In this short video clip, David Kirby reveals the best piece of advice he received when starting his career as an Operating Partner. Transcript...
In this short video clip, David Kirby reveals the best piece of advice he received when starting his career as an Operating Partner.
So, I think that the best piece of advice I got when I joined a Private Equity firm was to not worry about making a massive impact in the first six months. To really focus on getting to know people, getting to know the dynamics of the firm, getting to understand where I should be focused and the sorts of work I should be doing, which was, you know, there was a lot of potential ways that it could have gone.
And I think doing that meant that when I did start to do more visible work with my colleagues, they already knew who I was. We built trust, credibility, we understood each other, I understood the language - the lexicon of a Private Equity firm, which is really different to most other businesses you would work in. And I think that really set me up to then go on to have the sort of sort of impact that I was hoping to have.
David Kirby is the CEO and Founder of Coppett Hill, a technology-enabled advisory business to investor-backed companies. In this capacity, he is advising a number of private equity-backed businesses on growth and customer acquisition.
Before this, David spent six years at Livingbridge, the mid-market private equity fund where he led the Growth Acceleration Team, partnering with both management and investor teams to support strategic decision making. He also led the new investment team focused on tech-enabled services. David believes that people-based businesses which are underpinned by technology are going to be the long-term winners.
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