PODCASTS
Why We Like It: Fire and Security Gold Rush
Inside one of the Fastest-Consolidating Sector in the Lower Middle Market
Fire and life safety is one of the hottest sectors in the lower middle market, with over 240 deals in 2025 alone, roughly 50 acquisitions a quarter, and a total addressable market now pegged at $35 to $40 billion. So why is capital piling in now, and how much runway is actually left?
In this episode of “Why We Like It”, Sam sits down with two people who see the sector from opposite sides of the table. Luke Webb, Managing Director, Business Services at Lincoln International, has advised on more than 100 transactions including the sale of Guardian Fire Services to Investcorp and Altus Fire and Life Safety to Apax. Scott Elkins, CEO of Zeus Fire and Security, is a second-generation entrepreneur who has completed 25 acquisitions, scaled to eight regional hubs and nearly 1,000 team members, and won EY’s 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Philadelphia.
Together they unpack the investment thesis behind the consolidation wave, why we may only be in the “third or fourth inning,” what separates a business that commands a premium from one that doesn’t, and how Zeus’s “house of brands” model preserves decades-old local reputations while integrating everything on the back end. They also get into the technology shift reshaping the industry, from analog to AI, and from capturing events after they happen to preventing them before they do, plus where the whole space is headed over the next decade.
A look at both halves of a fast-moving market: the person advising on the deals, and the person building the platform from the inside.
Why We Like It: Accounting’s Inflection Point
Private Equity, AI, and the End of the Billable Hour
Accounting has been around for five thousand years. The modern profession has been around for one hundred. And for most of that century, almost nothing about it has actually changed.
Then in five years, it all moved at once. Over $200 billion of private equity capital across roughly 150 deals. Eleven of the top thirty US firms now PE-backed. AI absorbing workflows that hadn’t been touched in a generation. The industry that quietly underwrites every business decision in the economy, being rebuilt in real time.
In this episode of Why We Like It, Sam Tidswell-Norrish sits down with two people on opposite ends of the same grid.
Frank Longobardi spent forty-five years inside the profession, the last of them as CEO of CohnReznick. He explains what private equity actually saw that the partners didn’t – the capital problem, the governance trap, and the moment a generation of partners realized their equity was worth multiples of what they’d been told.
Ariel Harmoko is the co-founder and CEO of Artifact, the agentic AI platform now cleared by HMRC to file tax returns directly with the regulator. A former Formula 3 driver and Cambridge machine learning researcher, he delivers one of the sharpest unscripted answers we’ve had on the show – on where the $900 billion value-creation story actually lives, and who really wins the next decade.
Two generations. Two vantage points. One profession being re-engineered in real time.
Why We Like It: Inside Sports’ Commercial Reinvention
Rewriting the Playbook: Inside Sports’ Commercial Reinvention with Chris Bevilacqua & Chris Marinak
Conference realignment. The transfer portal. A $20.5M-per-school revenue-sharing mandate that didn’t exist two years ago.
Streaming platforms spending north of $14B on rights. Sports is being rebuilt from the ground up and on this episode, Sam talks to two people whose careers have shaped many of the defining moments along the way. Chris Bevilacqua built the proof of concept that became every conference media network you know today.
Chris Marinak spent nearly two decades inside MLB, helping deliver innovations like the pitch clock and the ABS challenge system.
Now both at Playfly Sports, they discuss media rights, college sports, hyper-personalization, and what fans should expect over the next five years.
Why We Like It: The Car Wash Industry’s Hidden Economics
The car wash industry is far larger, more sophisticated, and more structurally attractive than most people realize.
In North America alone, it generates over $15 billion in annual revenue across more than 60,000 locations. What was once a transactional, cash-based business has quietly evolved into a recurring-revenue, asset-intensive consumer infrastructure platform powered by subscriptions, density economics, and operational discipline.
In this episode of Why We Like It, Sam Tidswell-Norrish sits down with John Standley, CEO of Spotless Brands, and Matthew Schroeder, CFO of Spotless Brands, to unpack what it really takes to scale a car wash business from a handful of sites into a national platform. They go deep on unit economics, market density, infrastructure investment, team building, and why execution, not just growth, is what separates the winners from the rest.
The conversation then broadens with Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Car Wash Association, who brings a macro lens to where the industry is heading. From subscriptions and predictive maintenance to AI, automation, robotics, and the long-term shift toward B2B and fleet washing, Eric lays out how technology and data are reshaping both the operating model and the opportunity set.
Together, they explore why this sector continues to attract institutional capital, how durable returns are really built at scale, and why car wash should be viewed not as a commodity service but as a high-utilization consumer infrastructure business with long-term growth potential.
Why We Like It: Asphalt, Infrastructure, and the Hidden Engine of the Real Economy
Infrastructure is often discussed through megaprojects and headline spending. In this episode of Why We Like It, we look beneath the surface at one of the most essential, and most underestimated, parts of the U.S. economy: asphalt.
Sam is joined by Shawn Godwin, CEO, and Craig Berkey, President of Palmetto, one of the most respected paving operators in the United States. Drawing on decades of operating experience, they unpack why asphalt sits at the core of economic activity, how rising traffic volumes and heavier vehicles are accelerating wear, and why maintenance-driven demand makes this category structurally resilient.
The episode also features Amy Miller, President of the Asphalt Contractors Association of Florida, who brings a policy and industry-wide perspective. Amy shares how workforce constraints, funding mechanisms, and technology adoption are shaping the future of asphalt, as well as why collaboration between operators, associations, and state agencies is critical to maintaining and improving U.S. infrastructure.
Together, the conversations explore why asphalt is such a compelling lower middle market category: high fragmentation, non-discretionary demand, execution-driven margins, and long-term durability. This is an episode about the physical systems that keep the real economy moving, quietly, reliably, and at scale.
Why We Like It: The Business That Keeps Planes Flying
Inside the Future of Aviation MRO
Aviation doesn’t run on headlines or hype, it runs on maintenance, execution, and the people who keep complex systems moving every day.
In this episode of Why We Like It, we go inside the engine room of the aviation industry with three leaders who have spent their careers operating at its most demanding edges: Greg Smith (G2 Equity Partners), Leanne Caret (former CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security), and Ed Clark (former Boeing executive and longtime operator).
Why We Like It: Next Decade of Sports
How the Big 12, the Baltimore Ravens & Playfly See the Next Decade of Sports
College sports, the NFL, and the broader sports economy are entering the most disruptive decade in their history.
Media rights are being rewritten. NIL is reshaping athlete value. Conferences are realigning. Teams are becoming tech companies. And fans behave more like digital consumers than ever before.
Why We Like It: AI
AI as a Value-Creation Engine in the Lower Middle Market
Private equity’s future won’t be defined by capital; it will be defined by capability.
In the debut episode of Why We Like It, the Access Holdings podcast exploring the ideas, industries, and inflection points shaping the lower middle market, host Sam Tidswell-Norrish sits down with two of the most respected voices in artificial intelligence: Marc Porat (technology pioneer and former co-founder of General Magic) and Matt Fitzpatrick (CEO of Invisible Technologies, former Senior Partner, McKinsey QuantumBlack).
The LAB: Value Creation In Private Equity
Innovating for Enduring Value: A Conversation with Kevin McAllister
Access Founder and Managing Partner Kevin McAllister recently joined Lancor Managing Partner Scott Estill’s podcast, ‘The LAB Podcast: Value Creation in Private Equity.’
Filmed in the Access Acceleration Center’s podcast studio, Kevin and Scott discussed what it takes to drive meaningful growth through better operations and new technologies. Kevin shared how Access’ focus on data is building market-leading, modern businesses.