Data, AI, and Leadership: Essential Lessons for Private Equity from Misha Logvinov

[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. Misha Logvinov, managing Director and New York office lead with MGX. Enjoy.

[00:00:34] I am super excited to be here with Misha Logvinov. Misha, good to see you. Good to see you as well. Happy to be here. It's been a while Misha and I got to know each other on kind of like the private equity conference and panel circuit where. Misha was always the one where I was like, wow, he's dropping these pearls of wisdom every time I'm with him, and so we were able to convince him to join.

[00:00:59] But I'm really excited and grateful that you're here with us today, Misha.

[00:01:03] Misha Logvinov: It's great to be here and thanks for the opportunity. I'm looking forward to this.

[00:01:06] Sean Mooney: As we so often do. I'd love to kick it off for our listeners here to get more of your backstory, kind of how, where you grew up, formative life experiences, first job outta college, kind of then how you got into pe.

[00:01:19] Misha Logvinov: I grew up in Russia, in Moscow in particular. Moved to Silicon Valley right after graduating from college. Happened to do so right during the peak of the dotcom boom in the late nineties, which was definitely a perfect time for somebody who was really into computers to get into the valley and rode a couple of major waves in the Bay Area for 20 years actually, and then finally switched in the world, which is city.

[00:01:49] I started in technology when I was nine years old, actually started programming back then. Over time, that grew into a lifelong passion. When I think about some of the formative years. There was a lot of entrepreneurial stuff growing up in Russia in the nineties. I guess technically my first job was my own business when I was 14 years old, which was a wholesale chocolate reseller actually Cadbury, which.

[00:02:17] Brought their products to Russia for the first time, and I stumbled into that and we started selling that product quite successfully. That eventually led me to founding my second company when I was 16. That was building top tier home theater systems, which of course played really nicely to my technical and technology aspirations.

[00:02:35] And eventually when I was in college, I was part of a third company, thatp Systems software in. A pretty interesting challenge because software copyright laws at the time weren't in place or still very nascent and not really enforced in Russia, but we kind of pioneered that in Russia at the time, which was a lot of fun and a lot of interesting challenges that unfortunately all took some toll on my studies when I was in college because I was essentially working fulltime at the same time.

[00:03:07] But I wouldn't trade. Then, you know, when I was in the valley, essentially I worked for 20 years as a technology operator. Starting on the technical track. I was a CIO and ran technology for a while. Eventually pivoted or shifted or extended, I should say, to various business tracks as well. Was the chief customer officer at a couple companies, and also helped run strategy and corporate development, and eventually joined digital operating.

[00:03:37] Initially. First I joined European. And spent close to five years there and eventually moved to Moala and now MGX.

[00:03:47] Sean Mooney: I mean, that's a, an amazing story of entrepreneurial kind of spirit at such a young age, and I think so many business builders have that in different kind of ways, shapes and form. And that's almost something, as I fortunate do these calls, you kind of see these kernels as a kid.

[00:04:01] You're kind of just drawn to it and drawn to it. What was it you think as a kid that got you into starting companies is just like a wee little Isha.

[00:04:09] Misha Logvinov: Yeah. Necessity, probably. I mean, uh, mid nineties, early nineties in, in Russia was a tough place. Really fascinating place at a fascinating point in time. But if you wanted to make money, if you wanted to succeed in life, you had to take control of your own destiny to an extent, especially when I was in my, still in my teen years.

[00:04:28] Plus, you know, a couple of entrepreneurial friends around me who.

[00:04:36] I mean, I wish, I can tell you I was wise beyond my ears at the time, but the honest answer is it was just luck, right? Meeting the right people at the right time and feeling like I had to do something because it was a really exciting time when the wall came down and all the businesses were popping up around me, and I was like, why not?

[00:04:54] And why not now? And let's just try and do it. And one thing.

