Making M&A Boring (And Why That’s a Good Thing) with Leon Brujis
Release Date: 12/01/2025
How M&A Turns a Chemical Company Into a Tech Business
M&A Science
Chandradev Mehta, SVP Strategy and Business Development at Hexion Inc., breaks down how a commodity chemical company uses M&A to transform into a technology-enabled, chemistry-as-a-service business. He covers the acquisition of an AI and MarTech company, the build vs. buy vs. partner decision framework, integration planning discipline, banker selection, small deal execution, and JV governance. What You'll Learn How to build a genuine build vs. buy vs. partner framework and when each is right Why buying a commercialized or near-commercialized business changes your risk profile in...
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CPG Exit Strategy: How to Build a Consumer Brand Strategics Will Acquire | Keith Levy Part 2
M&A Science
Most consumer brand founders think about exit as an event. Keith Levy thinks about it as a design requirement. In the second of two episodes, Keith walks through what exit-ready actually looks like in CPG: the revenue and EBITDA thresholds that matter, why you have to get beyond the corp dev team to the operators who actually need what you're building, how capital gets wasted at every stage of a brand's lifecycle, and what the investments that produce exits have in common versus the ones that don't. If you missed the first episode, it covers Keith's five-pillar CPG diligence framework and the...
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CPG Due Diligence: The Operator Framework Behind a $1B Exit | Keith Levy Part 1
M&A Science
Keith Levy backed an exit of just under $1B and a $400M exit using the same five-pillar framework, and he starts with the founder every time. Finance comes last. As Operating Partner at Sonoma Brands Capital, Keith has spent six years evaluating consumer brands across food, beverage, pet food, snacks, and cosmetics. Before that he was CMO at Anheuser-Busch through the $52B InBev deal, president of Royal Canin USA for Mars, and the strategic acquirer who led the Kind acquisition at Mars Wrigley. He knows what the data room doesn't show you, and this conversation is built around that gap....
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400 Acquisitions and a Failed Process: What Happens When You Don't Integrate
M&A Science
Roll-up platforms that skipped real integration are getting exposed when they go to market. Buyers want proof of organic growth, clean data, and a platform that actually functions as one. A lot of processes are breaking down because those proof points aren't there. Matt James co-founded Oakbridge Insurance in 2020 and has since closed 60+ acquisitions, integrating 100% from day of close. This conversation covers how he built that system, what went wrong with billion-dollar competitors, and what he would fix first if he walked into a revenue-aggregating roll-up right now. What You'll...
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M&A Roll-Up Playbook: The IRR Framework That Replaced Budgets at Zayo | Dan Caruso (Part 2)
M&A Science
This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dan Caruso, founder and former CEO of Zayo Group. Be sure to start with Part 1. It covers the Zayo thesis, deal sourcing, structure, and the negotiation playbook, whereas this episode picks up at the execution. Part 2 is about the equity value-creation framework Dan built at Zayo, applying the same IRR math PE firms use for their portfolio companies to daily operating decisions. It replaced budgets and tied every compensation decision to a single equation. It ends with the exit and how Dan put together a competing bid after a buyer consortium locked up...
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M&A Roll-Up Playbook: How Zayo Did 45 Acquisitions and Sold for $14B | Dan Caruso (Part 1)
M&A Science
Dan Caruso built Zayo from a startup into a $14B+ bandwidth infrastructure platform through 45 acquisitions. In Part 1, he walks through the full buyer-led playbook: how the thesis was built on a contrarian bet that everyone else got wrong, how proprietary deals were sourced through early relationship-building, and why fast integration wasn't a reputation problem — it was a competitive advantage. He also breaks down the metric trap most roll-up operators fall into: mistaking EBITDA growth for true value creation. If your board is tracking acquisitions individually or your deal...
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Cross-Border M&A: Doing Deals in Latin America
M&A Science
Most US buyers approach Latin America M&A the same way they do a domestic deal — optimize the process, close fast, move on. That approach gets deals killed. Rodrigo Dominguez Sotomayor, Partner at White & Case LLP, has spent 25 years closing transactions across every major Latin America market. In this episode, he walks through what actually determines outcomes: antitrust consent timelines, labor regimes that make post-close restructuring expensive, and the relationship dynamics that can unwind a billion-dollar deal a week before signing. What You’ll Learn In This Episode: ...
