Happy Holidays From The Karma School of Business!

Mark Langer, Managing Director at CenterOak Partners, reflects on the experiences that shaped his approach to private equity—from early grit and middle-market investing to deploying capital in Africa and building enduring CEO partnerships. He explains why servant leadership, trust, and long-term thinking matter more than control in lower middle-market value creation. Mark also shares candid lessons on risk-taking, mistakes, and navigating the non-linear reality of business building. This is a grounded, hard-earned perspective from someone who has seen the full arc of private equity—hit play. Episode Highlights 2:01 – Early lessons in grit, work ethic, and “figure it out” resilience 6:02 – Breaking into middle-market investing after 9/11 and choosing the hard path 12:05 – Being sent to depl...

Emily Bomberger, Vice President at Penn Spring Capital, shares her nontraditional path into private equity and the operating mindset she brings to evaluating founder-led businesses. She explains how early experiences in marketing, accounting, and PE-backed advisory work shaped her approach to judgment, value creation, and partnership with entrepreneurs. Emily also outlines what Penn Spring looks for in markets, founders, and focus—and why discipline matters more in tighter environments. This is a grounded conversation on learning fast, building trust, and making better investment decisions—worth your time. Episode Highlights 1:41 – Growing up in a small town and seeing firsthand how businesses shape communities 4:26 – Early operating exposure and learning how decisions flow through a busin...

Sean Mooney, Founder and CEO of BluWave, shares the key takeaways from BluWave’s 2025 Private Equity Insights Report and what they signal for the year ahead. Drawing on real-time data from hundreds of PE firms and thousands of portfolio companies, he outlines how the industry shifted from defense to offense, why diligence and value creation surged late in the year, and what separates winners from laggards entering 2026. Sean also delivers clear predictions on AI adoption, talent, software sprawl, and the accelerating deal rebound. This episode sets the context every private equity leader needs before leaning into the next cycle—press play. Episode Highlights 0:58 – Why private equity shifted from defense to offense in 2025 4:48 – What GDP, inflation, and productivity data revealed about ec...