A podcast about private equity and brand strategy
Buy. Build. Brand.
Real conversations on how brand drives value in M&A.
Join Phillip McMillan and the operators, investors, and advisors making brand decisions inside real deals. Hear what they did, what they learned, and what they would do differently.
Listen and follow on your favorite app
About the host
Meet Phillip McMillan.
Founder and Managing Director, CS Brand Group
Phillip works with private equity funds and their portfolio companies on brand strategy through platform development, acquisitions, integrations, and exits. On Buy. Build. Brand. he brings that experience to conversations with peers who have faced the same decisions from different seats at the table.
About the podcast
The decisions behind the deal.
Buy. Build. Brand. explores the brand decisions that shape enterprise value through M&A. Guest conversations, solo episodes, and discussions with the CSBG team cover the work of giving a carved-out company an identity, bringing acquired brands together, and helping the market understand what a business is becoming.
The conversations
Explore the episodes.
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 02 | Guest conversation
Travis Dziubla
Managing Director, Pacific Avenue Capital Partners
Travis Dziubla discusses when identity work should begin, who needs a voice, and what a business risks when it postpones those decisions.
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.
From the first brand decision
to the next buyer.
For private equity investment teams, operating partners, and platform CEOs, the questions go well beyond choosing a name.
01 / Before close
Know what you’re acquiring.
What brand equity and protection are you acquiring? What needs to be ready when the business changes hands?
02 / Through the hold
Bring the business together.
How should acquired brands fit together? How do you bring employees and customers along as the company changes?
03 / Preparing for exit
Make the value clear.
Does the market understand the business you have built? Does its brand support the story you want the next buyer to see?
Be a guest
Bring your experience to the conversation.
Have you led a brand decision through an acquisition, carve-out, platform build, or exit? We’re interested in the choices you faced, the trade-offs you made, and what other sponsors and operators can learn from them.
Keep the conversation going.
Follow Buy. Build. Brand. on your preferred podcast app for future episodes.