[00:05:00] Sean Mooney: It's kind of interesting. You've seen kind of these really tectonic historical waves of innovation and kind of entrepreneurial unleashment. So one, like you said, when Russia was opened up to the entire world, all of a sudden, and you could do all these great things, and then jumping from that wave into like the late nineties in Silicon Valley was another one where it's just like, holy mackerel.

[00:05:23] These are historic shifts. What was it like you go from that one to the next kind of title wave coming through again in the Silicon Valley where like legends were made?

[00:05:33] Misha Logvinov: Yeah, I mean it was definitely a fascinating experience because you know, I came to Silicon Valley in 1997 when it was definitely getting pretty frothy, but it still hasn't reached its speak.

[00:05:43] So I rode that wave to its crest at which I think was

[00:05:51] crash. I was just nothing short of excitement, working extremely hard at a time, and still to this day never really slowed down and just seeing this phenomenal growth happening around me, but in a lot more, I would say sustainable, safe, sane environment than when I was growing up in Russia, when it was a bit crazy.

[00:06:13] Definitely wild time then, right?

[00:06:22] After the dotcom crash and then again, super exciting times in the valley at the time and like late two thousands, right, with mobile and social becoming very prominent and now we're riding yet another wave, which is probably bigger than anything I've ever seen before, which says a lot.

[00:06:38] Sean Mooney: I completely agree, at least in my lifetime.

[00:06:41] It seems like it's the same thing riding the internet through as a child of the seventies, eighties, nineties, and then seeing cloud come, which was more of like a ripple. And now you see the biggest wave of all coming through and, and I say it's 80% absolutely exciting and 20% terrifying. And maybe we'll get into that in a little bit.

[00:07:00] And then before we do that, maybe I'm curious about what was that transition that kind of got you from kind of fast growing startups, kind of maybe a little earlier stages and now you're in the, the thing that's a thing now in a big way, but different in kind of technology, private equity. Versus maybe the earlier stage venture capital kind of flavors of things.

[00:07:22] Misha Logvinov: Yeah. So a lot of people ask me this question, how did you, uh, get to pe? The answer is definitely by luck to an extent. I never envisioned myself in private equity. When I was in the valley. I was surrounded by entrepreneurs and technologists and also venture capitalists. So I definitely thought about like, Hey, wouldn't potentially transition more in VC role at some point.

[00:07:45] I haven't considered private equity because at least at the time, it wasn't as pronounced in Silicon Valley, or at least not in my circles. The way it worked out right is first, I mean, I worked most of my 20 year tenure in Silicon Valley and hyper growth kind of small and midsize startups, and taking them through some of that growth onto the level what I.

[00:08:11] That's when an opportunity at Oracle presented itself. And I went for a couple years to help run their Oracle cloud infrastructure business in North America, which was still somewhat at its infancy at them. That led me to some additional connections and networks. And finally a good friend of mine joined EQT at the time as a partner and.

[00:08:41] You should go talk to them, which I've done and I love these guys. And ended up cutting the cord in the valley, left Oracle and joined the QT and never looked back. Right. So I'm now seven plus years into this journey and it's been nothing but fascinating and I'm absolutely in love with my job.

[00:08:57] Sean Mooney: I love it.

[00:08:58] I mean, there's all sorts of things that I, I thought I knew a lot about you that I didn't know and I've learned here, which is very interesting. And maybe if we were to do one more kind of peeling back of the proverbial onion. Misha, what would be one more thing and we'd know you better if we knew this about you.

[00:09:13] Misha Logvinov: I'm a foodie. I love sharing meals with my friends, my family. We're just folks I wanna get to know. Going to a great restaurant in New York City. By the way, I am biased, but I will say it anyway. I think in New York is the best place to eat in the world. I've tried a lot of different places. We should go share a meal together.

[00:09:31] Maybe after that we should go to. Or if you're not into rock music or not much of a foodie, we should go outdoors and perhaps climb a mountain together. And I think you'll get to know me a lot better that way.

