Private Equity Spotlight: Kristin Johnson on Building Better, Successful Businesses

[00:00:00] Sean Mooney: Welcome to the Karma School of Business, a podcast about the private equity industry, business best practices, and real time trends. I'm Sean Mooney, BluWave's Founder and CEO. In this episode, we have a fantastic conversation with Kristin Johnson, Managing Director with Altamont Capital Partners. Enjoy.

[00:00:33] I am super duper excited to be here with Kristin Johnson. Kristin, how are you? Good.

[00:00:40] Kristin Johnson: Doing great, Sean. I'm super duper excited to be here. I appreciate that you gave me a super duper, not just a super, but

[00:00:48] Sean Mooney: very rarely does someone get the second part. I am really excited for our listeners. You might notice some familiarity.

[00:00:56] So Kristin, I have known each other for a while, so she knows what she's in for. She's already threatened me with bringing some stories out if I don't behave. And so I'm going to be very much on the line here today. No, but all kidding aside, it's great to be here with Kristin. I'm very excited to have our conversation.

[00:01:15] Let's jump into this. And I think. The way I like to start these things is to get more of the story of you. So can you tell us a little bit about kind of your background, how you came up, how you got into the industry of private equity, et cetera? Sure. Sure.

[00:01:28] Kristin Johnson: I'm going to start a few generations ago with my grandparents, my grandparents, one uncle and my brother were all in the armed forces.

[00:01:37] And I mentioned that because it really imbued a sense in me of, of hard work, you know, they were enlisted men who valued community and country a lot shifting gears. My father went the corporate way, his sense of adventure and career aspirations at bank of America led him to take a job in Asia. So when I was 10, we moved to the Philippines, which was a huge shift from Chicago where we were before and real variety of people and completely different.

[00:02:08] Environment and landscape as you can appreciate. So that was sort of my second formative set of experiences. I think we moved back to California when I was in high school. I stayed there after college, when a pretty traditional route, I joined a consulting firm. I did try a gig in marketing and then I got into finance and Morgan Stanley, right when private equity was starting to explode.

[00:02:30] I had the great privilege of working with a lot of really terrific people, including two very strong MDs. Who are great mentors as well as strong revenue producers. I really liked the demands of covering private equity clients, bright clients, fast paced, and as a banker, there were opportunities to really work on some exciting deals and hopefully add value along the way.

[00:02:55] So I joined Altamont when the firm was just getting started in 2010 to lead business development. Our team had come from a larger firm. That had been very successful. And they realized that having a BD capability would be really important as the firm got going. To bring it full circle, BD is a great combination for me of teamwork, integrating the vision and strategy of the firm with deal sourcing and relationships, and really trying to understand how we can be helpful to intermediaries and business owners who are seeking a partner.

[00:03:27] Sean Mooney: I love that background and kind of this circuitous, serendipitous path that you arrived there. And it seems like a lot of people don't start off saying like, I want to be a private equity person, but you kind of find your way there. But one thing I'd love to. Dig into furthers. I never knew that you grew up spending time in the Philippines.

[00:03:46] Kristin Johnson: Yeah, we lived in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore over a period of eight years. Super interesting place to live. I mean, I had the benefit of really strong schools, mostly American international schools. But it really taught me two important things as it relates to who I am and my career, which is one, the value of being adaptable.

[00:04:09] Moving so much. You had to recreate your environment, build new friendships and really understand new cultures pretty quickly. And number two, just appreciating what it is you have and the value of differences or those were very different communities with different food, different traditions, all the things you would expect.

[00:04:31] And you learn a lot from that. So I think it maybe. Approach collaboration differently and approach people differently and communities differently. This is really interesting experience.

[00:04:42] Sean Mooney: What a great kind of gift to the, your future self. I know that can be challenging when you're constantly moving, but it's probably one of those things in retrospect where you go, wow, that was pretty amazing.

