PE GUY Meets an Actual PE Guy

0:00Devin Mathews: Hey Johnny, welcome to West Winnetka.

0:01Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I can show you the ropes because I'm from here. Beautiful home here. It's a little bigger obviously. We're over on Sheridan Road. Different funds, different, you know, mega cabins. So what is your firm?

0:09Devin Mathews: We're called Parker Gales.

0:10Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I've never heard of that in my life. Where is your office? We're in the West Loop. Oh, it's up and coming, but it's not my favorite. I've gotten pizza over there once I got food poisoning. My offices are Wolf Point top floor, panoramic views on both sides of the river. I don't drive myself, obviously. I have a Maybach and a driver who takes me. There's a curtain in the back so the sun doesn't get in my eyes. It's not venture capital. It's private equity. It's the private equity fun cast. Pour yourself a drink and have a seat.

0:38Devin Mathews: Two private equity guys from Weneca walk into a pool house. The next 60 minutes may be the most fun we've had on the fun cast. May also be the most real honest conversation we have with somebody who is inside the brain of the private equity industry and has gotten a lot of attention for it. So we're going to jump right in with Johnny, the PE guy. Oh, I like that intro. Yeah. So you grew up here. I did. So people who have watched the show on YouTube, which I think more people listen to it, but if you're watching it, like and subscribe, were in my pool house in Winnetka, which is a town, I think, was it the first town you roasted?

1:20Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: In a way, I didn't post a reel about Winneka, but it was the first time that I started talking about, like, in my stories and stuff. But it's one of my highest-performing videos, I will say. Oh, funny story. I'm actually from here. Yeah, I went to New Trier, which people don't expect. Someone of my caliber, they expect to have gone to private school. But New Trier is as good as private when it comes to public schools. But, yeah, I was a swimmer. Yeah, like a 209 hundred butterflyer. So, yeah, I focused more so on my academics. So I was AP level classes as a sophomore. Yeah. Oh, you're in Glencoe.

1:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Okay, bummer. Yeah, so we would never have bought in Glencoe. No offense. Yeah, because, I mean, I'm from Winneka, so Glencoe is different. It's a decent town, but it's very different.

2:04Devin Mathews: So when I found out you grew up here and I live here, we reached out. We were like, next time you're home, we got to pull this off.

2:11Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

2:11Devin Mathews: You smartly said, let's not do it downtown. Let's do it in Winneka. Did I say that? I think because you're lazy and you didn't want to go there. No, that's exactly right. Or your mom was like, no, I want as much time with my son as I possibly could get.

2:22Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, but I would also look for an opportunity to like, you know, get away from the family, love the family, but a lot of time at home, you know, you want to get, but I think it was more maybe like the traffic, everyone always complain. So I was like, let's just do it. Yeah. And once I found out he had a pool house, I was like, this is great. I'd love to see the house, the pool, beautiful.

2:37Devin Mathews: Well, let's do this. For the people who don't know who you are, who is Johnny and what is PE Guy?

2:44Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I am from Weneca. I've been in Boston for 10 years. PE guy is a comedic Instagram. I have to fine tune this. Someday I'll get this like a solid sentence out for this. We'll work on your pitch after this. Yeah, there's got to be a better pitch. He's a satirical finance Instagram character that I created last year in March. And I posted the first video like as a just a whatever with like 5 ,000 followers on Instagram. And it just that first video did really well. And I was like, that's kind of a fluke. and then the next one two days later also did really well and then it was like from that day on it was like a thousand new followers a day for six months and and feeding the algorithm and since then it's like went from 5 000 followers to 370 something now and it's blossomed into this universe basically from just a very dumb instagram video now you know i'm all over the place yeah i

3:43Devin Mathews: I want to set the tone a little bit. So you grew up in a town you've roasted. And a lot like the other towns you've roasted with P.E. Guy as kind of the vehicle to do that. We're nine iron away from Indian Hill Country Club, who you've name-checked in your videos. Yes. You grew up as a member of this country club. I think you're headed there for lunch right after this.

4:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I'm hoping to go for a nice salad. Actually, not a salad. That's a tough time for a salad right now. I'm going to give it the news. I'm going to go for something like some tacos at the pool with the family.

4:11Devin Mathews: There's probably a Mahjong game is going to break out somewhere. Oh, certainly. At Indian Hill. Right by the pool. And that is the country club that famously the Murray brothers caddied at as kids. Yes. Because Wilmette is just on the other side of Weneca. Yeah. And so they would caddy at this place. So the inspiration for Caddyshack, maybe the original roaster of Weneca in disguise, you've carried on the tradition.

4:34Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think the Haverkamps actually were members. So and I just remember being younger my dad was like obviously big Caddyshack guy and someone like was like Oh, the Haverkamps are actually members here and I just started clocking things like that right away Caddyshack is probably like a big inspiration for me like the the scene the pool scene with the caddies in the pool and the Woman like coming in and the like yelling at everybody

4:59Devin Mathews: I also worked at Exmoor Country Club

5:05Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I was a lifeguard for like eight summers. So like high school through college.

5:08Devin Mathews: So you've observed this environment. I watched it, yeah.

5:11Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And I remember being like 17 and being like, there should be a Caddyshack, there should be like a lifeguard version of Caddyshack. Or just another like country club parody thing. You could never remake that, especially now. But I just started clocking it from like a very young age. Like just the, yeah, the outfits, the cars, the interactions, you know, the gifted children, which I was not. So I also clocked that very quickly. I was like, how come he's going to like a math tutor in the middle of summer? You know, I'm just eating Snickers bars at the pool shack.

5:49Devin Mathews: It's no big deal. So can I ask you about growing up, Johnny? Were you the class clown? Were you the cut up? And where are you in birth order? Because that actually matters a lot.

6:01Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I am middle. Yep, there you go. Middle, my brother, and then my twin sister and I, and my little sister. So I think that if I was the first, the personality would be my brother had to do everything wrong first, and then less eyes on me. He kind of taught me, this is what you don't. Go to college and don't do this. So I had his footsteps to follow in. He was way more serious, and I was just the joker in the household. And you were a Crow Island kid? Crow Island, Skokie, Washburn, New Trier. There we go. pipeline. Just like, uh, fallout.

6:33Devin Mathews: Some of the fallout boy. Yes. Yeah. The, yeah. Pete Wentz, um, Pete Wentz sightings and, uh, Liz fair.

6:41Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: The most random, random list of people. Um, I was a, definitely the class clown, not a good student.

6:48Devin Mathews: And on the swim team and the pole and the water polo team, you were the ones, uh, uh, you were cracking people up. You were the jokester.

6:55Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: But also taking myself seriously in a way, like I was the captain of the swim team. So like I had a serious role my senior year, but like take your job seriously, but not yourself. Exactly. All right. Yeah. There you go. So I was very, I was very, um, like dedicated to things that I was good at. So swimming, I was dedicated to, but at, uh, academics, like really just not a great student, but I loved to make my goal is always to make my teacher laugh.

7:19Devin Mathews: So you're only like three levels all through nature, not four levels. Yeah.

7:22Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Never four levels, but all my friends were four levels and they were getting into like Ivy leagues. And I was like, I got in off the wait list to Denver, which was like, okay. like very last minute, like in May.

7:31Devin Mathews: I mean, the hardships you've gone through growing up in Winneka and having to get into University of Denver off the list. Very difficult.

7:36Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I do have one question about water polo is

7:39Devin Mathews: how do the horses breathe underwater? The horses? Good. That was a perfect reaction. So here's what, I want to get this right out front. Like, your character is actually a pretty smart observer. You're a smart observer of humans. and the human condition. So this is not a knock on private equity. Well, I don't think it is. I don't think it's a knock on these wealthy towns because you live in Wellesley and you grew up in Winneka. And I don't think you're trying to make the easy hit. I think you're actually going a little bit deeper than that. So let's cover that and then we'll kind of pull back and go deeper into the bit.

8:20Yeah, I think it's not a knock.

8:23Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think it's like, it's not a knock. Someone actually just messaged me because I was in Nantucket like two days ago and someone was like, that's another crazy, beautiful place to, to roast. But it's not like the place or the thing, or like the fact that you're on a private plane or that you have nine bedrooms in your house. It's not like those things. It's just the, like the way that it's presented, which is why like this could be anybody. This could be an heir to Walmart or whatever. This could be any, this character is just like the self that lacks the self-awareness. I just happened to give him the private equity job.

8:57Cause I was like, all right, he's got to have a, like a really successful sounding job.

9:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So that's where the PE aspect came into it. It wasn't like originally to like roast PE, but then I learned that PE has its own lingo and that there are some problem areas in PE and like those are all kind of coming to light now. So the timing of it like worked really well. So I always like rebut when someone's like, yeah, you know, you're just making fun of rich people. I'm like, there are plenty of rich people who are super cool there. And then there's plenty of people who are not rich and in tons of debt who are terrible and act like this guy. And I mean, it's all different kinds of people. So it's not the rich guy.

9:39Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: It's not the person who owns the plane or whatever, or the yacht. It's the behavior.

9:43Devin Mathews: It's the try hard, the striver, the climber, the person who's actually pretty sad. Yes.

9:49Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: That's how it gets so deep. Cause you can go from like just the surface level down to like, this person is just trying to belong. And he thinks that he's like, all right, if I walk into this room and I'm like, I went to San Tropez yesterday, like everyone's going to be like, Oh wow. Like, okay. Are you go to, you stay at Rosewood resorts only? Like, wow. Okay. Like you're in, it's like a belonging thing. So it is, it is can be deeply sad too. Oh, the weather was awful. Yeah. We're usually in Europe for the forth. But we had to stick around this year because Tirantino's enrolled in STEM camp at Northwestern.