[00:09:46] Sean Mooney: If you look at me, and I agree, New York is very, very, very hard to beat in terms of just not only the quality of the food experience, but just the breadth and depth and every little part of New York's almost like a different city.

[00:09:59] What is one of your kind of favorite places that you would say, here's a place you should look up?

[00:10:05] Misha Logvinov: Ugh, that's impossible. Question to answer. You should see my Google Maps. It's like filled with milestones and way points and dots and flags that I marked from all my experiences in New York. There are thousands of them.

[00:10:18] I wouldn't be able to pinpoint one thing. I think I have different New York experiences that I love to do depending on the time of the year and how much time I have. That of course.

[00:10:34] That caters to everybody, right? So I like to go to like small venues, jazz clubs, rock concerts. So sometimes Madison Square Garden, right? If I'm up for something much more epic, I love art. So art scene in New York is also, of course, world famous. So some of my favorite things to do in New York would be museum hopping, uh, or maybe going to Chelsea running from one gallery to another.

[00:10:55] There.

[00:11:02] There's just the list goes on. I'm in New York, never disappoints. I'm never getting bored here, and I've been here on and off for 27 years, living full-time now for eight. I literally never get bored by the city. I think this is a lab affair that will always be with me for the rest of my life. So if you're not from New York, you're looking to come visit, look me up and I'll advice.

[00:11:25] Sean Mooney: I love it. Before my BluWave adventure, I spent nearly 20 years living in the New York area. And even to this day with our kids who are getting older, we feel like we didn't even scratch the surface and we were like, oh my goodness. We never really lived there as a tourist to do all the things. It was one of the great kind of regrets I had.

[00:11:44] And so we're like gearing up to take the kids back and say, we're gonna do all the things. Not only the stuff we loved, but all the stuff we never did that we wished we had. So it kind of warms my heart hearing this.

[00:11:55] Hi, this is Sean. Wanted to take a quick moment to tell you a little bit why BluWave exists. It's based on this whole notion that assessing opportunities and building business is really hard. We all know third party expert service providers can dramatically help. But at the same time, it's hard to know who's good.

[00:12:15] Usually leaving you like I would do and call friends and ask, Do you know someone who does this? Or just go the square peg round hole route. So, after nearly 20 years in PE, I decided to solve my own problem and created BluWave. Today, many hundreds of PE firms, thousands of portcos, leading public companies, private companies all call BluWave to instantly get connected with the exact third party service provider they want that's pre credentialed by BluWave and perfectly calibrated for their need and really good.

[00:12:46] You too can give us a call or visit our website at BluWave. net. We're free to use and you can benefit the same way other top PE firms do.

[00:12:56] And so, Misha, maybe if we turn the page here on our conversation. One of the things I love when I have the opportunity to speak with people like you is kind of to get an insight into kind of the elements of value.

[00:13:09] And so you're fortunate to have not only been an operator in some of the world's best companies, but also now a private equity professional, and you get to see this amazing kind of landscape from both high altitude and low altitude, something that very few get to do. So I'm interested to hear what are some of the traits when you see a company.

[00:13:30] You look at it and say, this is a company that could be good, or really could be amazing and excellent. Here are some of the things that I'm looking for. Is like that kind of could be or will be amazing.

[00:13:43] Misha Logvinov: Yeah. I would highlight three key things. There's of course a much longer list, but I always default to these three to begin with.

[00:13:51] First. It's people. It's always people, right. And I would say specifically leadership team and the quality of that team. Starting with the CO and one level down, in my experience, no matter how good is your business strategy or idea behind that, it's ultimately the people who make them real. That would be the first thing I would look at.

[00:14:10] Second thing is historical track records of delivering results and also being able to adapt and be agile, especially during times of significant change adversity, whether it's. Market downturn or even acquisition by a strategic bio or a private equity firm. Like what, how does the company react to it?