[00:04:54] Yeah, it was. Also, I'm very food minded. Is there a particular dish from any of the destination where you said, wow, I miss that?

[00:05:02] Kristin Johnson: Gosh, that's a great question. Filipino food would not be my favorite. Singaporean food is super varied, given the cultural mix they have there. And Chinese food is also great. So I like it all.

[00:05:16] I mean, I eat almost anything. So I like it all. I couldn't name a dish that I like the best.

[00:05:22] Sean Mooney: So the next thing Kristin, I love asking people is, we'd know you better if we knew this about you. And we've already learned about kind of your globetrotting. What's something, in addition, that we would know you better if we knew this about you?

[00:05:37] Kristin Johnson: Good question, Sean. I guess what I'd say is that something that surprises many people is that I did win the 800 meters in track and field in my league as a senior in college. I won it by one one hundredth of a second, which is pretty incredible for a race that long. I had had bronchitis that year. I worked really hard to eat that win out by just a hair.

[00:06:00] It was a really cool experience. I still keep in touch with my coach and a lot of the other teammates I have. You never forget those relationships in the trenches, but that's something that I look back on and think, wow, that was a tough race and a close victory.

[00:06:15] Sean Mooney: That's amazing. That's another thing I didn't know about you.

[00:06:18] And one of the things I think is defining in PEs, there's plenty of people are smart enough, but there's this kind of like tenacity and grit that pervades the industry and this overcoming kind of pain and challenge. And if there's one, then my mind goes, I would never want to race. That is the 800.

[00:06:37] Kristin Johnson: I get that reaction a lot.

[00:06:39] I mean, I think there's a lot of sports are very, very hard, right. And to compete You got to put a lot of hard work into it to be very good. But yeah, I was proud of that victory.

[00:06:50] Sean Mooney: That takes a lot of kind of, I'm sure not only physical, but mental fortitude to kind of press through. So I'm incredibly impressed and daunted and know that I could never do that myself.

[00:07:01] So I'll live vicariously through your achievements. You never

[00:07:03] Kristin Johnson: know. You can set your mind to it, Sean. You can.

[00:07:06] Sean Mooney: No one ever accused Sean Mooney of being fleet of foot. So.

[00:07:12] Hey, as a quick interlude, this is Sean here. I wanted to address one quick question that we regularly get. We often get people to show up at our website, call our account executives and say, Hey, I'm not private equity. Can I still use BluWave to get connected with resources? And the short answer is yes.

[00:07:29] Even though we're mostly and largely used by hundreds of private equity firms, thousands of their portfolio company leaders, every day we get calls from every day top proactive business leaders at public companies, independent companies, family companies. So absolutely you can use this as well. If you want to use the exact same resources that are trusted and being deployed and perfectly calibrated for your business needs, give us a call.

[00:07:53] Visit our website at BluWave. net. Thanks. Back to the episode. Bye

[00:08:01] for now. As we kind of move the conversation to the next chapter here, what I'd love to do is, no doubt, you're looking at, at this point, probably, what, hundreds of SIMs, or confidential information memorandums, each year, which gives you this amazing, probably, pattern recognition on companies, and Altamont has been tremendously successful.

[00:08:23] as you all have invested over time. And so I'm always curious, what are some of the things that you look for when you're assessing a company as it comes in, as you think about and goes through your process, is this a type of deal that you want to look at? And like, what are those kind of key elements of value about what is a good company or as important as anything these days, what could become a really good company?

[00:08:46] Kristin Johnson: Sure. Absolutely. Great question. I'd say we start with market dynamics, size of market growth, competitive set, not just now what the current state of play is, but what could it look like in the next 10 plus years? And I think you made this point on another show, which is an excellent one that it's important to assess, not just the company in today's environment, but really figure out when you go to exit, what is a potential buyer going to see?

