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Michael Sarner's team is shown about 1,500 deals a year. They fund roughly 20 of them. Sixty of every hundred pitch books go straight in the waste basket, and what survives everything after that is one and a half percent.Host Ryan Harper sits down with Michael Sarner, President and CEO of Capital Southwest (NASDAQ: CSWC), for the side of the deal that almost never gets explained: the debt. Capital Southwest is an internally managed, publicly traded BDC lending to lower middle market companies, with roughly 2 billion dollars invested and nearly all of it in first lien senior secured loans. Sarner walks the machine end to end. How a deal reaches his desk, what earns an automatic no, how leverage gets set, what he requires from a founder before he funds the check, and the exact sequence that runs when a buyout starts to break.Inside this episode:• The funnel in his own numbers: 1,500 deals seen, 1.5% closed, 20 to 25 new platform companies a year• Why his win rate fell from 2% to 1.5%, and why he says that half a point is almost entirely AI• Two and a half to three and a half turns of leverage down here, six to eight up market, and what that does to recoveries• The one litmus test every deal has to pass, modeled peak to trough against the financial crisis• Country club money, and why he will not fund a founder who refuses to roll equity• What a PIK holiday is, and what a first lien lender does before it takes the keysTimestamps1:52 Private equity versus venture capital comes down to cash flow4:21 Three turns of leverage here, six to eight up market7:45 Why banks will not lend to a 5 million dollar EBITDA company13:37 One hundred SIMs, sixty in the waste basket14:42 The question in every deal now: will this exist in five years?16:16 A win rate that fell from 2% to 1.5%18:59 The litmus test: downside modeling against the crisis23:31 The deal he killed over a thirty year old background check26:07 Stroke of the pen risk32:44 The gasket in your iPhone, made by a company you never heard of38:56 Crushing the equity and taking the company47:23 When the founder walks away at the closing table49:49 Country club money51:32 The deal he lost because the owner would not roll a dollar56:17 What actually happens when a deal goes bad58:12 PIK holidays explained1:00:07 What people get wrong about private credit1:03:22 Where Capital Southwest ranked among BDCs at the spin, and nowAbout the guestMichael Sarner is President and CEO of Capital Southwest Corporation (NASDAQ: CSWC), a Dallas based, internally managed business development company that lends to lower middle market companies. He joined in 2015 as CFO and became President and CEO in February 2025. He spent roughly fifteen years at American Capital, including as Senior Vice President of Treasury, and began his career in public accounting as a CPA.Capital Southwest: https://www.capitalsouthwest.com/The Private Equity ShowWatch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theprivateequityshowWebsite: https://www.theprivateequityshow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theprivateequityshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprivateequityshowProduced by Harper Belmont: https://www.harperbelmont.com/Follow the show for conversations with the investors, operators, and allocators shaping private markets.Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment, legal, or tax advice. Nothing here is an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Private market investments are illiquid and carry risk of loss, including loss of principal, and are generally available only to accredited investors. Views expressed are those of the speakers and not of The Private Equity Show or Harper Belmont Media. Figures cited by guests are their own and have not been independently verified. Do your own due diligence and consult your own advisors.