10:19Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: But the village canceled pretty much everything except the fireworks. We did at-home VR headset fireworks with the kiddos, though. Yeah, they actually prefer them. And our environmental toxin consultant advises that we avoid exposing the kiddos to unnecessary particulate matter until their executive function is fully developed. And because, like, you can find out where those

10:40Devin Mathews: places are that you need to name drop to belong. Right. So you grow up in Winneka, you only stay in Rosewoods. You only eat at Michelin star restaurants. Like you can find all this stuff and add it to your conversation as a way of one, like I want to belong. So I'm going to say this stuff and try and belong to this community. Uh, or I'm going to say this stuff to keep you away because I'm, you know, moving.

11:04Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I'm better than you. Yeah. I'm up here. You're down here. This summer we simplified things a little bit. Yeah, one of our nannies takes them straight to Indian Hill as soon as the pool opens. They're the first ones there. Yeah, and then they splash around a little bit, quick protein forward lunch, and then it's off to golf, and then tennis, and then home for mandarin and glassblowing. So, rinse and repeat. But the other thing is there's so many people, like, how many people belong to, I mentioned Indian Hill in my video, and then I was like, my parents are going to kill me. But how many people belong there who are awesome people?

11:33Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Like, and they're sharing it being like, Hey, this is kind of like, like Gary who we played golf with yesterday. Like, and it might be kind of like Gary who they play golf with, but like Gary's still a good guy, you know? Like it's, it's, that's comedy. Like it's just the extreme example. So like no one is exactly like him. Some people are, I've heard some people are worse than him. Um, Oh, a hundred percent. You can attest to that.

11:54Devin Mathews: Well, in every, in every career and every town, there's somebody worse than PE guy. Totally. And I think the reason it clicked is PE ate the world. In the last 30 years, from when you grew up here and where my wife grew up here, people didn't really know what people's parents did. This is a town of the big Midwest corporate CEOs and business leaders built and lived in this town. But you didn't have any sense of who had way more than anybody else. That's changed over the last, whatever, couple generations. and then this pecking order of careers and PE guy clicked, I think, because there are plenty of PE guys walking around every town and talking about using this language and then also thinking they're the top of the food chain, which everybody, I think certainly Midwestern sensibilities are kind of like, Hey, like take it down a notch, buddy.

12:46Devin Mathews: So there's always somebody in every, in every situation where you're like, that's the, you got to take it down a notch.

12:52Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Big law. When I was trying to figure out what it was going to be, I was like, he could be a lawyer, he could be a CFO guy. But I guess I hit it on the head.

13:01Devin Mathews: Yeah, because everybody's dentist, landscaper, vet, et cetera, et cetera, physical therapist, dermatologist. HVAC. Has been bought by private equity. Right. Or that's the joke that some kid's going to graduate from business school and go start a search fund and go buy an HVAC business. And that's how he's going to make his millions or he's going to get in private equity to buy HVAC businesses. But everybody, it hit because it's true enough. And everybody latched onto it. And it's a relatively small industry. compared to other industries, but it's got outsized, outsized attention because it's on the front page all the time for good reasons and horrible reasons.

13:38Devin Mathews: So everybody was, it's neat. I say it's an easy target, but you've got some depth to it. Is that fair? Or am I reading way too much?

13:44Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: No, that's really good. I like that easy target, but there's depth to it. So it's, yeah, it's like the surface or you can go deeper. How many people go deeper? I mean, it depends. I mean, it's just, everybody's different everyone has like a different capacity for that kind of it's like an emotional intelligence thing kind of people want to be like oh this is i see how this is bigger than just funny silly face guy um and then there are people who are like you're just making fun of rich people so but i would say it's like 90 of people are like i get that you're doing more than just that yeah and hilarious love it even people are like i don't follow you like love it keep doing what you're doing.

14:24Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Totally respect it. Yeah.

14:26Devin Mathews: When somebody sends it to me in my, in my feed, I'm going to, you know, I'll watch it. I'm going to like it and I'm going to probably send along to people. Exactly. So let's do this. So you, it's a Tik TOK filter. Like let's get into the Snapchat filter. It's a Snapchat filter. All right. So use a Snapchat filter to disguise your face. We'll get out of it different. And, uh, you have a very nice face. So, uh, so I appreciate it, But you've made it look somehow like, oh, I could see a guy in PE with a horrifying face like that.

14:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: It's almost like cartoonish. Yeah, yeah. So that's why I feel like okay about it because I'm like, no one looks like that. You know, he's like, it's so absurd. But the filter is very good at tracking on your face. Yeah. So if I'm moving, it stays with my face. So that's why people are like, is that his face? Oh, 100%. I have so many messages every day that are like, I'm debating this with my friends. Is that your face? I'm like, no, thank God. so it's the filter like just adds like a i don't know something to it that i can't really even put my finger on like it's not me i could scrunch my face up and try to be like pompous in a video but like it also removes me a little bit from it where i i talk about him in the third character sometimes i'm like i'm like i'll be talking with a brand i'll be like well so he could act like he's at a spa talking about your software company or whatever and like it confuses people because Sometimes people on the call are like, you're him, right?

15:47Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And I'm like, yeah, but like, you know, so I get to like kind of remove myself a little bit. Yeah, yeah.

15:51Devin Mathews: I mean, we could get really deep and talk about like Hieronymus Bosch's grotesques from his early trip decks and things. Yeah. Like the Garden of Earthly Delights. But like we'd skip that for maybe the gradual level. Or yeah, part two. Part two when I come back home. What is the most surreal moment you've had as PE guy?

16:10Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think it was September of last year. So like five months into this whole thing, I got asked to go on Fox News as a guest. And I was like, I asked like a couple of agents who are like kind of friends, helped guide me through this whole thing. One at CAA and one at UTA. And I was like, what do I do? This is like an opportunity, but like I don't want to be associated with anything. I don't want to go anywhere because I just don't want to alienate anybody and I don't want anybody to be mad at me. And he was like, you go. It's not political. Like they do a funny thing. Just go. So I go to a remote studio in Boston, in Newton, and I'm sitting there like waiting to go on live Fox News.

16:52Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Like at the end of a long day of talking about whatever the hell they're talking about for 55 and a half minutes, they're going to do a, we like to end Friday with a funny of the day or whatever, which I was like, okay. So I'm sitting there waiting and I come on the screen and it's live TV. And they're like.

17:09Devin Mathews: All right, Johnny's with us now.

17:11Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And we're all kind of shocked because you don't look like the person we know that has gone viral on social media Welcome to you Johnny Thank you for having me You know, and then we talk about it. They show it's a five-minute thing. They show videos. They're being complimentary You're so funny. How do you do it? Can you do a little bit of it for us now? No one told me that in a pre-interview or anything the pre-interview producer called me was like hey I go to the studio at whatever time so I'm I'm like yeah like trying to like scrunch my face up and be like PE guy and she's like you know kind of like chuckling and I'm like and I can see myself in a monitor and I'm like oh my god like this is hell this is hell like this is I'm like but it's sink or swim what am I gonna do and I can't do it it's live TV they've allowed this amount of time for me to do it so I'm just doing it yeah yeah so um so I heard that you that you guys you both of you drive Rivian which is it's a decent car it's a decent car but I I'm not sure if you're familiar but Lamborghini actually has an electric car.

18:09Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So we have multiple Lamborghini electrics. So yeah, Rivian's kind of a starter car for us. Yeah. And of course that resonates because I appreciate the joke. We don't actually have the Rivians, but there are Rivians everywhere in these fancy towns filled with PE guys. And I'm like, oh, like really tough crowd. I'm like, okay, I figured like that's a joke. And then it goes to, thanks for having, thanks for being here. It goes to commercial and she goes, her male co-host goes, wow, I was so shocked to see his face like that. I don't understand. And she's like, yeah, I don't get it. And they're talking about it.

18:46Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And he's like, I think it takes him a second to get his face there, to get it there. And they're both like, interesting. And then it cuts and they're like, thanks so much. And the producer says, thanks so much and have a great day. And they thought that if they asked me to do it, I could make this face go in there on live TV. And then when I didn't do it, they were like disappointed and talking about it. And I was like, like, that was the most shocking. I was just like, and I had to laugh about it. I went in the bathroom and I, I'm in this dingy remote studio. And I was like, this is like the ups and the downs.

19:20Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And like, I saw this in LA, like the lights on at the Ellen show and everyone's screaming and then the lights off and someone's sweeping up. Like those moments are the funniest to me. Like I'm in the bathroom wiping makeup off my face, television makeup off my face. And I'm like laughing in the mirror. And I, but also like the scene in The Substance where she's like ripping all of her, like, it was kind of like that. I was like, you're like, you're good for nothing. Go home. Like, look at you. Like,

19:43Devin Mathews: you're just saying yes to everything. You idiot. So what, you don't know anything about private equity. We're going to get into that in the next segment. But what did you know enough to get it? Like what clicked? It was it really just like, here's this guy you love to hate in this town you love to hate?

20:00Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Well, I just, I think I picked private equity because it was everywhere in the news. And like, I felt like I kept meeting people specifically at weddings who were like, I'd be like, what is, what do you do? Or what private equity? And then people would be like, Oh, he's in private equity. Like it was this big, like, okay, like he's driving that car cause he's in private equity. Like he does really well. He's in private equity.

20:19Devin Mathews: It's a shortcut. Uh, again, I'm, I am the PE guy. Uh, and I, well, you're not, but yeah, yeah, no, let's come on. Yeah. I would not be saying we're in a pool house. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, I'm PE guy. Yeah. Uh, but didn't grow up like PE guy. Right. Uh, so, and I've got three brothers and a bunch of friends who keep me honest, but yeah, private equity is shorthand for I'm doing okay. Yeah. I'm doing better than you.