[00:09:16] Secondly, we look at the company's position to win. Do they have the right products? Do they have the right service offering and innovation to maintain or gain market share? Where do they sit in the value chain? Super important to understand. Third is talent. And I think over the years, you and I have been in private equity, there is a much bigger appreciation to translating desktop PowerPoint to who's actually going to do the work, how is the team staffed, what are their strengths, what are their gaps, and how can we build a team for long term success, again, over a five, ten year period, that's hard to do.

[00:09:54] And lastly, I'd say we do look at ownership dynamics. Most of the investments we make are investing with founders and families where there's often a meaningful rollover component. We try to understand what have they done well, what are the gaps and where can we help accelerate that growth and accelerate that cashflow, making sure that there's good alignment there on the vision.

[00:10:17] So taking all this, we pressure test all of our analysis through a rigorous investment committee process. Every private equity firm has one. We've added a couple of things, which I think are interesting. One is a red team, which sort of plays a devil's advocate role in an investment process. So it's a team staffed outside of the deal team to ask the hard questions and make sure that the deal team is following up.

[00:10:42] As we've gotten bigger, having that accountability and rigor, I think has been an important function. Our teams are specialized by industry verticals. That's really important. We bring in a lot of outside. Executives to advise. We work very closely with Bain and other advisors to make sure that we're not in our own ecosystem, analyzing a situation, but we're getting the benefit of a lot of different experience spaces.

[00:11:08] Sean Mooney: I love so much of what you said there in one, like the elements of value for our listeners. Kristin kind of gave the kind of like save your money on the MBA class of like, what's really important, right? Are you playing in a good market? And you made a really good point. It's not just a good market today.

[00:11:23] It's will it be a good or even better market tomorrow, which is so key. We live in a three dimensional game. Nothing persists and then tying that to the team that can do it is so much of the art of the possible and private equity because you are transforming companies today when probably when both of us started it was more of an optimization game.

[00:11:46] But today it's like how do you turn this thing into something that's its most beautiful version of itself and that takes a lot of work and then the other thing that I thought was really interesting. That I hadn't heard a lot of before. Was this kind of red team concept when you're exploring it?

[00:12:03] Because I think many private equity firms having sat on an investment committee you want to ask the hard questions but you also Want to be supportive of the team And maybe a lot of those harder questions Maybe then time would come through like back channels and things like that It's not that they didn't happen, but I love how you've empowered a team to ask the tough questions and it's their job It's not personal.

[00:12:25] Kristin Johnson: That's exactly right There's a lot of emotion that can Get built in an investing process And so trying to take that away and make sure that we're building a culture of constructive conflict is really healthy. And so we do that by the culture that we're building at the firm and being open and transparent and all that around questions and, and issues.

[00:12:49] But I think having a formalized team in place in the form of the red team serves an important role as well.

[00:12:56] Sean Mooney: I love that. And I'm even thinking about it just through the lens of the seat I sit in right now as a CEO of a company. And you have the same kind of things where people want to be supportive, but you want to have a culture of accountability and a performance culture, but you also want to make sure the world is positive.

[00:13:14] But if you get assigned someone, this is your job is to ask the tough questions and almost like try to poke it, then it takes some of the, you said like the emotion and the angst out of the process. It just is what it is. I'm going to borrow some of that. Good. I like that. So as you think about this, Kristin.

[00:13:32] And now you've kind of found a business that kind of meets your scorecard or your measuring stick. It's got the elements of value. You've aligned on price. You've got a value creation plan kind of put together. How does then Altamont come in and say, here's how we're going to approach value creation.

[00:13:50] Here's the resources we're going to bring in collaboration with you, help transform your business into its best possible self.

[00:13:57] Kristin Johnson: Yeah. Also a great question. So there are a few key elements. One is we have a two pronged approach with respect to depth across both industry sectors and functional areas. So I mentioned earlier, we are aligned by industry vertical, we have deep expertise in each of our four core verticals across the deal teams and a large ecosystem of industry executives who are partnered with us, and that's super critical.

