The new PE playbook (and what it means for your exit)
“Lee McCabe is a private equity investor and a former Meta and Alibaba executive. Lee discusses the new model that is emerging within the private equity industry,” shares Sam Thompson, a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “He talks about how buying at 8X and selling at 12X could be a thing of the past. He also shares questions sellers should ask PE buyers.”
Today’s episode of Built to Sell Radio is part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series. John Warrillow interviews Lee McCabe, a former Meta and Alibaba executive turned private equity investor—now an advisor helping PE firms modernize how they create value.
McCabe argues the old model of buying cheap, piling on debt, and hoping for multiple expansion is over. Interest rates are up, LPs are demanding more, and the firms that win will need to act more like operators than bankers. If you’re planning to sell, and private equity is your natural buyer, you’ll want to hear this.
You discover how to:
- Spot why “buy at 8x, sell at 12x” no longer works.
- Understand why PE firms are shifting from deploying capital to deploying capabilities.
- See how sector specialists like Vista and Toma Bravo add value from day one.
- Learn why building a tech stack is no longer optional—it’s table stakes.
- Evaluate when to take the higher offer from PE (and a partner for five years) versus a lower, cleaner deal.
- Ask the diligence questions that reveal whether a PE buyer will be a real partner—or a quarterly spreadsheet reviewer.
McCabe has sat on both sides of the table—inside PE and now advising it. His blunt view: what worked for the last 20 years won’t work for the next 20.