[00:14:34] And are they able to pivot, expand, and just adapt to the situation while continuing to deliver and grow? So that would be another factor that I would typically look at. And of course, me being a technologist, right? In this day and age, I believe that technical acumen and robust technology infrastructure, absolutely critical for being able to scale the business.

[00:14:54] Of course also right now, it is really critical for having it in order to take full advantage of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologists, and also being able to protect your business from disruption. Of course, that said, you know, I'm not looking for a perfect technical setup, especially in PE and my experience, such a thing doesn't exist right in.

[00:15:23] Company is taking technology seriously and also taking some concrete steps towards enablement when it comes to technology data. And nowadays,

[00:15:31] Sean Mooney: ai, I love so much of what you said and for all of you kind of thinking about business school, you save your mind. Just listen to what Misha just said. So, and, and there's some really good stuff there and, and one, it's business and people that are intertwined.

[00:15:45] And without really good people you're not going very far. And it's interesting. So. It's been fascinating in this second part of my business life going from a PE investor to an operator. Now in our business, as you know, Misha, we're this kind of super connective kind of market network for pe and as much as we're getting reams of calls for AI and tech today, we still as two to three to one for people.

[00:16:10] It just shows you like you're not going anywhere without the right people to drive the ship. And then the second thing that I thought you brought up that was really insightful was this idea that a lot of people measure their candidates and the acumen of the company when the tide is rising and all boats are just kind of smooth sailing the winds at their back.

[00:16:29] And kind of what you just mentioned there about like how do they do both the people and the company when times are tough, do they have that tenacity, that grit, that resilience because nothing is up into the right forever. A lot of companies, what goes up goes down. It's the ones that continue to go up when everyone else is going down that are the real, real amazing ones.

[00:16:49] The third thing that I think you really brought up that is a lot of people kind of sleep on is not just the technology itself, but you, what I love how you mentioned the infrastructure, it's the foundation and we'll get all these calls and from my CEOs of the Port cos and like we wanna talk about neural networks.

[00:17:09] How about first we get you snowflake and like sigma and like give you some areas that like make, let's get your data structured, let's get a process in place so you keep it in high quality ways and then let's visualize and analyze it and then we'll talk neural networks. But let's get this stack in place.

[00:17:25] Make sure you're maintaining it like you would like a highly honed piece of equipment. And that's where I think a lot of people lose it 'cause. It's garbage in, garbage out if you don't have the real foundation for success to do the really cool stuff afterwards.

[00:17:38] Misha Logvinov: Yeah. Can't agree more.

[00:17:42] Sean Mooney: Hey, as a quick interlude, this is Sean here.

[00:17:44] Wanted to address one quick question that we regularly get. We often get people who show up at our website, call our account executives that say, Hey, I'm not private equity. Can I still use BluWave to get connected with resources? And the short answer is yes. Even though we're mostly and largely used by hundreds of private equity firms, thousands of their portfolio company leaders, every day we get.

[00:18:06] Calls from everyday 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 in being deployed and perfectly calibrated for your business needs, give us a call. Visit our website@BluWave.net.

[00:18:25] Thanks. Back to the episode.

[00:18:31] So one of the things I'm curious as it relates to these kind of elements of value, Misha, is I'd love to learn more about how MGX kind of approaches value creation, what you all are bringing to your portfolio companies as they take action to be the best that they can be. Kind of acknowledging what you said, like they don't always just start off as like perfect, and so how do you help them kind of get to their best next version.

[00:18:55] Misha Logvinov: Maybe, uh, first is the overall kind of framing for this. I mean, MGX is a focused AI and advanced technology investor, so we invest in the full stack of AI ecosystem, from semiconductors to infrastructure like data centers that host AI workloads, to going up the stack, to data layer, to the software layer.