[00:14:27] You and I have been doing this for a long time. There are very few private equity firms out there who are truly generalists. So the industry depth allows for deep thesis development as well as execution. That's number one. Number two is around the functional areas. So we're bringing human capital to important operational areas.

[00:14:48] HR, organizational development, sales, marketing. Fp and a, there are a lot of building blocks that we're bringing to build a company that has sustainable, repeatable growth. And that kind of collaboration across the portfolio is really powerful. We have some great stories, for example, on how we collaborate around safety.

[00:15:09] So across the industrial companies, we've been able to share best practices and reduce the incidence of workplace accidents materially, and that's great for the employee base. It obviously saves money, but it helps the employees feel like we're investing in them and their success. So there are a lot of proof points of that.

[00:15:29] Obviously it's hard. It takes a lot of coordination, a lot of moving pieces, but there's great alignment with the management teams who like the resources. I would say second key point in all this work is about style, right? And how we partner with the companies. We try internally at Altamont to attract people who are not only desktop, right.

[00:15:51] But curious and eager and able to have conversations with all kinds of people. To learn and really bring a linking arms kind of approach. That's been really important to us culturally. And I would say lastly, we're not a tech firm, but we have to continually innovate. I'll give you one example, and that's around AI, which a lot of middle market firms cannot afford to invest in AI materially, right?

[00:16:17] I had a call with a couple of Stanford PhDs on this topic last week, and it was hard to even follow what they're doing. But our portfolio companies are going to face opportunity or dislocation from AI. And so we're trying to bring that to certain areas and we've had some nice success doing that as well.

[00:16:37] So one of our companies. Is using an AI tool to review customer contracts, and those can be thousands of pages long. So that's been great technology. We're using other data analytical tools as well to continuously trying to invest and push ourselves and our companies forward is a big focus of ours.

[00:16:56] Sean Mooney: Once again, some really great things that you share there in terms of what you all are doing.

[00:17:00] And it's one, you've got kind of specialized resources that you're bringing that are aligned with your verticals. That I think are really important. You've built an ecosystem around that to support these efforts that you're doing and support the teams and building out. I think that's something that is kind of hyper important these days and clearly you've latched on to this in a super important and productive way.

[00:17:25] The next thing that I really like that you brought up was this whole kind of concept of AI. And a lot of people, as you think about even industrial companies, they're like, well, I'm a company that makes things. Yeah. I don't need AI. Right. And the reality is I personally at least think this is going to be one of the most transformational technologies and modern commercial history and the fact that you all are really persuading and supporting your companies to run towards this versus kind of shy away from it is really important.

[00:17:57] I would say, as I reflect on BluWave, where we get calls from hundreds of PE firms, thousands of their portcos, and last year we'd get a call for AI, and it was more about, what the heck is this? And now we're seeing it in kind of like a amazingly fast way turn into being activated. And there's all sorts of ways that any company can get started, but the key is to get started.

[00:18:23] Because if you're not kind of running towards it and starting to use it as far as your toolkit, when you do get going, you're going to see the world and the ship of business being far like over the horizon. So the fact that you are encouraging your companies to start getting started is really important.

[00:18:38] And it's a lesson that I think any business builder needs to take and can learn from what you all are doing.

[00:18:43] Kristin Johnson: Yeah, I think it's a great point. I mean, we look at it and say only really a couple of our companies. Need to be leaders in using AI as that will catapult them into a different market opportunity and growth curve.

[00:18:57] Most of the companies can use AI selectively to solve functional areas, pain points, or to drive growth in different ways. But you're right. You got to start somewhere, experiment, see what works and what doesn't, and then share that learning across the portfolio. And that's really where your impact can magnify.

[00:19:18] Sean Mooney: It's this whole idea of like, how do you eat a whale? It's like one bite at a time, right? You don't have to just say, we're going to turn our whole business into how the robot from 2001. That's a ways away, I think. Yeah, I hope

[00:19:33] Kristin Johnson: so. Although it's funny, the Stanford PhDs I was speaking with were talking about how they were.