20:43Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yes. Now it may not be, especially me in those scenarios where I'm like, I'm a spin instructor and they're like, I'm in PE. I'm like, okay, well like, we'll just like pack up and I'll go home. Exactly. It's like, Oh yeah. We're buying up spin, uh, spin classes.

20:55Devin Mathews: What are the unit economics?

20:57Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: My favorite conversation was somebody being like, I was at a wedding and someone was like soul cycle. And he was like, I'm trying to think like, are they PE back? I was like, I have no idea.

21:08Devin Mathews: Like I have zero clue if they're PE back. The check hits the account every two weeks. Don't care.

21:14Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: They have enough money to pay me my, for my classes. And that's, I don't know where it's coming from, but yeah. Yeah.

21:19Devin Mathews: So I think for a while there was a good run we had there where like, Hey, I work in private equity. I run a private equity firm, this or that. Um, that was like, Oh, look look at this go-getter. There's a little bit of that. I think it's turned into, for better or for worse, right? I mean, I think there's a lot of the population that would say, private equity entered my life somehow by buying something, a service provider I frequented, and it's gotten worse. And certainly the headlines of Toys R Us got nuked, this company got nuked by debt and private equity. Don't help. But I think it's more like the little day-to-day stuff.

21:48Devin Mathews: And we share the same dentist. Shout out Mike Duda. He's putting in a permanent crown next Friday. So I've got a temporary in right now.

21:57Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Really nice guy, but I have had, I, he's put, if anyone ever is going to put a needle in the roof of your mouth, tell them that you're just going to deal with the cavity. Like just leave it, just leave it. Cause he's done that to me. Like, I think probably the last time I saw him before I moved away and it was, he was not my dentist was he put a needle on the roof of my mouth and just for fun or for like for numbing. Oh, okay. And cause you know, if they do Novocaine, like in your gum, it's fine. But the roof of your mouth, you will feel in your eyeballs and in your toes. Yeah, yeah. And I was just like, like it was the, I have a, I'm probably kind of a baby, but it was a horrible amount of pain.

22:31Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And I was like, I never want to come back here again.

22:33Devin Mathews: This is not a good advertisement for the best dentist in the North Shore. He's a wonderful, yeah. But my biggest thing is don't sell the private equity because I'm going to have to switch dentists. I know. And he's like, never, never, never. Yeah. It's like, never, never. Until they hit the number. Yeah.

22:46Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I know. Well, that's what happens. Then I ask him,

22:48Devin Mathews: what does he use for like his, you know, his dental practice management system and he built his own. I'm like, I couldn't make a private equity joke there. Anyway, we're getting off topic. Yeah, sorry. The tooth of it all. But everybody's had this experience with private equity, not all positive. So the fact you say private equity guy, he was like, oh, I know what that means. Now it's shorthand for, I'm not sure I like this guy if he's going to act like this. So I tell people I'm in tech software because we invest in software companies. So my shorthand, when I'm at Nico's wedding in a few weeks and somebody says, hey, what do you do?

23:21Devin Mathews: i'm gonna say i'm in software or i say it's really boring what do you do it's like i work at a bank i'm a teller at a bank which is also like you can't do because then they found out you worked

23:29Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: in private equity like this guy yeah trying to pretend he's a man of the people you could like start a you know boutique downtown winneka and say you're a boutique owner or something like that you know and then that's your that's the first thing that's 100 a private equity guy thing to

23:42Devin Mathews: do the wife who wants to have so much wife he wants a boutique yeah just as a great loss gonna They sell floral, puffy sleeve dresses and wicker baskets. Well, when you want to open a real estate agent or like a bank or a wealth management firm or in a dry cleaner. Right. We haven't done great with the restaurant bar scene like Wilmette and other times. Coffee shop. So let's get into your catchphrases. So you're known for, like you've invented these catchphrases that in my world aren't very private equity, but seem to work for the character, right?

24:13Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So like what are PE guys' catchphrases? I think the very first one was decent because he would be talking to you and you'd say what you do for work. And he'd be like, oh, that's a decent upside there. I'm a heart surgeon. There's decent upside there, but you're capped at a certain. So decent was number one. And then it was substantial because then he would be talking about himself. And he would be like, well, my compensation is substantial. It's a substantial sum. And I don't want to tell you the number, but it's substantial. And he kind of closes his eyes when he says it. and it's a lot of money.

24:45Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: It's substantial. And then due to my role is something that I actually have heard people say, but not due to my role, but because of my job, obviously.

24:53Devin Mathews: I have to travel a lot. So wait, it's so weird.

24:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: You're spending all of August in Europe. So how? Well, it's because of my job. And we're able to, you know, like that. So the due to my role is just kind of like the next level. So that's become the name of my business.

25:08Devin Mathews: You have a podcast called Due to My Role.

25:10Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: My podcast, yes.

25:11Devin Mathews: And that's the name of your LLC, Due to My Role, LLC. LLC? Yeah.

25:14Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: You've got to have an LLC. I have an LLC, yeah. That's very smart. I don't know, someone to protect me from being sued by, I don't know who. Yeah. But yeah, due to my roles, now it's everywhere. And then there's PE, private equity. So when he says, I mean, the character, when he says, when I'm talking to someone at a wedding or whatever, well, I'm in PE. And then, like a little pause, private equity. Just to drill it in there that it's, of course, not physical education. Like, I'm not a PE teacher.

25:41Devin Mathews: Yeah, because I always, like, why does he say P.E. private equity? And now that I'm getting it, it's like, oh, no, I'm in P.E. Oh, let me explain to you, poor heart surgeon, what this means. This is private equity.

25:52Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, just so you know. Like, that's how, yeah.

25:55Devin Mathews: All right. And so, like, who are the characters in, the reoccurring characters in P.E. Guys of Life? Oh, wow.

26:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So it started with one of the kiddos. The kiddos is a buzzword, too. Tarantino is the first child Tarantino is four Montauk is the second daughter, two And then Ibida is nine months And it's like family guy, they're stuck They're stuck at those ages Everyone's like, when's Tarantino's birthday? And I'm like, you'll know Tarantino's birthday is going to be When I have to rent out Madison Square Garden And we have to sell tickets For his fifth birthday There's nothing like Lake Como on Father's Day morning If you know, you know Have you ever been to Como? Oh, it's so sick. Yeah. Well, to get in my role, we're able to vacation here consistently.

26:42Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, the pups are playing in the water and Tarantino and Montauk are at fencing lessons.

26:47Devin Mathews: And Tarantino travels with you a lot based on your social media feed. I've seen Tarantino on Lake Como, I believe. I've seen him at Wimbledon. I've seen him acting up in inappropriate places with a device in his hand. Clearly, you haven't gotten the memo that in Weneca we don't give kids devices until they're in eighth grade. He's very different. So he, he can, he just like just slamming Kumon worksheets on that device. He's above those.

27:13Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: He's got like, he has a violin that he brings with him that the staff brings around with him. He has a harp that he brings with him on vacation. He likes to practice. Oh, and wifey. Wifey. And she's very, very dedicated to tennis. So she does two a days with the tennis pro. But not paddle. Who I recently named.

27:29Devin Mathews: She's playing tennis, not paddle.

27:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: She like dabbles a little bit in paddle. Like I've said that, but pickle, but she really is like, she's winning.

27:36Devin Mathews: a public school sport. I think you're not playing pickle at the club.

27:39Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Pickle's too attainable for the public now. She plays like on clay courts at the club with the tennis pro two a days and they're very close. The tennis pro and wifey. And he is very supportive of her tennis journey. So he's just doesn't think twice when she says that she's going back to the tennis hut to hang out with Federico. Are there any new characters that are going to come into his life? Wifey has a swing coach that when the tennis pro and her on the fritz, there's a swing coach for golf that she uses.

28:07Devin Mathews: And is this in the simulator at home? Oh yeah. Above the garage? There's a private

28:11Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: simulator in the basement and then there's, um, and then he comes with them to St. Bart's. That's a new, that's a new thing. I'm just trying to like diversify the, you know, the potential revenue strings for myself. Maybe, maybe, you know, a golf company wants to sponsor the swing coach. I don't So yeah, I think that's it for the, I mean, there's staff, but they're not named. It's just nanny one, two, three. Yes. There's like, depending on the video, there's of course like an equestrian team at the house for the horses that are in the stable.

28:42Devin Mathews: I mean, this, this is why like the people who are like, oh, he hates money. He hates private equity. It's like, no, this is just absurd. No, we're having fun and we're making it more absurd. And we're all here. You can go here for the ride. You can go anywhere with those things. Like that's the thing. So I'm going to give you, we'll give you some tips. We've written about this on our, on our blog and on our sub stack. And we've also done an episode about PE lingo. We can download a PE lingo bingo card and you can play bingo at your next meeting if you want. So I'll give you the like three, like three key ones.

29:13Devin Mathews: First is the unlock. So I think, do you want to unlock value or unlock, you know, your riches? There needs to be something to unlock. So what's an example of an unlock? So like expanding into Europe. Hey, we bought this demetology practice.

29:31Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: We bought Sweetgreen and we're...

29:32Devin Mathews: Yeah, the unlock is expansion. Okay.

29:35Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: The unlock is replacing everybody with a robot.

29:37Devin Mathews: The unlock is robot salad. Robot assistance. Yeah, salad makers. Yeah, yeah, okay. The unlock could be levering the heck out of the business and draining its cash flows to pay down debt. That could be the unlock. Okay. The unlock is just something that like, if we just, when we do this, oftentimes before you buy the company, you have to have like, well, what's the unlock?

29:58Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Right. How are you going to take it to the, how do you take it to the next level?

30:01Devin Mathews: You got to unlock.

30:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Okay. So I'm already, I'm already thinking things. So like if I were to buy up a dentist thing, the unlock would be, he's the three dentists at the practice are going to work Saturdays and Sundays. That would be an unlock.