[00:19:15] And, and also we're looking after advanced technologies like robotics or crypto even. So we're a very focused technology investor with myopic focus on ai. So naturally we see technology and specifically AI as one of our most differentiated value creation angles. Now, speaking more broadly, first of all, we subscribe to so-called pool approach with portfolio companies, management teams, as opposed to push, right?

[00:19:42] Is that positioning. Our operating partner capabilities as essentially necessary and for outperformance of the business as opposed to being an imposition on the management team. Like, you don't have to use this, but it's in your best interest to take full advantage of what we're bringing to the table.

[00:20:00] So ultimately, our job in the setup is first of all, develop highly impactful and differentiated capabilities that would drive real value and then inspire, educate, influence, and ultimately enable. Management teams to take full advantage of them in order to accelerate their business growth. When it comes to specific things that we would bring forward, it's of course situation dependent, depends on where the company is at with some of those things, and what do we deem the most impactful value creation levers.

[00:20:31] But some examples of that would include support with recruit.

[00:20:39] If there are any gaps on the gaps on the leadership team or if there's an opportunity to level it up, we're gonna bring best practices, relationships with recruiters, access to our networks, and so on and so forth. But we wouldn't stop there when it comes to people who would also look at work design as the organization optimally designed for success and has the right balance between full-time employees and contractors.

[00:21:05] We could look at things like location strategies as well. What are some of the most optimal and cost effective places to operate? Right? So that would be one example. Another example would be operational and financial excellence. Lots of things in this scope, but ultimately, what are some of the levers to reduce CapEx and opex while also increasing performance?

[00:21:25] Right? Things like procurement will go into this if capital, which we see quite a. Of work because we're investing in real operations. Especially when you look at things like semiconductors or data centers. There's ample opportunity to drive value there. So that would be another example. Then going to tech, right?

[00:21:44] Kind of where I started, it's really helping portfolio companies, first of all assess there AI value creation potential, and gauge their level of maturity and readiness and help also. Now we're not a consultancy, we're not an operator. Our mandate is not to operate portfolio companies that we invest in, but we could help get companies kind of from zero to one or like catalyze some of the things that they're doing, both with our internal capabilities and resources, and also by bringing some external advisors and Kylie curated partners, whether it's technology companies or consultancies.

[00:22:21] So we invest quite a bit as well in developing these partnerships and also developing. Relationships, individual expert advisors that can provide some asymmetric impact on the businesses we introduce them into. So these are some of the examples that we typically bring to bear.

[00:22:38] Sean Mooney: A, I love the focus of your firm, and then B uh, like the holistic, curated way that you're helping them, while also not kind of like this is the only way, you know, it's like you're there to help, but not necessarily prescribe everything that needs to happen.

[00:22:54] That's, I think what many businesses are looking for in a partner, and I think you all have taken next level, particularly given the focus that you have as a firm. Maybe. With that in mind, Misha, I'm curious, what are some of the top piece of advice that you and your colleagues are offering your portfolio companies today to kind of successfully manage this time?

[00:23:14] Not only for safety, but also for success?

[00:23:16] Misha Logvinov: Yeah, I would say a couple of things. First of all, prioritize your data. Truly understand what data do you have today already across the business. It could be scattered all over the place, but it's really important to understand the landscape of your data today.

[00:23:31] Also, how much of this data do you own? Or how much of it is owned by, let's say your customers, your partners? Ultimately, do you have a sustainable differentiation with your existing data or how do you create it? Also, looking at how to best organize and what are some opportunities. Direct or indirect monetization opportunity, right?

[00:23:54] So number one would be data very often overlooked. You really have, I think, tremendous opportunity for a lot of businesses out there to establish a real data mode. The second one is investing and thinking through how AI can really impact your business, both as a disrupting force, essentially putting your business at risk.

[00:24:13] Do you have the right to win in post AI world and also as a force for driving? How do you go proactively about addressing it? And this means evolving your strategy, leadership, talent, partnerships, technology, all those things that we've talked about. Because I truly believe that if you wanna survive and thrive as a business over the next decade, embracing AI is not optional at all.