[00:19:38] Having LLMs write LLM scripts. And I was like, I don't even know how you, what that means.

[00:19:46] Sean Mooney: It's amazing. So Brendan, who produces these shows for us, I, on a weekly basis, ask them, can we use AI to be the, a better version of the host of the show? So I can like, so we can have someone who's capable here and he's like, not yet tonight, it's like, let's keep a watch on this.

[00:20:03] Kristin Johnson: Yeah, I will transform a lot of how and what we do in the world, for sure. Sure. But life is still about people. And so there's many, many years before we can really disaggregate. the people and the emotion in what we do and how we live with a technical AI approach.

[00:20:23] Sean Mooney: I think that's 100 percent true and will continue to be 100 percent true.

[00:20:26] It's a tool and a resource that will make us more efficient and better at synthesizing information.

[00:20:34] Commercial: Today's episode is brought to you by BluWave. Building a business is hard. Top third parties can help you create value with speed and certainty, but it's difficult to know who's best. That's why you need the Business Builders Network.

[00:20:46] Visit BluWave at B L U W A V E dot net to learn more and start a project today.

[00:20:55] Sean Mooney: So with these kinds of themes in mind, what's one of the value creation themes that you are also kind of thematically engaging with your portfolio companies these days?

[00:21:04] Kristin Johnson: Yeah, I'll talk about two. One is diversity. And I know that's not a super popular topic in some ways right now, but the reality is diversity can be a huge driver of value.

[00:21:17] In the form of organizational and talent development, which is really how we look at it. The makeup of private equity in many companies is not particularly diverse doesn't reflect our broader society So you have to ask are we optimizing our talent pool? And as you know many studies have shown that collaborative diverse companies do perform better.

[00:21:37] And so We are trying to help our companies think about how do you build as as we try to think about ourselves? Companies with diverse opinions and experience and a positive culture so that everyone can thrive in that increases employee satisfaction and productivity, as well as better decision making.

[00:21:59] And so we're really thinking about those kinds of tools to build organizations. The second thing I'll mention is something we're very excited about, which is ownership works. We were an early sponsor of ownership works, which was founded by the folks A few larger private equity firms, but we're one of the first in the lower middle market to adopt some of the key principles.

[00:22:23] And if you don't know what ownership works is, ownership works partners with companies and investors to develop and implement broad based employee ownership programs. And that core belief, which is again, backed up by data that broader equity participation does lead to more success. In other words, by giving.

[00:22:46] Employees outside just the C suite, some economic alignment. Aligning those incentives can drive higher returns. And so we think it's a real competitive advantage. There's a lot that comes with it. Increased communication, newsletters, town halls, a lot more transparency at the companies as a result, so that employees understand the impact that they're having and how they can drive value.

[00:23:11] But the programs across the companies that we've implemented at have been super enthusiastic about it. So we are really energized by that effort as well.

[00:23:21] Sean Mooney: Yeah, I think those are great themes to be focused on for very good reason. And I like your first one for obvious reasons. I think so often in this polarized world that we exist in today, people use the word or, you can be diverse or something else, you can do something else or the reality is we need to use the word and.

[00:23:44] You are going to get tremendous power from a diversity of thinking, a diversity of backgrounds, a diversity of name the factor that you're trying to get this grand mix and this grand melting pot together. And if you avoid kind of everyone thinking the same way or being the same way, you can't help but use the word and.

[00:24:02] You're going to have better outcomes, you're going to have better skills, you're going to have better points of view, and it is kind of like polar thinking where you can only do one thing. I think it's been proven wrong over and over and over again. So I love that you all continue to lean into that because the outcomes and the ROI are clear.

