Episode

Key Takeaways

Brighton Park Capital specializes in growth equity for mid-sized software, healthcare, and tech-enabled services.
The firm prioritizes deep, long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and leverages operational expertise.
Value creation strategies include building enterprise capabilities and facilitating strategic partnerships for portfolio companies.
Future investment opportunities focus on AI-driven business process automation and disruptive new AI software.
The founder's strong work ethic and philanthropic efforts are rooted in significant personal influences.

Mark Jaga founded Brighton Park Capital after more than 20 years as a managing director at General Atlantic.
He identified a market gap for growth equity investments in mid-sized software companies, a segment overlooked by larger firms.
The firm adopted a strategy of making a small number of investments annually, dedicating substantial time to each entrepreneur.

The guest highlights a future trend toward investment firms recruiting partners with strong operational backgrounds.
Mike Gregoire, known for leading large software companies like PeopleSoft and Toledo, and selling CA Technologies, is cited as a key asset to Brighton Park.
This operational experience is emphasized as crucial for supporting portfolio companies effectively.

Brighton Park supported Portswiger, a UK penetration testing software company, in building enterprise capabilities and sales channels, leading to a significant SAP customer win.
The firm also facilitated a partnership between observability software company CoreLogix and IBM, which resulted in CoreLogix's largest deal.
These examples demonstrate the firm's focus on helping portfolio companies develop new products through market research and competitive analysis.

The guest expresses enthusiasm for AI's role in future business process automation, a thesis developed six years prior as a precursor to 'Agentic AI' trends.
Paradox, a portfolio company, utilizes AI chatbots to streamline hiring, reducing recruitment time from 35 days to 3 days for clients such as McDonald's.
Future areas of focus include 'Agentic AI' driving automation and new AI software companies disrupting incumbents with features like natural language query.

The guest attributes his strong work ethic and discipline to his mother, who raised five children, including him, after his father died when he was 8 years old.
His mother worked two jobs and returned to college to support his education, instilling values that fueled his career at Goldman Sachs and business school.
With his wife Kirsten, he co-founded the Jago Women in Finance program at Duke University, which provides specialized curriculum and internships to increase female representation in finance.