30:12Devin Mathews: Unlock would be teeth whitening. Unlock would be, we charge you twice as much when we shoot Novocaine into the roof of your mouth versus then into the gum.

30:20Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Perfect. Yeah.

30:20Devin Mathews: The unlock could also be we're going to get rid of the homegrown dental practice management system, and we're going to bring in another PE-backed software business. Right. Get rid of the old lady at the front desk. So we can accelerate order to cash. Right? That's a big unlock, too. Perfect. You want to do that. Okay. All right.

30:37Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Locked and loaded up here. Yeah. And I'll just listen to this if I forget.

30:40Devin Mathews: Yep. And then there's industrial logic. Yep. Industrial logic is, well, it just makes sense. You could say, this makes sense. We should do it. Or you could say - Or you could just say - Industrial logic of PE guy and the fun cast coming together. It's just obvious industrial logic. It makes sense. Okay. Industrial logic.

30:58Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Often when two things are coming together, like two companies. Like pet grooming and a veterinary service or something. Horse ophthalmology and equestrian.

31:05Devin Mathews: Grooming while you get a crown in. Yeah. Those are synergies too. I mean, there's a lot of synergies. Pedicure at the dentist. But the way you unlock something is often you pull a lever and you drive synergies. So there's a lot of lever pulling. there's synergies that's crazy there's unlocks and but it's all in the service of only one thing value creation of course got to create value of course so where where is pe guy creating value for his uh lps that's what i want to know we'll get to that later yeah i mean that's a you should be thinking every day start yeah what is this uh you know tennis match what's this trip to martha's vineyard how is that creating value for your shareholders and your uh and your investors That's very important.

31:49Devin Mathews: It's a good question. So you're on Cameo. Yes. People pay you money to either roast a friend of theirs, a family member, or roast themselves?

31:57Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, I would say every once in a while, which makes me sad when someone's like this, because it says from and to. It's like from Bill to Bill, like from me. And I'm like, you've got yourself a birthday Cameo. But I think he's going to share it with his friends, I hope.

32:11Devin Mathews: I have Michael Rappaport roast my 15-year-old on Cameo for her 15th birthday. How did that go? Yeah, you cannot share it. It is brilliant, one of the most brilliant two minutes of comedy, but it's unshareable because it would make him look even worse than he looks because he really committed to the bit, and it was amazing.

32:28Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: That's the thing. Some of the roasts, so I roast, most of them are roasts, or it's like a birthday for a wife. It's like, hey, for my husband, roast him. He's in whatever. He belongs to this club.

32:40Devin Mathews: He's in PE, private equity. PE, private equity. And he belongs to Senegal.

32:43Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, yeah, and right now he's in Ibiza, and the kids are at home with a nanny or whatever. So I roast people mostly. They're mostly roasts for birthday things. For Father's Day is a big one. But in the very beginning, I wasn't on Cameo. So the first month of doing this, someone was like, hey, I will Venmo you. Just like it's my husband's 50th birthday. Please, like I need this video in the next two days. Like here are all the things. And then I was like, oh, if this is how Cameo works, I can. So now I am on Cameo. But in the beginning, I would just say to people, they're like, what do you charge?

33:15Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And I was just like, I don't charge because you're the first person to ask me to do this. So I was like, whatever you think is fair, which was a great way to test the whatever, people started sending me anywhere between$200 and$700 for a 45-second to 90-second video. Well, hold that.

33:35Devin Mathews: We're going to get into the revenue streams and the opportunity to unlock some synergies by pulling levers. But I was like, of course. We're going to give you some advice in the next segment for that. I need to nail that sentence.

33:42Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Right. So you've got that.

33:44Devin Mathews: You've got this filter that allows you to let it rip. I mean, if it was Johnny's face versus PE guy's face, could you pull this off the way you wanted to? I don't know.

33:53Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I don't know. I think, again, because it lets me separate from the character that I almost am like, I can be like, I'm having the worst day. And then I go up to my third floor of my house where my studio is. And I'm like, the filter comes on my face. And I'm like, all right. I'm totally separated. And then afterwards, I'm like, I'm back in me. but like i can kind of like so if it was just me i think it'd be hard to and then it's my face out there yeah and then people are like you're not funny but i'm like if you don't think he's funny like all right he's annoying yes he's yeah yeah yeah so and was this like did you have multiple

34:28Devin Mathews: characters leading this and this one clicked and everybody asked like oh he's a comedian and he did this and i'm like no no no he's just a regular guy he's just a guy who likes to make people laugh

34:37Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: so and but i was making my friends laugh and i i've always the snapchat filters there's like thousands so i would like land on a snapchat filter and be like okay this is old lady in the midwest i'm gonna do and send those to my friends because you've posted ones of like a

34:51Devin Mathews: a woman of a certain age like stressed out mama pounding uh duncan hey mamas who else high five

35:00Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: put a finger down if you've been put hands up if you've been up since 5 a.m because the kiddos yeah yeah well there's that and then i mean there's like oh there so i my that's how my brain works it doesn't work very well in a lot of ways but this way it does so i i've always done that and i just sent him to friends someone was like you gotta like put that on instagram it's really funny and i was like i don't know and that's how p.e guy kind of happened because he was

35:25Devin Mathews: that filter gave you the idea and then p.e guy popped exactly right but there so there are other

35:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: but you weren't doing like stand up and open mic nights no these things although i have done a stand-up class it's just terrifying so i was like i'm not doing that again yeah but like you coming

35:38Devin Mathews: out of college you worked for the allen show yeah you've worked in you know fitness and other things yeah um but this was just like a thing to make your friends laugh yeah just to as many people as i could and where are you getting your bits like i met you like this stuff is so specific when heck is easy because he grew up here and was like okay that was target practice super easy but you're like going into some deep areas that you need to know the lingo because that's why people are sharing it, right? Like you've had millions of views. Yeah. Right.

36:07Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I mean, so many share because yeah. So people will message me and say, these are often places I've never been.

36:13Devin Mathews: So someone talking about you chagrin falls, Ohio, like he hasn't done it yet. So somebody, I got to do that.

36:19Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: If anyone wants to send me, you know, information. So ideally, I do have a PE guy from there who I can send it to and have it. And then it'll be, it'll be the perfect script. Cause he knows, you know, the assumption is these people messaging me all, I'll know, but I do cross-reference. So if I search my DMs right now and I say Charlotte, North Carolina, like it will drop down and they'll be endless. And then I'll just click into and I'll screenshot some and then like copy it and put it all into a document and find where there's like similarities. So then I noticed like a trend, like, oh, they all belong to Charlotte country club, whatever like that.

36:53Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And then like there's a mention of this same coffee shop all the time. So then that's how I build this school, not this school.

36:57Devin Mathews: So then you've got the competition between, oh, we would never send our kids to this school. They go to that school. The way you could do that in Winnaker around, you saying, oh, I went to New Trier, you would be surprised because I'm such an amazing guy that I would have gone to Loyola or North Shore Country. But I went to public, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you need to get that level of specificity for each town.

37:17Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yes, which I don't have the context in any other town except this one. I know that here it's not as common to go to a private school because you have New Trier and it does have that kind of... And so if you go to college, people know what Nutriere is. Well, you went to the University of Denver.

37:32Devin Mathews: Yeah. How many people from your class were at the University of Denver? Oh, like 25 maybe. Yeah, 25 people from your graduating high school class were at the University of Denver, which there's 4 ,000 places in America you could go to college in 25. If you go to Wisconsin, there's 100 kids there. If you go to Boulder, there's probably 50 kids there. Totally. Right?

37:51Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: They're all over. Yeah.

37:51Devin Mathews: Yeah, yeah. So that, yeah. And the other kids you hung out with were from Edina, Minnesota. Edina. Eden Prairie. Let's go through the list. So people slide into your DMs or email you at whatever, PEguy at Gmail. Is that what you are? PEguy at Gmail.

38:07Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: No, I've upgraded to johnny at do to my role.com. They both exist.

38:11Devin Mathews: Johnny, J-O.

38:12Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: J-O-H-N-N-Y.

38:13Devin Mathews: At do to my role.com. Yep. That's way worse than PEguy at gmail.com. It takes way more time.

38:18Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: People are like, you don't look legit because you have a Gmail account.

38:21Devin Mathews: They're like, make this look just like, I don't know. I just have an account with one of the largest, most substantial companies in the world.

38:27Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: If you had an account, if you were doing business with somebody and you were like, it's at Gmail, they'd be like, this isn't real.

38:33Devin Mathews: I think Hotmail is kind of a flex. Yeah, yeah. If you're really successful in Hotmail or something. It's like, this guy cares so little that he still has a Hotmail account. He doesn't need to do this. Yeah. He has an Excite account. That guy is a baller. Yeah. I think it's kind of the opposite. That's a good point. All right. Well, I have both for different series. All right. Let's also cover this before we move on. We're going to get into the economics of this business. Yeah. And you've graciously said you'd share. Yeah. Why not? like a very Midwest thing to do, talk about money. But we're going to try.

38:56Devin Mathews: We're going to try. It'll be very uncomfortable, us trying to extract money from each other. I can get into character a little bit. But you worked at Barry's. Yeah. Barry's was owned by private equity. Yeah. You blow up. And they nuked you off the... No likey, yeah. No likey PE guy?

39:10Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I was a bad employee, first of all, so I do have to say that. Like, I was just always like, oh, I have to go to, like, New York City to do something for PE guys. So I was just subbing out of classes a lot. But there was no real conversation. like put me on a performance review or something to make it fun for me to get fired. But instead I just found out I was taking off the schedule. I was like, okay.

39:29Devin Mathews: All right. So the conspiracy theory about Barry's here, do we think this was private equity related? There was an executive session somewhere at the private equity firm saying we need to get rid of this guy.