[00:24:21] When you look at the data, and so that's a really good one, and I really like that you're also thinking about the power of ownership and how that changes how employees think. And then helps them benefit from the way they act. And as you talked about that work in a couple, like you said, large PE firms have kind of put this on the front page for very good reason, but it's something that I think in private equity, no, it's a great tool because it works once again.

[00:24:51] And even as I think about the team here, BluWave, as we give equity and it changes how people think you get a benefit for doing the little extra things. And it's not just to the victors. I'll go to the spoils, right? Or maybe a better way to say is everyone becomes a victor and benefits from the spoils of value creation that happens over time.

[00:25:11] So that you are not only historically, probably privately embracing this, but now publicly advocating for it and showing the power of it, I think is really important.

[00:25:20] Kristin Johnson: Yeah. And we do it as well at Altamont. We have a very broad carry distribution. A lot of participation. So as you said, if the firm wins, everyone wins.

[00:25:31] And that's been very energizing.

[00:25:33] Sean Mooney: I love it. I think the proof will be in the pudding, right, in terms of how that turns out. I'm excited that you brought this to the forefront here. So maybe, Kristin, as we kind of bring our conversation to the next chapter here, One of the things that I like to do is kind of pick really successful folks like your brain in terms of like, how can then I then copy paste that and make myself better?

[00:25:57] So, like, one of the only chances I had in life was the fact that I read a lot coming up and, Therefore, I didn't have to figure it out on my own, because if I did have to figure out how the world worked on my own, it would have been a very short stint of success, I guess. And so fortunately, I found the power of borrowing insights from others and then Frankensteining myself.

[00:26:21] And so, with this in mind, Kristin, I'd love to get your perspective. Are there some books that you've read or reading that have made a difference in kind of how you view the world?

[00:26:33] Kristin Johnson: You are far too modest. But yes, I'm a big reader as well. In fact, I'll answer your question about books, but I also want to make a plug for reading your local newspaper, which I do every day.

[00:26:45] I read the San Francisco Chronicle. I have for many years. I think knowing what is going on in your local community is important. But back to your question about books. I have four, so bear with me here. I'll be brief on each of them. One is called how imperfect parents lead great families. It's a short book, but it's really a great reminder about how your core tenants as a family really help establish your values and determine how you spend time and how you respect each other and dealing with the ambiguity and complexity of working and parenting and trying to excel at both.

[00:27:21] I thought this book was a great framework for that. The second book I'll mention is called likable bad ass. The subtitle is how women get the success they deserve. It's by a UNC professor and very successful woman called Alison for gall. And while it's positioned around understanding how women can succeed, it's really a book for anyone, how to be seen as warm and yet assertive.

[00:27:45] And it provides tangible advice and tactics for how to have presence. And I thought that book was great. And Alison's really terrific. The third book is called how to know a person and it's by David Brooks. He's a New York times writer, if you know him, but it goes back to some of what I was talking about, about living in Asia, which is how do you change your mindset to really see the world with more understanding?

[00:28:11] It proposes some interesting questions and gives you some tools for opening up your eyes to getting to know people more deeply. The last book. It's called the edge how to stand out by showing you're all in and that's by David Morrison who runs. Our taco bell franchisee he had a co author as well and it's about bringing energy intent and a solutions mindset to your career and again what i love about that it's it's easy to read.

[00:28:40] Is writing style is very accessible but it's very very tactical. And those are all fun. So different elements of career and family and those recommendations, but hopefully some are useful.

[00:28:51] Sean Mooney: I'd love those recommendations. So I feverishly was jotting some notes down on these. In one reading the local news is, I agree, is so important.

[00:28:58] And I'm always going to like patch. com and the little kind of neighborhood ones. I live in Brentwood, Tennessee. And so we have all these different local kind of press. I guess the question for you is. Do you read the paper or do you go to the online?

[00:29:13] Kristin Johnson: Such a good question. And my husband gives me a lot of grief for this.

