Alex Behar

Problem: How do you consolidate a $600 billion fragmented home services industry when every acquisition increases operational complexity? Most people think home services consolidation is "buy more companies, hope for synergies." WRONG. Peter Connolly and Andrew Hollod at Cobepa solved this by building PLATFORMS, not portfolios. Here's what they did differently: Heartland Home Services (December 2020): Andrew Hollod led the investment - assembled a platform of recognized brands across Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin. Ned Stevens (November 2022): Peter Connolly and Andrew Hollod co-led - acquired from AVALT, rebranded to Ned's Home, expanded from single-service (gutter cleaning) to full exterior home services. The pattern most miss: They didn't just buy companies. They bought INFRASTRUCTURE that could absorb future acquisitions systematically. What separates their approach: Board representation ensuring operational oversight Geographic density strategy - dominate regions before expanding Service expansion within existing customer base (Ned's rebrand proves this) The arbitrage: Most PE firms acquire home services companies at market multiples hoping organic growth and cost cuts get them to a decent exit. Peter and Andrew built platforms that acquire at below-market multiples, integrate systematically, cross-sell services, and exit at exponentially higher multiples because they're not selling a collection of companies - they're selling a MACHINE. This is the difference between buying revenue and building enterprise value. But here's what's missing: You've built the acquisition machine. You've built the platform infrastructure. But without WORLD-CLASS customer acquisition systems and lifetime value expansion, you're leaving massive exit value on the table. Peter Connolly, Andrew Hollod - let me run the customer acquisition systems for your platforms. Not manage. RUN. Heartland and Ned's Home have the service expansion infrastructure. What they need is the tracking infrastructure that turns: First-time gutter cleaning customer → power washing → window cleaning → lawn treatment subscriber $200 transaction → $2,400 lifetime value with complete revenue attribution Ad spend optimization based on ACTUAL customer acquisition costs and lifetime value, not clicks I'll build the systems that maximize customer lifetime value across your entire service stack and prove which acquisition channels are actually driving profitable growth at scale. You built platforms that can absorb acquisitions. I build the engines that transform market-multiple businesses into exponentially higher-value exits. Peter Connolly Andrew Hollod Jean-Marie Laurent Josi Let's Speak.

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This headline is not a warning for retail investors in my view. Redemptions were paid in full. But a warning for asset managers with alt products for retail that individual investors are more volatile (and that volatility can be contagious towards institutional investors). We often talk about retail investors having to better understand the liquidity risk, but the same can be said about managers who are more familiar with institutional products having to make sure they understand the retail ecosystem well to ensure their retail platforms remain accretive to their overall strategy.

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Can fundraising teams detect a stalled process before silence becomes the strategy? The forwardable lesson is that long sales cycles need an early-warning layer, not simply more activity at the top of the funnel. The system is designed to recommend action, not merely record that progress slowed. The Long Cycle RAISE combines mandate scoring, allocation signals, trigger detection and pipeline intelligence to surface issues earlier. The Warning Layer The workflow can track investor stage, relationship activity, soft commitments, hard commitments and risks around the target process. The Waiting Problem The company is addressing a process that managers already understand and repeatedly need to solve. RAISE is raising capital and looking for investors. See company website https://raiseplatform.eu and then DM me for more info. Is faster feedback more valuable than faster outreach in institutional fundraising?

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Every major PE firm just reassured investors the same way: "We've been focused on AI disruption risks for years. Our software portfolios are defensible." But here's what none of them said: "Here's the system where that assessment lives." This week exposed a pattern across institutional capital: firms manage financial capital with audit-grade systems of record, but the reasoning behind capital allocation decisions has no infrastructure at all. When investment committees underwrote software companies in 2024-2025, someone applied specific criteria to assess AI disruption risk. Where does that reasoning live today? Not in retrievable systems. In IC notes, email threads, and institutional memory that walks out when people leave. KBRA data: 17% of private credit borrowers are software companies, representing 22% of $1T+ debt exposure. Those allocation decisions were made using judgment that has no durable record. When LPs ask "walk us through your 2025-2026 AI risk framework"—and they will—most firms will reconstruct from memory, not retrieve from systems. The firms that weather disruption aren't just making smart calls. They're capturing why those calls were made. Financial capital has balance sheets. Physical capital has asset registers. Judgment capital—the reasoning governing trillions in allocations—has no infrastructure. Three questions for anyone managing institutional capital: If regulators asked for decision criteria behind your five largest 2024 allocations, how long would it take to produce them? Has this week exposed how much risk assessment lives in heads versus systems? When your senior underwriting partner leaves, what reasoning travels with them? The category being defined here is Judgment Capital Management—a system of record for the third balance sheet. #PrivateEquity #PrivateCredit #InstitutionalCapital #RiskManagement

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One takeaway from GoVCLab’s piece on emerging VC deal sourcing: strong dealflow isn’t luck it’s built. In NYC, the best pre-seed opportunities don’t come from cold inbound. They come from being in the rooms, building real relationships, and being clear about your thesis. As I focus on founders in early stage tech , I’m realizing sourcing is really about trust. The more value you add and the more consistent you are, the more the right deals find you. Curious what’s worked for others building early-stage pipelines in NYC. https://lnkd.in/eNCEjXqx

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This is an excellent report on the #VC activity in Florida for the first half of 2025, put together by our partner,s eMerge Americas. 💡 5 Takeaways from the eMerge Americas 1H 2025 Florida VC Insights Report: 1. Startups across Florida raised $2.85B across 270 deals, putting 2025 on pace for the strongest year since 2022. 2. AI dominates, 33% of all funded startups are AI-focused, with $830M raised in South Florida alone. 3. Cybersecurity and defense tech are booming, with Tampa emerging as “Cyber Bay” and major new AI-cyber programs launching. 4. Fintech, climatetech & Web3 continue to shine, with record funding and renewed investor confidence in Miami. 5. “If you’re not investing in AI, you’re asleep at the wheel,” says Me! https://lnkd.in/eVb-eYA9

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