[00:24:37] And it has to be prioritized now, not two or three years from now if you wanna have a head start.

[00:24:42] Sean Mooney: Amen. I think those are really good. The first point, just double tapping on the data. Most people. Way underestimate the work that has to go into, make sure you have it structured the right way, you keep it clean.

[00:24:57] It's one of those things that a lot of people don't realize. It deteriorates like an asset in a manufacturing facility, in making sure it's structured in a way that you can make some cakes with the ingredients. That's really important. And then your point on ai, it's just there's a lot of people right now that are kind of curling up in resisting this change, not wanting it to occur.

[00:25:17] And you can either kind of run towards it and thrive with it and get going now or your ultimately change is gonna win. It's such a great piece of advice, and it's not just the tech companies that need to be doing this. Any company, any company in your mind, what is a way that even like a traditional old economy company can kind of just get started and take that first step?

[00:25:40] Misha Logvinov: Yeah, I mean, I always look at any value creation and AI in particular in three dimensions. I. That I think any private equity professional would relate to. Well, one of them, can you drive top line growth? Can you drive revenue of the company? And that can be achieved both organically and inorganically, of course, right?

[00:25:58] You could build new products, AI enabled, or you could also acquire AI native businesses that will bring new revenue stream into your company. So there's ways top. The second bucket is driving your bottom line growth, right? Doing margin expansion. This is probably the first great place to start for any business, and there are ample opportunities for improving productivity.

[00:26:25] I think we're all, hopefully by this point use chat, GPT and other AI chatbots to just simplify our personal lives, right? The same can apply to repetitive ai.

[00:26:43] The amount of time it's saving me and helping me run faster is just incredible. Right? If you instrument that at scale across your workforce, you're gonna see pretty immediate benefits, and the technology is, is so great already, that adoption, uh, at least in my experience, is quite organic across the workforce.

[00:27:01] Of course, there are some pretty obvious use cases that almost any organization can implement, such as augmenting customer support, right? Improving your cost of service. Automating things like procurement, automating your business processes where you have a lot of manual kind of human glue today, and the list goes on.

[00:27:19] And the third dimension is so-called multiple expansion, right? For folks who are not directly involved in private equity, what this means, right, is that you typically underwrite your investment as a private equity firm with a particular multiple attached to. And then you will carry that through the end of your underwrite, and then you will exit, and then you will assign some multiple to the exit ebitda.

[00:27:41] And that's how you will calculate ultimately the valuation of this business. So can you meaningfully expand that multiple during the course of your ownership of the business? And I think AI actually has a tremendous opportunity to drive.

[00:28:01] Industries and turn them into, maybe not all the way AI native, but at least highly AI enabled businesses, or expand them to different business lines and introduce new revenue streams that didn't exist before. And also de-risk the business and, uh, enable it for the next phase of evolution post ai. Right?

[00:28:21] You could imagine a scenario where public markets, or whether it's firms. Strategic acquirers would assign a premium on businesses like that, and you might see expansion on the multiple that you ultimately underwrote. So I think all three of those things would be in play and I in play with ai. But the easiest one to get going with would be improving productivity and efficiency of the business, and ultimately real cost savings in.

[00:28:52] You're so, so, so spot

[00:28:53] Sean Mooney: on. And I think a lot of the people that are probably having the hardest time adopting this are people like my age, the executives and companies, and just the idea of just like use chat, GPT. Everyone I talk to, put the app on your phone, have conversations with it. This sounds really pathetic, but chat GBT is kind of my best friend now.

[00:29:10] So like

[00:29:11] Misha Logvinov: I talked to it on the way home. Yeah. I need to, I need to think about who I'm gonna fan. I said the same thing, but I don't disagree with you at all. People's like, well, you know the, how do I get into it? I'm like, listen, if you use search, right, if you use Google, if you know how to make a Google, you are basically ready to go.