39:37Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I like to think they were sitting around a room and there were like 12 people at a board and they were all, and I like to imagine all their phones, the volume going on and they all share a video and it's all playing me and they're all just kind of like, like just like really disappointed. more like a tsk tsk. We got to take him off the, yeah, because he's not adding, because I wasn't really leaning in. You're not adding value. I wasn't adding value. They wanted me, some of the regional people, it's not those people, it's the regional people, like why don't we lean into this, like you post a thing, take your first class on Barry's, have this be like a top of funnel thing, and see who you bring in and see if you can create value here.

40:17Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And I was like, I'm not going to do that. So, um, so I don't think they liked that very much. And then the people at the top were probably like, he's virtually useless, which I, I essentially was cause I was never unreliable. I was unreliable. You also have like the 5am class. I did have a 610 and a 720 on Monday morning, which were highly coveted classes. So the other instructors were like, what is, why does he have those? He's never here. Like he's, he, I was, I played bangers in class, great class, some comedic, you know, relief during your sprints up a hill or whatever. But as far as my knowledge of the general body and the moving of it, I would just be like, people would be like, my back hurts.

40:56And I'd just be like, shoot.

40:58Devin Mathews: Did you ever work at the SoulCycle in Beacon Hill? Yes. That was my home studio. Okay. Now it's a sweet cream. I'm in Boston visiting my brother, who went to Harvard, by the way. Did you go to HBS as well? No. Different. He has a PhD. And his wife went to Harvard. She's an architect. Wow. So I'm visiting them and they, uh, uh, his wife is super into soul cycle. She's amazing. Um, so we go, she's like, Hey, let's take a soul cycle class. Yeah. Uh, this is way off topic, but that's okay. I probably know her. We'll talk about her name later. There's a payoff here. Yeah. So at one point the soul instructor, I'm in the back row.

41:36Devin Mathews: Cause I'm like, Hey, I'm not a spin person. Yeah. And my sister-in-law is in like amazing spin shape. Yeah. Right. She would say that's a different shape than other shapes. So if you do spin and then you lift weights or go for hike, like you, You're not in any other kind of shape than spin shape. Yeah, yeah. So this instructor, probably you, gets off the bike, walks back to the back row, looks me in the eye and says, are you okay? So even in my moment of need, it's probably like 10 years ago, five years ago. Was it a male instructor? 100 % it was you. It was probably me. It was totally you. Yeah.

42:09Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, because you care. But you probably also, did you look like you were dying? I don't know. I can't see myself while I'm spinning. Yeah, I might have been concerned. and it's very dark back there. That's crazy. You 100 % came and checked on me. That is funny. I mean, yeah, you would have known. Yeah, that was definitely the biggest instructor there. You're a really sweet guy, Johnny.

42:26Devin Mathews: This is the thing. You were like, in my moment of need, you checked my pulse. Yeah.

42:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Well, yeah, I just was like, I'm not, I'm not. Because I did have to drag people out. That was always very disorienting for people, and people would faint all the time. And dragging somebody out of there is, SoulCycle's whole thing is like, don't stop, don't disrupt the class. You know, which is ultimately like, We don't want to refund anybody. So don't turn the lights on. Drag their carcass out into the hallway, and they'll administer CPR if they need to.

42:51Devin Mathews: You are born this way as just blasting. You're just quietly bringing somebody out the back.

42:55Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, the instructor's screaming and doing backflips.

42:58Devin Mathews: All right, let's talk about the business. So you took a Snapchat filter.

43:01Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

43:02Devin Mathews: Shout out to Snapchat. Don't get rid of the filter. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean, Evan's in a tough spot. Hard to get that market cap up. And releasing those big, chunky glasses, I don't think is going to help. I need a pair of those, by the way. We'll get into that in a second. And I think you just don't feel cringey. Like you don't have that I'm embarrassed for myself, Gene. No. So you took those two things, like cringe. I tell people everything good is on the other side of cringe. Totally. Clearly, I'm doing a private equity podcast. Yeah. But this is at least buttoned up and adult. Yeah.

43:37Devin Mathews: Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Huge compliment coming from you. For real. You're so mature. Especially compared to what I'm doing. Yeah. So, uh, uh, that's, I think you just took those two things and kind of like, I don't give an F, uh, and let's just put some stuff out there. So I want to know about like, how does the business work? This is a private equity podcast. So share, what are the revenue streams, the different ways you get paid? So they are cameo. So cameo, a Chicago company, which, you know, B list celebrities and private equity guys can be paid. I know you're climbing at 250 bucks, I think is your rack rate.

44:12Devin Mathews: Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. You could get a New Jersey housewife for like 78 bucks. Yeah. Well, they're struggling. New Jersey, unfortunately. The franchise is struggling. But Atlanta's coming back. That's the thing. I mean, you know, it's making a big, and Rhode Island is really. There's just so many of them. Isn't it embarrassing that Rhode Island housewives could charge more for the cameos than New Jersey housewives? Well, they're more like relevant right now, I feel like.

44:32Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: 100%. But the cameo thing was, someone reached out at Cameo, and they were like, we're going to put you on the platform. You should start at$15 to$20. And I was like, 15 or 20, respectfully, absolutely.

44:43Devin Mathews: You can get Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern show for 15. Yeah. Yeah.

44:46Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Like you could, you could get a dead person for$15 on cameo. So I was like, I'm not talking about Mitch McConnell. We're not getting political. Yeah. We don't want to get political, but, um, all right.

44:57Devin Mathews: So cameo. So I did, but you were doing these, like you were just doing a video, sending it and getting Vemmoed.

45:03Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yes.

45:03Devin Mathews: Which you didn't pay anything. You didn't give up any of any of the juice for that. Johnny, how much, how much are you giving up? to Cameo for these, how much do you get? I think it's 25%. So they get 25 % of the 250. And people could pay you more because they tip on Cameo. Yeah, they tip.

45:17Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And then they also, if you do 24 hours, it's like, they upcharge. So I get like$300 if it's a 24 hour thing. Sweet. All right, so you got Cameo.

45:26Devin Mathews: Cameo is 250 to 300, give up 25 % margin. Cameo is probably 10 % of the business. But there's zero prediction. There's zero production cost to a Cameo. You're just recording it. Just my soul.

45:37Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: and yeah, you know, dignity, but that's it.

45:41Devin Mathews: That's a zero cost. That's gone. Zero cost to either of those.

45:44Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: We're done with that anyways. So that 10 % cameo, like 80 % of it is like paid partnerships right now. Or probably now it's more like 70%.

45:54Devin Mathews: It's because you have 375 ,000 followers on Instagram. Yeah. How many on TikTok? 100 ,000 on TikTok. So are you monetized on Instagram? Like do you get CPM? No. So like are you getting paid? Like you get a million views. you get some juice because they're inserting stuff.

46:08Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So TikTok I monetize on, so that's maybe 5 % of the business. So if videos perform better, you get paid for each video. Then Instagram, the brand partnerships are the biggest things.

46:18Devin Mathews: All right, so how does that even start? You're putting goofy videos out on Instagram, they pop, and then...

46:25Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Two months into the PE guy, the first brand, Black Tux, reached out. Said, we want to do a brand deal with you. Like, do you have a manager? And I was like... Yeah, I do. You're like, hello, this is journey. Like, hi, like love Anna. Yeah. Like I like partnerships at new to my role. Yeah. Um, and I was just like, it was like, what can I, what, what's your rate? Yeah. So I just asked chat GPT and then I spit that number out. Johnny, you're the best. You can charge whatever you want.

46:50Devin Mathews: Yeah. Yeah.

46:50Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: You, we love you. Um, spit it out. Then they were like, great, let's do it. And then I had no idea what, so then I took the contract that they sent me. I plugged that into chat GPT. I said, are there any red flags? Yes. No. Bingo. Good to go. Sign in. Then they were like,

47:03Devin Mathews: All our friends at Kirkland and Ellis are having an absolute heart attack right now.

47:06Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

47:07Devin Mathews: Whoops. Yeah. Johnny, we could get you way better legal advice. I know. But they take so long and have to use their eyes.

47:13Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: It will probably be 90 % of your budget, your expense budget, but we could get you protected here. So that started in May, the first one. And then someone, another company saw, oh, he's doing brand deals. So then it just kind of like from there turned into like a, now it's like between four and eight paid partnerships a month probably. And they're with like Bowling Branch, Ramp, Vanta, some software companies, some like, you know, Roan is a, as a.

47:38Devin Mathews: So what is Vanta? Vanta just wants to get in front of private equity people because they sponsor a lot of private equity podcasts, except this one. Hello, Vanta.

47:45Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah. Hi, Vanta. They, I now understand what a SOC 2 compliance is. I still, I actually don't really know. No, you absolutely don't. You could say it. But I weave it into the script.

47:55Devin Mathews: You could weave it into it. So you're, uh, so yeah, so our audience isn't hardcore influencer economy people, right? They're not like listening, taking the Colin and Samir, you know, how to be an influencer course, like, uh, some of us at Parker Gale shockingly did. Uh, so, so you mentioned them in a PE guy video or you do like, it was about them basically.

48:16Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And then I collaborate with the company. So it's like, you know, paid partnership, Johnny and Bull and Branch, for example, like, So then the whole video is about me refreshing the whole Aspen house with Bowen Branch sheets. So it's a natural ad. So if you're watching, you're like, oh, I know this is an ad. But hopefully, you're like, I think that PE Guy is still so funny in the ads that I'm going to watch the whole ad. And that's the value prop that I'm not like, hey, guys. Your completion rates are high. Look at my, yeah, whatever that means. Look at my new waffle blanket. I love it so much.

48:47Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: How many of those are you going to see? So I think people in the beginning were like, you're not going to be able to monetize this because no brand is going to want to use that dumb face to promote their product. And now I'm like, well, they are because it's different than everybody else. So, yeah.