Private equity has gotten so large that Arthur Hollingsworth says he is not even in the shallow end of the pool. He is in the kiddie pool. That kiddie pool is companies doing 5 to 10 million dollars of EBITDA, bought at 4 to 7 times, in one state and nowhere else.Host Ryan Harper sits down with Arthur Hollingsworth, Founder and Managing Partner of Lone Star Investment Advisors, for a full walk through the lower middle market. Lone Star has raised six funds and invests only in Texas, concentrated in infrastructure, metals, and aerospace and defense.Inside this episode:• His buy box in his own numbers: 5 to 10 million of EBITDA, 4 to 7 times, a target price of 15 to 40 million• The three levers of every buyout, and why multiple expansion is the one that actually moves returns• The thermal layer: why a 10 million dollar EBITDA company gets a better multiple than a 9• Which of a family owner's three advisors is genuinely motivated to introduce you, and why it is not the banker• Why he replaced the quarterly board meeting with a call every week, 52 weeks a year• Why he calls himself the chief spaghetti thrower• Four reinventions inside one company, and the 680,000 pound decision still on his deskTimestamps0:51 The cold LinkedIn message that made this episode happen4:55 Why every fund is targeted to Texas7:20 Infrastructure, metals, aerospace and defense13:13 A call every week instead of a board meeting every quarter15:13 The chief spaghetti thrower16:25 The three buckets every company on earth falls into20:39 The three levers: grow EBITDA, pay down debt, expand the multiple21:20 The thermal layer, and why multiples step up25:18 The LNG window: Ukraine, Qatar, and the Gulf Coast27:13 What makes a good deal: first institutional capital29:26 Why the wealth manager is the most motivated of the three32:31 The most public, ultra secret marriage38:01 "I am not even in the shallow end. I am in the kiddie pool."38:42 The buy box: EBITDA, multiples, and price47:41 The lesson from the failures: never leave a company unsupervised55:06 Was Warren Buffett right about EBITDA?1:05:52 Leadership is like a string, you cannot push it from behind1:07:28 Do not say problem, say puzzle1:08:30 State Service, and four reinventions in one company1:13:37 The 680,000 pound puzzle at Trinity Forge1:18:33 Why civic work beats philanthropyAbout the guestArthur Hollingsworth is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lone Star Investment Advisors, a Dallas based private equity firm investing exclusively in Texas companies. Across six funds, the firm has focused on being the first institutional capital into family owned businesses in infrastructure, metals, and aerospace and defense. He is chair of Alexander Hamilton Scholars and has served as vice chairman of DART, chairman of the North Dallas Chamber, and chairman of Visit Dallas.Lone Star Investment Advisors: https://www.lonestarinvestmentadvisors.com/The Private Equity ShowWatch every episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theprivateequityshowWebsite: https://www.theprivateequityshow.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theprivateequityshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprivateequityshow Produced by Harper Belmont: https://www.harperbelmont.com/Follow the show for conversations with the investors, operators, and allocators shaping private markets.Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment, legal, or tax advice. Nothing here is an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Private market investments are illiquid and carry risk of loss, including loss of principal, and are generally available only to accredited investors. Views expressed are those of the speakers. Figures cited by guests are their own and have not been independently verified. Do your own due diligence and consult your own advisors.

You sold your company, paid your taxes, and put $25 million in the bank. You're not broke — but you're not in the "big leagues" either. That gap is exactly who Rob Anderson built Carlton Lane Capital for.On the debut episode of The Private Equity Show, host Ryan Sharper sits down with Rob Anderson — Founder & CEO of Carlton Lane Capital and a 27-year capital-markets veteran — for a plain-English masterclass on how private-market investing actually works, and how "middle-ground" investors ($5M–$50M net worth) can finally access deals normally reserved for institutions and family offices.After seven years running the capital arm of a Dallas real estate developer, Rob went independent in November 2025 to solve one problem: giving accredited investors institutional-grade due diligence and access, without the conflicts of interest baked into most sponsor-owned shops. Inside this episode:• Public vs. private markets, explained simply• Why the big firms (UBS, Blackstone, Apollo, KKR) structurally can't offer you local, direct deals• His buy box: recession-resilient assets with an asymmetric risk/return profile• Deep dives on medical-office real estate, first-lien lending, single-family lot development, student housing, mineral rights, and oil & gas• The tax playbook the ultra-wealthy use: intangible drilling costs (IDCs), Roth conversions at a discount, the passive 1031 exchange, Opportunity Zones (OZ 2.0), and bonus depreciation• What he refuses to invest in — and why• How AI is changing due diligence, and where it still can't be trusted About the guestRob Anderson is the Founder & CEO of Carlton Lane Capital, a Dallas-based boutique that structures deal-by-deal access to private-market alternatives for accredited investors, RIAs, CPAs, and family offices. Previously President of BV Capital, with a 27-year career across Van Kampen, Hartford, and MassMutual.• Carlton Lane: https://carltonlane.com• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/texas-rob-anderson/