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Partnering Before Purchasing: How Booz Allen Wins Proprietary Deals Early
M&A Science
Booz Allen Hamilton didn't build one of the most active acquisition programs in federal tech by waiting for banker inbounds. They built it by showing up years before anyone else. Chrissy Cox has built Booz Allen's corporate development function from scratch and done it twice. Her team was named Deal Team of the Year by the Association for Corporate Growth, and under her leadership, roughly 80% of their acquisitions come from companies they already have a relationship with. That's not luck, it's a system. In this episode, she breaks down exactly how that system works — from pipeline...
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Cultural Fit Over EBITDA: How Salas O'Brien Built a 30-Merger Program Without a Single Failure
M&A Science
Salas O'Brien has completed 30+ mergers with a 100% success rate and 93% cumulative leadership retention. That doesn't happen by accident. Nathan Rust, Senior VP of Corp Dev, explains the system behind those numbers. He shares how they screen bad fits on the first call, why their CEO meets every employee from acquired firms, and how a founder-driven sourcing flywheel attracts inbound deals. In this episode: You’ll learn how they screen 200+ opportunities a year down to the ones worth closing, why their initial diligence list is 10 questions, how reverse due diligence works as a real...
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Cross-Border M&A: How to Do Deals in Italy with Mauro Sambati and Donato Romano
M&A Science
Italy remains one of Europe’s most attractive markets for foreign investment. But cross-border deals in Italy are shaped by regulatory scrutiny, strict labor laws, and unique cultural dynamics that many investors underestimate. In this episode, Mauro Sambati and Donato Romano, Partners at Gianni & Origoni, explain what it truly takes to structure and close successful transactions in Italy. What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why Golden Power must be structured as a condition precedent before closing How strict Italian labor laws impact asset deals and post-closing restructuring...
info_outlineLeon Brujis, Partner and Co-Head of U.S. at 65 Equity Partners
Leon Brujis shares how his firm is redefining private equity through non-control investments in founder-led businesses. In this conversation, Leon breaks down why the best companies are never for sale, how immigrant adaptability translates to investing success, and why boring, disciplined deal-making consistently outperforms flashy transactions. He also walks through his framework for negotiating term sheets and building relationships that span years before cutting checks north of $200 million.
Things You'll Learn
- Why non-control "partnership capital" allows PE firms to capture the alpha of founder-led companies that outperform by 3x
- How to structure competitive fundraising processes that balance relationship-building with deal tension—without talking to 60 firms
- The five-point framework for negotiating term sheets: value, structure, governance, strategy alignment, and exit planning
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This episode is brought to you by S&P Global.
Today's episode of M&A Science is brought to you by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
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Buyer-Led M&A™: The Framework is Now Available
Traditional M&A is broken. Buyers chase auctions. Sellers control the process. It's reactive, inefficient, and exhausting.
After 300+ episodes of M&A Science, I've taken insights from the world's top corp dev leaders and distilled them into a practical framework for taking control of your M&A pipeline—how to source deals directly, build relationships earlier, and stop being auction-chasers.
If you'd like to build a proactive M&A program that founders actually want to engage with, you can grab your copy.
https://dealroom.net/resources/ebooks/buyer-led-m-a-tm-the-framework
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Everything You Need to Learn Modern M&A — In One Membership
Access proven templates, frameworks, and real operator insights — all designed to help you learn faster, make smarter decisions, and run Buyer-Led M&A with confidence.
Sign up now with promo code "FOUNDER" for 50% off at checkout.
https://www.mascience.com/membership
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Episode Chapters
[00:01:00] From Engineering to Wall Street – How Leon's immigrant journey led him from Lehman Brothers to 20+ years in private equity
[00:05:30] The Immigrant Advantage – Why cultural adaptability creates flexibility in deal-making and relationship management
[00:10:00] The 65 Equity Model – Non-control investments in founder-led businesses generating $20-100M EBITDA
[00:16:00] Pull vs. Push Value Creation – Why partnership capital relies on influence, not mandates
[00:24:00] Underwriting Relationships First – Spending 1-2 years building conviction before writing $200M+ checks
[00:33:00] Crisis of Comfort – Getting comfortable being uncomfortable as the key to growth in business and life
[00:43:00] Making M&A Boring – Why consistency and discipline beat motivation and excitement every time
[00:48:00] Term Sheet Negotiation Framework – The five buckets that matter: value, structure, governance, strategy, and exit
[00:56:30] Running a Competitive Process – How to balance broad outreach with targeted relationship-building
[01:01:00] The Craziest Thing in M&A – When deal fever overtakes discipline and creates the next crisis
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Questions, comments, concerns?
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