joining Pacific Avenue.
More conversations
Keep listening.
Episode 01 | Solo
Phillip McMillan
Founder and Managing Director, CS Brand Group
Phillip McMillan introduces the show and explores why brand belongs in the value creation conversation, from making an investment thesis clear to customers and employees to helping the next buyer understand the business.
Episode 03 | Guest conversation
John Pickerill
Chair, Advertising, Marketing & Trademark Law Group, Fredrikson & Byron
What should a buyer know about the name a business operates under? John Pickerill discusses registration uncertainty, pending marks, and the brand protection questions that belong in M&A diligence.
Keep the conversation going.
Follow Buy. Build. Brand. on your preferred podcast app for future episodes.