[00:29:16] I read the paper. I find that if you read online, you often miss the articles that you maybe should read. I don't know if it's just the format sometimes, but it's easy to hit the headlines and gravitate towards things. That immediately capture your eye, but sometimes it's the smaller articles on a paper that I see that are just as important around school board or what's happening with the trash pickups or the BART committees or things like that, which can affect your life and you should know about.

[00:29:54] Sean Mooney: I think it's great. I was talking to another friend of mine who is also on this podcast, and he started ordering the Wall Street Journal, and he got the paper version. And he did it really because his kids would see him reading it every day, and that got his kids interested in reading the journal. So they would sit down at a pretty young age, and they'd start popping open the journal as well because that's what one of their parents did.

[00:30:15] It became kind of a family thing, and so I then ordered the Sunday paper here, and it's still kind of a thing, and I haven't been able to get anyone from my family to replicate what I'm doing, but, uh, I'm working on it. No, it's

[00:30:25] Kristin Johnson: a good idea. I think it goes to, like, being on screens less, too, right? If you can sit down and read and really be focused, paper can help with that a lot.

[00:30:34] I think there's more studies being done that show you retain a lot more if you're actually reading paper versus reading on a screen.

[00:30:42] Sean Mooney: That makes me feel a lot better for printing stuff out still, as like the only one in our company here. Me too, me too. I think I'm the only user of a printer. But the other books, I think, were also really great.

[00:30:53] I love this concept of, that you mentioned, is like, almost having like your family values kind of inscribed. Like, I think about our company, like, here's our values and we're going to act according to it. And it made me think, it's like, you know, we've never done that with my own family. Like, that'd be an interesting thing to do.

[00:31:09] And I liked also that The concept that you mentioned where it's just like you can advocate for yourself, you can be a high performer, and you can also be likable, they're not mutually exclusive, and you should have the expectation you can achieve those. And then lastly, like, bring some energy. To your life and business.

[00:31:28] So there's a lot of lessons there that I've taken away from this and appreciate you bring them because they're things that are easy, particularly for me to lose sight of across that entire spectrum.

[00:31:39] Kristin Johnson: And the key of course, is that you can read any number of books, but you have to take action on what you read and what you learn.

[00:31:46] So I've tried to do that as well.

[00:31:48] Sean Mooney: And that reminds me, I have to read How to Know Someone because I was given that book and it's sitting on my bedside table. Who said it's a great book, you should read it. So I've heard it's wonderful and so I need to take action on this. And at least, uh, probably on a lot of things.

[00:32:02] But life's a journey.

[00:32:04] Kristin Johnson: Yeah, right. There's only so much time in the day, it's a challenge.

[00:32:07] Sean Mooney: So Kristin, this has been really wonderful conversation. I really appreciate you sharing a lot about the lessons you've learned. Many things that I wish I knew before. So that's a tremendous gift. So, thanks so much for spending the time here today and I look forward to catching up with you again sooner than later.

[00:32:27] Kristin Johnson: Thank you, Sean. It's a real honor to be chatting with you and I enjoyed the conversation as well.

[00:32:42] Sean Mooney: That's all we have for today. Special thanks to Kristin for joining. If you'd like to learn more about Kristin Johnson and Altamont Capital Partners, please see the episode notes for links. Please continue to look for the Karma School of Business podcast anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. We truly appreciate your support.

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[00:33:28] Give us a call or visit our website at BluWave. net. That's B L U W A V E and we'll support your success. Onward.

Private equity insights for and with top business builders, including investors, operators, executives and industry thought leaders. The Karma School of Business Podcast goes behind the scenes of PE, talking about business best practices and real-time industry trends. You'll learn from leading professionals and visionary business executives who will help you take action and enhance your life, whether you’re at a PE firm, a portco or a private or public company.

BluWave Founder & CEO Sean Mooney hosts the Private Equity Karma School of Business Podcast. BluWave is the business builders’ network for private equity grade due diligence and value creation needs.