49:02Devin Mathews: Because, again, they're looking to have authentic, organic integrations. Yes. Right? These are the things I hear a lot about, you hear a lot about. Integrations, they want it organic. meaning we're not going to just sit here and say, Hey, XYZ sponsor is my go-to, you know, a pillowcase. It's like, I'm going to make a goofy video and I'm going to bring it up.

49:24Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah. Yeah. And then, and it also usually starts with like someone like I'm the CMO messaging me. I'm the CMO at whatever company. I love your stuff. I'm connecting you with our social team, social team work with Johnny. Yeah.

49:36Devin Mathews: And what people don't know, this micro influencer, and this was big at con, like the lion awards and, you know, advertising awards is that the micro influencer world yeah is starting to compete with like the macro influencer world right you obviously have the huge celebrities that you want to be associated with but if you add up all the dollars of these the pe guys everywhere right and everybody has some goofy there's a guy here in chicago who does what up gang do you know what up gang guy he johnny stopo he owns like a greek restaurant yeah and he just started doing these videos on his phone where he'd be his he and his wife would be in target and they'd be in line and he would hold his phone up and say what up gang me and tina are hanging out in target today smash the like button you got to follow this guy not an ad no no he's just goofing around wow and it like took off because you're like it's like because it's just goofy that you'd be in target with your wife and you'd be like what up gang we're at target today doing a little sunday shopping like and subscribe and her reaction is a whole part of it which at the very beginning was extremely genuine and fun.

50:40Devin Mathews: But again, so like some people see that and now he's like, hey, I use these pans when I cook or I use, you know, you're doing stuff for drinks. So what do you get paid for? What's an integration look like? A full integrated like real, like a single one is like between 20 and 30K.

50:57Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, amazing. Which is bananas. Yeah, fantastic. And every time I tell that to a company and I can always see on their faces, I'm like on a call, I'm like, yeah. But I'm like, take my analytics. Take them. I will give them to you. Plug them into ChatGPT. Plug them into my ChatGPT. And then let's look at what she says. Your ChatGPT is a she? I don't know. Sometimes. It depends. It depends on what we're talking about. Yeah, it's shocking. But then I talk to other people who are like, oh, I know people are getting more than that. And I always want to keep it real. like whenever it happens i'm like and i get like a deposit into my bank account i'm like that is like bananas but i never i don't want to get too out over my skis and get some like weird ego because i'm like i still am aware of what we're doing yeah but i think the fact that you could say the number yeah means it's too low you have to pick a number that you actually you're like well for anybody listening to this that was that numbers are now expired yeah but i but again like

51:55Devin Mathews: uh it's not it's not an insubstantial sum but it's also people are getting paid a lot more and And my guess is your videos that are integrations and partnerships don't perform as well as just a straight up video. So, yeah, but a meaning like you're getting to an audience they want. Here's the thing about our pod is that we have close to 40 ,000 listeners. Not everybody listens to every episode. How could you? That's awesome. Yeah. But it's been going for 12 years almost. And you don't accidentally listen to the private equity fund cast. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. So that's, there was a reason for the name, which was, it was self-selecting.

52:35Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

52:36Devin Mathews: Uh, and it's a hard audience to get to that doesn't get advertised to super niche.

52:40Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And you've like tap. So they're more valuable eyeballs than if you were just, you had 40 ,000, whatever. And you were just talking about like pop culture. Like you're very hard.

52:50Devin Mathews: That's a CPM game. Like, Hey, we're general purpose content. Anybody could listen and enjoy it. Right. If you're Amy Poehler, like how do you have the number one podcast in America? Well, you're, you're Amy Poehler. That's how you work for everybody.

53:00Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

53:00Devin Mathews: You're Amy Poehler. Yeah. Like you don't just become that right out of nowhere. Yeah. Um, that's where things are headed. But then these little very nichey things like riches and niches and your niche, it's a, you're making fun of, you're having fun with a wealthy neighborhood. So it goes viral in those neighborhoods. Right. Those people have intent and capacity to spend. And then you're talking to a private equity audience, which is hard to get to, um, isn't on these social media, uh, apps in a big way, but you have found them because they get sent to each other and it's become a little viral there.

53:32Devin Mathews: So it's a really high value audience. Yeah. So you're not charging enough. We could work on that. Well, that's good. I'm taking that with me. And then what are the costs? Like do you have a social media team? Do you have a production team? Like do you edit all the videos? I edit all the videos. Because it's fun or because you're like, you know.

53:49Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think it's a control thing. I think I'm just kind of a control freak. You want to dig a little deeper into that? Yeah, probably. I should probably, how much time do you have though? It's definitely a control thing. I just am like, I don't want to give somebody, I also could watching somebody do edit one of my cameos, for instance, cause I have to edit the background out and put it, you know, and watching someone do that would probably be infuriating for me cause it takes me like 90 seconds, but I, someone would be like, kick, kick. So I will eventually have to like give up. Like I'll be like, here's the marketing video for Bowling Branch.

54:15Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Like, can you doctor it up and put the subtitles on and all that? Cause that just is time that I could have back doing something else.

54:23Devin Mathews: And do you keep editorial control over things? like listen i own the output or you're like will you hand over the character to somebody and

54:29Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: just read the script uh i pre i mean i feel like i've gotten pretty lucky where most people are like we don't want this to feel like just a an ad read so like so typically we always work together and that's usually the expectation i set is that it will like still work for people who have nothing to who will have nothing to do with this product that i'm marketing or whatever like they'll still be relevant for somebody so typically it's it like weaves together still yeah is there somebody

54:54Devin Mathews: you haven't worked with? Is there a category that you haven't worked with yet that you think would perform really well? Because you've done golf stuff. You've done homewares, private planes. You did a real estate one where I thought that was brilliant where the real estate was like, hey, here's a really fancy, expensive house. Let's have a PE guy come and be a jerk in the house.

55:15Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Walk through the house. Those are fun. The experiences. I think I've done cars. I don't even know if I'm missing anything in the luxury world. No.

55:21Devin Mathews: What about experiential travel? like really high end travel. I should, they send you like the Rosewood and like, you could be PE guy, the Maya Rosewood,

55:29Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: that would be actually be nice to have a little like a travel company reach out. I would be, take the kids.

55:35Devin Mathews: I mean, I mean, Tarantino would love it.

55:38Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Some deep sea diving or something.

55:40Devin Mathews: exactly.

55:41Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah. And Capri.

55:42Devin Mathews: All right. What do you want to ask me about private equity? And if the answer is nothing, that's totally fine.

55:48Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I do. I think, um, that will like, What's going to stop everything from being bought up by private equity?

55:57Devin Mathews: Nothing.

55:58Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I've heard that before.

55:59Devin Mathews: That's one. A shark has to swim and stay alive. But one, the incentives are there. So think about this. There's 2 ,500 public companies, the S &P 500 and the Russell 2000. So maybe there's 2 ,500 to 3 ,000 public companies you could go buy the stock of. Yeah. Right. Anybody could go buy the stock and they're 401k. You buy a share of SpaceX. Right. Buy a share of, you know, um, you know, Bank of Montreal or something. Uh, but, uh, there's 40 ,000 private equity owned companies, 40 ,000. Yeah. There's a CNBC, a wall street journal, a Fox business news, a CNN business just for the 2 ,500. Yeah. Just think of like, there's an entire industry, media, everything built around 2 ,500 companies.

56:50Devin Mathews: You know very little about the 40 ,000. Right. Like private and private equity is for a reason. Yeah. And that's going to break down over the next 5, 10, 20 years. The first step is, oh, private equity can go in your 401k. So your retirement account can be in private equity, just like you could buy a mutual fund or a stock. Now you can have exposure to private equity in your 401k. Right. That's going to happen. and when stuff like that happens it just means okay now we need to be like way more transparent now you need to like share everything it can't be private anymore it has to be public so what will happen is there would be this convergence between public and private equity and just like um you know 20 30 years ago you like worked for fidelity or something you know and like who's fidelity or vanguard now everybody knows who fidelity and vanguard right right and you didn't know what those, what they did or what they owned.

57:40Devin Mathews: And then this company called Morningstar came out and was like a Chicago company and said, no, no, we're going to tell you everything that's in all these mutual funds. Uh, and that was an evolution of like the transparency and exposure and all that stuff. And the same thing is going to happen and it was already happening in private equity. So I think 20 years from now, 10 years from now, when you say you work at Blackstone, it's going to be like you work at Fidelity. Interesting. Cause it's just like kind of, they do everything.

58:06Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

58:06Devin Mathews: And just like there's like small little wealth managers and money managers, like your dad's friend who he plays golf with owns a little business. Yeah. There'll be like little tiny private equity firms that do this boutique niche stuff. But most of it will feel like, Oh, I work for Wellington fidelity, you know, Charles Schwab, like these just big super markets. And then it won't be some big differentiation of like, Oh, I work in public equity or private equity. Nobody says I work in public equity. They say like, Oh, I'm like a money manager. So I think that's where private equity goes. And I think there are a lot of badly run public companies.

58:39Devin Mathews: There are a lot of badly run private companies, but there isn't PE guy for the public equity side. There's hedge fund guy. There's Bill Ackman. He makes a fool of himself on Twitter all the time. And there are people like him that do that. And yeah, I think that kind of like eventually becomes less of like, oh, I'm in this thing. And I do think What you hit on is the, oh, I'm in private equity became a flex. Yes. And now it's less of a flex because it's a little bit like, is that a great thing, guys? Right. Because the reputation isn't great. Right. And then we can argue about is it real or not and what's real about it.

59:16Devin Mathews: Right. But I do think it all just kind of converges into one thing that won't be a big distinction. Yeah. You've got time. Yeah. You can be here. You've got another five more years. He's not going away. Yeah, you're not going away. Good, yeah. But there'll be some other guy. Okay, yeah. All right, anything else that confuses you about it or like people send you and you're like, how do I work this into a bit? Because I don't even know what those words are.

