Private Equity Is a Talent Business, Not a Finance Business

Episode notes

Tim Schulte leads value creation at Council Capital, a healthcare-focused PE firm in Nashville. He spent years at Vista Equity Partners before building something different at Counsel. In this conversation, we get into why the playbook model breaks down across a diverse portfolio, what a toolkit approach actually looks like in practice, and what AI is doing to the work of value creation right now. We get specific on data infrastructure, change management, and why the people question determines whether any of this works. Tim's view on AI is one I share: the tools are getting better fast, the value still sits in implementation and adoption. We cover the state of PE returns, what the industry has to do to justify its position going forward, and how Council Capital is building real operational capability at the lower middle market level.

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