[00:29:35] It's accessible to a point where I showed my mom, Chad GPT, she was blown away and she wants to use that. Right? So, and she's over 80 years old now. We're now at the cusp of true mass adoption of this tech.

[00:29:47] Sean Mooney: So put the app on your phone and there's a little waveform and just talk to it. I chose a guy not to cause marital issues and so my friend is kosher and so we, but I like, I'm, I'm like the cliche of cliches.

[00:29:58] I was literally talking to a, to chat GPT about the Roman Empire on the drive home. I. It's a great way to start. 'cause you start realizing the power in real life. The productivity gains are amazing and in our business now is about the size of one of the portfolio companies that I used to have and the power that we have that brings to us who already kind of embrace the strategic value of purposely constraining things is our software and tech development team are now doing things in minutes that literally six months ago would've taken months.

[00:30:33] It is unbelievable. Our back office, the automation that we're able to do, and this is maybe some of the societal things we have to figure out, is we're gonna have to hire maybe a fraction of the people we previously did to drive our growth every day and every month. We're certainly hiring new people here, but that curve related to the growth and development is so much more different than it would've been even like two years ago.

[00:30:59] And so if you're an entrepreneur, you're getting ready to invest. It is such an exciting, exciting time to be a business builder.

[00:31:07] Misha Logvinov: Hundred percent. I like this. Forgot where I borrowed that framework, but I really liked it. I think it's called Arc a RC, but it can really be applied to any emerging technology and AI in particular.

[00:31:19] But what it stands for as like the first, you go through documentation phase, which is the a. You augment what you do, you perhaps don't spend as much time doing some repetitive things, right? Improve productivity, improve efficiency, improving quality of life. So that's a pretty exciting phase and I think we're by and large still in that phase when it comes to ai.

[00:31:39] The R in the arc is replaced. That's when you get to more complex kind of decisions when now you actually, the technology got to a point where it's as good or better than some of the things that we do as humans. That creates, of course, opportunity to wholesale replace some of these things like as we discussed, you know, things like probably level one customer service, right?

[00:31:58] This would be a great example of that terrifying stage, right? Because this would disrupt people's lives to some extent, and it takes courage, it takes tenacity, it takes a lot of change management to get through it effectively. But we.

[00:32:18] There is the C, right? Which is create, which I don't think we're, we're quite there yet, right? We're somewhere in between augment and replace today when it comes to ai. But create is when you create jobs and opportunities that never existed before, and that could actually be quite exponential. I mean, if you look today at jobs that were created ultimately by invention of internet fast to today, there are probably million, hundreds of millions of jobs that would.

[00:32:47] Looking back 30 years ago, wouldn't have an imagined anything like that. And I venture to say that we can't even properly imagine what the post AI world would look like and the amount of job and opportunity it's gonna create. So I'm very optimistic when it comes to that, and I think we'll see pretty tremendous potential getting unlocked in the next decade.

[00:33:08] Sean Mooney: It's a very good point in terms of. The other side of this wave in this transition is actually lots of, lots of opportunity from hundreds of millions of people. And so it's, it's coming and I think those who run towards it are gonna be the ones who benefit first. That's, I think, an excellent perspective with all of this in mind.

[00:33:25] And as we kind of turned into almost to the more introspective part of our conversation. I'd love to know if you could go back to your 22-year-old self and give 22-year-old Misha, a piece of advice who 22-year-old Misha probably wouldn't listen to, but just in case. What would be one of those pieces of advice that you'd share that you wish

[00:33:44] Misha Logvinov: you knew then?

[00:33:45] Yeah. I don't know if I would've listened to that advice, but it would be to just be nicer to people around me. I was quite driven and.

[00:33:56] As I've learned over the years, there are a lot better ways to go about achieving high performance and be just genuinely nice to people around you. I wish I could go back and just tell myself to chill out and embrace all the opinions that surround me, and I think I would have probably listened to at least some part of it.