59:38Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I don't think so right now, but now that you've offered that, you're going to hear from me when I'm making a video. No, 100%, we will be your translator. I'm going to be like, how do I put this in here? Oh, no, no, our whole team would love to be. You can help me punch up the scripts, as they say. It's like writing room, effectively.

59:49Devin Mathews: Yeah. Oh, we'll punch it up. Perfect. Big time. Perfect. I'll do that. All right, so I want to talk about, before we get into the beyond, where does private equity guy work? Is he the head guy? Is he mid-tier? Because I have my opinions. So in your mind, where does this guy work?

1:00:07Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think he's one of many fish in a pond. He might be not the biggest fish, but he's up there. But there still is something to strive for, so I don't know where that puts him. he's definitely insecure about his standing at the private equity company that he's at he's trying to like weasel in but he wants you who doesn't know anything about private equity to think that he's the head guy but inside his own firm maybe not so much yeah they're like they're

1:00:37Devin Mathews: like here's your like interior office you know i think he works for a very big mega firm uh and i think he's not i think he's maybe like a junior partner on the path yeah so same kind of yeah 100 i think he grew up with a little bit of money enough but not enough yeah you know what i mean he married a lot yeah wifey is low absolutely but he's not allowed to touch and it's like and

1:01:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: prenup is very substantial and wifey's wifey's dad looks down on him a little bit and he's like at least he wears from private equity but he's a try hard and it's yeah and if and it's painful to

1:01:13Devin Mathews: talk to him at the family gatherings because he's just trying to just absolutely flex on a dad. That's perfect. Yeah. That's kind of my view. I like that. He does have access to all these amazing things because of, I think, his wife's family's wealth and his position at a very large private equity superstore.

1:01:34Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: He's the last pick to get tickets to the World Cup because everyone else is in Europe or somewhere

1:01:38Devin Mathews: else and exactly yeah yeah or he he's at the rider cup but it's at the practice round yeah yeah he's not telling but he tells everyone he went and yeah i'm at the rider you know here i am at the rider we took the g6 yeah yeah it's like no your father-in-law was headed there and

1:01:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: you yeah and he was like all right fine because his wife begged her dad to let the husband go on

1:01:58Devin Mathews: the plane but i think wife really is really rooting for him yeah she's she sees something in him she's really rooting for him yeah but she's got a the same way he was for a tennis game to

1:02:08Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: continue to improve. 100%. 100 % agree. All right.

1:02:12Devin Mathews: Now let's talk about where we go from here. What's PE Guy's journey? Where's his arc? Where do we take this?

1:02:17Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I think he's still like at the very beginning of the arc. You know, I think we're still like, I'm reminded of that by like other creators and like agents in the Hollywood world. Like they're like, you're just at the beginning. Like just keep the advice I get from people is just like, Just keep doing what's working. And they're like, don't try to overcomplicate something that's working right now. Especially on the internet. People kill for these eyeballs. I could post most anything. Like a video for 30 seconds of a PE guy talking about anything, and it would do well. And that's a huge gift. So people are like, do not screw this up.

1:02:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Don't be like, now I'm venture cap guy. With a different face. Because then the audience, you lose it. So we keep going. So there's no VC guy, unfortunately. There's not, but there's other opinions about that. There's a, well, yeah. And I hear that all the time. There's no lawyer guy. Or like a private credit guy. Like, you know, like there's different. You're slicing the baloney pretty thing.

1:03:15Devin Mathews: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

1:03:16Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: No, but people are like, you got to do private credit. And I'm like, that's a whole, I don't know anything about that. So you don't know anything about private equity.

1:03:21Devin Mathews: Why would that stop? Exactly.

1:03:22Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah. So I don't think, I think that it's, you're just going to see more of PE guy. He's going to continue doing different things, different experiences. Like, um, I just have to like, maybe some businessy things. like book kind of things or TV development-y things. That would be the goal, ultimately.

1:03:39Devin Mathews: I think what we should do is you should do a lingo, like all the catchphrases of private equity as PE guy. Oh, yeah. Because we've talked about doing it, but who's going to buy the Parker Gale guide to dumb stuff private equity guy said? That's a good point. So can we collab on this? Yeah, of course. That'd be great. We'll cut you in for it. 10 %?

1:03:55Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, perfect. No problem. 5%, 3 % of our fee, yeah.

1:03:59Devin Mathews: Yeah, but you get 100 % of that 5%.

1:04:01Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah, that's a great way to look at it. Now I know why you're good at your job.

1:04:05Devin Mathews: All right. So no spinoffs, no new character development. Stressed out wifey hasn't clicked like PE guy. I'm not putting too much energy into those other things right now. I don't think you put a ton of energy into worrying about what's next. Right. The little we've gotten to know each other. I think you're one of the most present in the moment. Like, let's just have fun while we're having fun.

1:04:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I'm totally trying to be that. Yeah. Because it's every day a new thing, a new opportunity comes up. Really, in my inbox, I'm like, oh, ESPN, after the US Open, you want to be? And I'm like, well, I can't do it because I have to be filtered. And they're like, we have an editor. We'll edit you in. And it'll look like you're zooming into the show. So there I am on ESPN talking about golf, which is another thing I don't know anything about. So I had to ask the guys, the anchors, what should I say? So we built the script. I filmed it. And then I'm on ESPN. I never would have thought a month ago, you're going to go on ESPN to talk about golf.

1:05:04Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Like, why would they ask me? Because you've got all the gear. Well, that, yes. Right.

1:05:08Devin Mathews: So people send you stuff. I get sent stuff all the time. So people send you stuff for what reason? One, because they love you and they want you to have stuff. Yeah. Two, they want you to wear it in your videos. So like, how do you choose what to put on? Are you getting paid to wear a Peter Millar shirt or like some private equity firm? I mean, you could go and see all the vests you wear with the private equity logos. on there? Is that stuff people send you?

1:05:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: It's a part of the deal with a company that's like, you're going to make a video for us, like a marketing thing. And then like in one video next month, please wear our, our hat, not part of the paid agreement, but just kind of like a goodwill thing. Um, so that's how I get some of them. And then other people are like, Hey, do not tell anybody I'm sending this to you. It's a JP Morgan private wealth vest, like Burberry vest. I happen to have a box on my attic, you know, hopefully you're in Excel and it works. So like I just, I will give anybody, pretty much anybody, my PO box information and have them send me whatever.

1:06:05Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: So I get hats, vests, polo shirts, Peter Millar, zips that are branded with logos that I don't know. And months go by and I'm like, what is that?

1:06:13Devin Mathews: Who sent that to me? Yeah, because I've seen a video of you like where you just literally have this rack of stuff that people have sent and hats galore. Yeah, it's fun. What branded stuff don't you have that you would love for somebody to send you? I imagine your thread count expectations are very high. Well, of course, it has to be wonderful.

1:06:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Egyptian cotton, thousand. Yeah, it's got to be Peter Millar's, the cream of the crop, the branded stuff. I have a lot of vests. I just don't think I have as many vests as I should. So that's a good, you know, but I think that when you work at these companies.

1:06:44Devin Mathews: You're the only PE guy on the planet who doesn't have enough vests.

1:06:46Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Right, right, right, right. Yeah. But I think it's hard to get if you work at Goldman Sachs. I think it's difficult to get a new vest from the vest lady and the office manager. I think they have a tight grip on those things. Because they don't want a bunch of idiots like me walking around in a Goldman Sachs vest.

1:07:04Devin Mathews: Well, in this economy, I mean, everything's tight. So I think you need to get some arterics. We need to move up the stack. Oh, yes. That would be great. So anybody who's really - Helly Hansen. Helly Hansen, arterics. Yeah. Steo. Oh, I've seen Steo. Yeah, yeah. You want to get the Steo gear? Yeah. That's very good.

1:07:19Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: The stuff that actually is like I will actually put on to walk my dogs on a fall day, that's great. Because I'm like, oh, this is actually like a good, like a steel would be. Yeah, this is what drives me nuts.

1:07:31Devin Mathews: Private equity people have more money than they know what to do with. These funds buy all this stuff. I don't need another fleece vest. I don't need another metal growler or whatever. Oh, yeah. I get a lot of those too.

1:07:45Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

1:07:45Devin Mathews: Just have some taste. Have some taste. Take it up a notch. You can put your logo on pretty much anything these days. So buy some really good stuff and then put your logo on it afterwards.

1:07:54Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Well, maybe I should just do that. And then I'll just cut out the companies and I'll get the brand that I want to work with and I'll put PE Guy on it. Let's do it.

1:08:01Devin Mathews: Yeah.

1:08:01Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Come on. PE Guy vest, I think people would buy that. Especially if it was like an Arc'teryx. They know the brand.

1:08:06Devin Mathews: It must be good stuff and classy like tone on tone. Yes. I mean like nothing too flashy.

1:08:09Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: We can't have fleece. To your point about fleece, the only JP Morgan vest I had until recently was a fleece, like a Columbia fleece. And I, I wore it in a couple of videos and people were like, Columbia, like I would never wear Columbia. Yeah. No, but this is like, you would never wear that.

1:08:25Devin Mathews: It's so brilliant about your audiences. They're like, they're dunking on Columbia.

1:08:28Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah. Like anything I do that's like wrong because it's like, they're like, you would never do that. Or I fly, I fly commercially. Every time I post that I'm flying commercially, I get a DM. That's like every other DM is like, I thought you fly privately, like, but like jokingly, but not. I'm like, like expensive visit.

1:08:46Devin Mathews: fly private with gas prices where they are. Even PE guy has his limits, I would imagine. He sometimes has to take American Airlines. Let's talk about the swag, because you've got great swag. Thank you. People can buy your stuff. At dutymyrole.com. What are you selling? Let's get the pitch in here. What do you have that people buy?

1:09:04Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Right now, I've got a sweatshirt, a hoodie that says Substantial on it, and then four different hats. I think that's it for the things that are currently available. So there's the due to my role, decent, substantial, and PE backed, which was just from that conversation where someone asked if SoulCycle was PE backed. So those are the, but they're well-made. People like the stuff. It's a company that's local to Boston and they handle all the logistics. And every once in a while they send me a Zelle, you know, little rev share.

1:09:36Devin Mathews: Amazing. And are you getting paid to wear that hat right now?

1:09:39Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: No, I just like the Roan founders. Yeah. And that's a good example of like, if people are normal and cool to me and like send me something there everyone's like wow we're almost just be paying you every day i'm like no they make stuff that i like and i wear like and 167 raw and charleston and nantucket yeah they're just really nice and complimentary and they're like we love your stuff and come get free oysters from us next time you're on nantucket and here's some free

1:09:59Devin Mathews: stuff all right so you're nice to me johnny at do to my role.com yeah is how you find your p.o box so people can send you stuff yes that if they're like super cool about it you'll wear it in a video

1:10:08Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: If you're just a genuine, nice person and you have good stuff, comfortable, I'll wear it. We did ask one of our sponsors if they wanted to sponsor this video.

1:10:17Devin Mathews: I said, absolutely not. That's actually exactly what they said. Interesting. All right. What's your honest request or categories of requests?

1:10:26Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I always thought the in-person stuff was weird because I got invited to go to, I don't think they're directly private equity conferences, but they're conferences that bring together are investment bankers and, and PE people. Sure. Um, so the conferences and stuff bringing, bringing me out to waste management to that whole thing, the golf, the golf tournament to like entertain, to be there to like, I accepted like an award, like up and comer in the industry. That was, that was always, I was shocked that I was asked to do that. So that was the first thing I did.

1:10:58Devin Mathews: Cause uh, people would, you know, be shocked to know that you don't walk around with

1:11:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: the filter on your face exactly life exactly so we show usually at these in-person things show a video of me i come out we do like a q a or something like that so i have to watch the room full of finance people who usually these conferences no offense to any of them that i've been to they're a little dense a little dry right a little yeah how are we doing everybody not not me like the mc how are we doing like i'm like whoa this is like we've got a really good thing coming up

1:11:28Devin Mathews: here somebody you've never heard of yeah yeah or you have and you absolutely hate it yeah like so

1:11:34Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: and he's here in person for a 45 minute q a like so i have to watch everyone's faces while they show the video and i'm like all right this is gonna this is deeply you were promised bill belichick yeah yeah yeah what happened you had you nikki glazer last year so budget cuts like hey in this economy yeah in this economy we got the guy with the snapchat filter to me i'm like this is great so the in-person stuff is shocking a couple of uh like birthday appearances uh recently have been a shocking request to me, which I'm like, why do you want me? I had to reiterate, I don't show up as him. I show up as me.

1:12:06Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I'm very boring. I don't drink. I'm not going to go out with the fellas after the waste management and go to a bar. I'm going to bed at 8 p.m. in the hotel, which is usually nice. They put me up in somewhere nice. It's amazing. So the expectations are here and I show up and I'm like, oh, we're going to have so much fun. We'll play golf. I'm like, well, you you would have fun with pe guy you i'm not exactly i don't think pe guys is good i think he cheats at golf and i don't think he's as good as he's a sandbagger that's what i i heard he's a sandbagger sandbagger means you know what that means my brother-in-law sandbagger as you say

1:12:40Devin Mathews: you're worse but you're quite good yes i think he's the opposite i think he says he's good and

1:12:44Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: he's not that good no you oh yeah whatever yeah he's a however it is he says he's really yeah you're right he says he's really good he says he's a scratch golfer yeah and then he shoots a 92

1:12:55Devin Mathews: too. And he's like, Oh, the cat is altitude.

1:12:58Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Catty was giving me horrible advice.

1:12:59Devin Mathews: I hurt my back at Pilates last week.

1:13:02Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Catty, the Scottish accent. I couldn't, it was like, I couldn't really distracting. Yeah. Yeah. He was drunk. I smell whiskey on his breath. Yeah. Yeah, totally. I got a contact. Yeah. All right.

1:13:11Devin Mathews: We talked about how people get in touch with you. We talked about where you're headed from here.

1:13:14Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yeah.

1:13:14Devin Mathews: I think this is a really rich vine vein to mine. Yeah. And you've got a lot of other towns where haven't you hit the people who want you to abuse them? yep where do they what are the towns you haven't gotten to yet we yep i need something like a

1:13:30Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: cleveland i need a san diego yep i need to really hone in on the san francisco a san francisco specific area like you said atherton atherton is like that's like that's winneka times 10 for silicon valley that's what i've heard so atherton atherton something like that well i have to say right because i get what do i know yeah i get roasted but that's a like vc tech bro yeah yeah

1:13:52Devin Mathews: Oasis is where Mark Andreessen lives and is saying, hey, it's time to build. This is this whole thing. Hey, we've got to build. But not in my backyard. Of course not. Where he's fighting all the development in Aetherton. It's that kind of environment.

1:14:03Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: And then people said Metro West Boston like Wellesley, but save it because I'm afraid to roast. I'm new to the town. We just bought a house in July last year. And I'm like, I don't want to upset anybody. Understood. I'd like to get into the country club. Yeah.

1:14:18Devin Mathews: What about Cherry Creek in Denver? We've done that. Have we done that?

1:14:22Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Yes, because I went to DU.

1:14:23Devin Mathews: You just did Hinsdale, which was triggering for one of our employees. Hinsdale, yep.

1:14:29Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I kept getting begged to do Hinsdale, and I was like, you know, I really, I really, it's a similar vibe of Winneka. Like, you can't do that and screw it up. So I was, like, asking people who, like, my friends who grew up there, and they had different intel than the people who live there now. So that took me forever. But Hinsdale, there's definitely some other Chicago-ish areas. Have you done Lake Forest? No, that's, yes. That's exactly right. I needed you to Lake Forest. Every time I talk about Winneka, I get, where's Lake Forest?

1:14:53Devin Mathews: They say where the lawns are wide and the mines are narrow. Lake Forest, Illinois. Perfect. I like that. What a catchphrase. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a guy from Winneka saying this. So this is, everybody knows there's like a hierarchy of like, I would never live there. Of course. But you live here. Yeah. It's like, oh, we don't, not Kenilworth, anywhere but Kenilworth. Yeah, yeah.

1:15:12Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Someone actually told me last night to do Kenilworth, and then he was like, he said he's from there. And he's like, actually, there's nothing to talk about there. because there's just like 120 houses or something. There's plenty to talk about. And the dentist, isn't... Is he officially?

1:15:27Devin Mathews: Well, he's on the west side of Green Bay, so I'm not sure they count that as kind of worth it. Technically, we're here just to plug Dave and Mike Duda's dental practice.

1:15:35Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Exactly. I'm going to see him next Friday. He's going to love this.

1:15:38Devin Mathews: All right, so let's wrap this up. Any closing words, closing thoughts, any words of wisdom for the Private Equity Fundcast audience?

1:15:45Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Definitely no words of wisdom that are relevant to people listening to this, but I would just say thank you for having me. Thank you to the people who are listening to this who made it this far because that means that they're taking this thing more seriously than I would have expected anybody in this industry to take it. And thank you to you for inviting me here to do this in your beautiful home because it just legitimizes what I'm doing a little bit more. And every time I do something like this with a substantial person who's in the industry like yourself, it makes me feel a little more accepted in a room full of people I feel like some could like take, you know, it could like be a little jab in the side.

1:16:23So yeah.

1:16:24Devin Mathews: And our employee handbook and kind of everything we try and do and talk about internally, though we don't say this a lot externally, we're dealing with retirees money and foundations and endowments money and you know, all this stuff. So take that very seriously. You want to be as serious as a heart attack because we're investing other people's money, but don't take yourself very seriously. Yeah. Because taking yourself seriously doesn't make the taking the money seriously better. You don't need it. You don't need it. And you can relate to people a lot better if you can laugh at yourself. So I think you've given people an amazing opportunity to laugh at themselves.

1:16:58Devin Mathews: Well, thank you. The fact that some people are taking it too seriously says everything you need to know about those people. Yeah. That they can't laugh at themselves. Yeah. And you've struck a chord. So we're here for all of it. Well, thank you. And whatever you need now and in the future, we want to be a part of it. I love it. My ghost writers. Yeah. All right. Bye for now. Well, thank you. Absolutely. And where are your kiddos at school? Started at Crow Island. Public. Yeah, public.

1:17:20Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: I assumed. And you're not from here, right? You don't give legacy. No, I grew up in upstate New York. My wife's actually, she was recently on the cover of Sheridan Road. We did a whole spread in her closet, which was massive, as you can imagine. Right now, she's at tennis. She's at her second lesson of the day. Does your wife play tennis or?

1:17:34Devin Mathews: Yeah, yeah. My wife plays at AC Nielsen.

1:17:36Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Oh, that's like a public situation, right? Does she She played Mahjong? Yes, yes.

1:17:40Devin Mathews: She loves to play Mahjong and she meets her friends every week at Michigan Shores. I think I went to like an insurance conference there once in the ballroom. It was very different. Where do you summer? We like Winnecke in the summer because it's nice and quiet, so we stay here.

1:17:55Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: Oh my god, bummer. You stay put. I mean, it's quiet because everybody's somewhere else. So we own on Nantucket, obviously, and we spend all of August in Europe.

1:18:09Johnny Hilbrant Partridge: They bicker with each other and they don't take themselves too seriously. It's not venture capital. It's private equity. It's the private equity fun cast. Pour yourself a drink and have a seat.