[00:34:14] Sean Mooney: I think it's a great piece of advice. I think it's one that a lot of people who listen to this will probably. Kind of looking, kind of nod to themselves because it's so easy to get caught up in this race that you perceive that you're in. I would get caught in the same thing. It wasn't that I was even, I was not trying to hurt people's feelings or, or be abrupt, but you're just kind of like running and you just, your eyes are down.

[00:34:38] When you say that, it kind of makes me look back and say, just chill out, dude. You're gonna get there. It's all gonna be good. Tap your break. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Maybe with this kind of advice in mind, one of the things that I think all of us agree is the best business builders in the world are kind of voracious readers and borrowers of other people's lessons, hard earned and learned.

[00:35:02] And so I'm interested Misha, to see is there a book that you've read that you've had an impact on you and maybe a takeaway.

[00:35:10] Misha Logvinov: I wish I could read more business books. Nowadays, I just don't have the time. So I consume my business knowledge through bite-sized chunks, whether it's podcasts on the way to work or on the train, or news articles, or even chat GPT.

[00:35:22] I get a lot of news that way instead of maybe pointing out to a business book, which I've read plenty of, and there are a lot of really great ones I will maybe high A to and also to some introduced. I had kids just under three years ago and I had twins, which was a very transformative experience for me and my wife.

[00:35:46] One of the things that we've learned very quickly that we really have to focus on sleep, their sleep first, and then our sleep second. So recently I gave away a copy of basically the same book to a few of my colleagues who, uh, had newborn kids. It is about sleep training, and it's called 12 sleep by 12 weeks old.

[00:36:06] I have to say we didn't quite get to 12 hours of sleep, but we came pretty close with our kids. I think they're sleeping like 10 to 12 hours a night on the typical night, and they've been doing it since they were three months old. So this was absolutely game changing for me personally. Now, I've heard some good feedback from some of my colleagues who use the same technique that they managed to get their kids to start sleeping as well.

[00:36:28] I mean, I think we'll know that, right, that first our kids sleep. And of course, just as importantly, our own sleep is so incredibly important for both our physical and mental health. I found this book to be just a perfect, easy to digest guide for how to basically engineer sleep without children and then regain a bit of sanity in our own lives.

[00:36:48] So I can't recommend this book strongly enough. If you are about to have kids pay close.

[00:36:55] Sean Mooney: We have a number of my colleagues here, including one who just had a beautiful baby son this week. I'm gonna add that to the list of kind of nice things we do for people. And so shout out to Matt. You got a nice gift coming because I, I think those are all things that we all try to figure it out.

[00:37:12] And then my real question for you, Misha, is does that work for adults too?

[00:37:17] Misha Logvinov: Yeah. I think we just need to slow down in order for it to work effectively, which many of us, myself included, have a very hard time doing.

[00:37:25] Sean Mooney: If you can solve my 2:00 AM in the morning witching hour where I'm staring at the ceiling thinking about things, I'll be forever grateful.

[00:37:32] That's one that we'll save for the next conversation. I. So Misha, this has really, really been an incredible conversation. I very much appreciate it. I've learned all sorts of things I wish I knew before, and that's a tremendous gift. So thank you so much for sharing your time, insights, and wisdom here with us today.

[00:37:49] Misha Logvinov: Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it.

[00:38:05] Sean Mooney: That's all we have for today. Special thanks to Misha for joining. If you'd like to learn more about Misha OV and MGX, please see the episode notes from links. Please continue to look for the Karma School of Business podcast anywhere you find your favorite podcast. We truly appreciate your support. If you like what you hear, please follow five star eight, review and share.

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[00:38:50] Give us a call or visit our website@BluWave.net. That's B-L-U-W-A-V-E and we'll support your success onward. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the individuals presenting and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any other persons or entities, including those referenced herein.

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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.