Leadership Quotient
Leadership Quotient, powered by The Crucible, explores the people side of private equity—how operating partners, portfolio executives, and advisors build, align, and scale leadership teams. Each episode offers candid conversations from across the PE ecosystem on the strategies, challenges, and decisions that drive value creation.
Episodes
41 episodes
Being Real: Leadership, Trust, and Investing in People
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Uzair Bawany, CEO at Oii.ai, about leadership, entrepreneurial mindset, and why great businesses are ultimately built around people. Drawing from ...
Developing One Life: Leadership, Learning, and Lasting Impact
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Aian Guanzon, Chief Marketing Officer at Global Dominion Financing, about leadership, long-term vision, and why relationships remain at t...
Founder Evaluation: Leadership, Transparency, and Venture Risk
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of the Crucible, speaks with Heath Naquin, Senior Vice President of Innovation and New Ventures at University City Science Center, about the realities of venture investing, ...
Hiring for the Future: Leadership Lessons from Private Equity
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Giacomo Sonnino, Advisory Director at Charlesbank Capital Partners, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to discuss how private equity firms can create more value, faster, by buildin...
Built on Curiosity: Deep Tech, Humility, and the Undervalued Opportunity in Latin America
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski speaks with Pedro Lopez Sela, Managing Partner at FrissOn Capital, about why Latin America and the Global South are often systemically undervalued in venture capital, despite pro...
The Sum of Vectors: Building Leadership Teams That Actually Move Forward
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Lindsay Guzowski sits down with Andrey Kostyuk, General Partner and CEO at AAlchemy Ventures, to discuss what it really takes to build leadership teams that can adapt, align, and grow i...
Distribution Beats Product: Leadership Lessons from Corporate Venture
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Kelvin Tan, CEO at Audax, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to discuss what it really takes to build and lead a corporate venture-backed business. Drawing on his experience spinni...
Relentless and Adaptive: What Sets Exceptional Founders Apart
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Anna Magiera, Managing Director of Partnerships at ICLUB, shares how an accidental entry into venture became a long-term commitment to building the future through founders, investors, a...
Nurture Capital: Rethinking Leadership in the Age of AI and Quantum
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Sunil Goyal, Managing Director and Fund Manager at YourNest Venture Capital, shares how decades of experience in capital markets and operating leadership shaped his philosophy of “nurtu...
Betting on the Jockey: Leadership, Culture, and Long-Term Capital
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Andrew Donald, Director at RAF Equity, shares how a long-term investment model changes the way investors evaluate leadership, culture, and growth. Drawing on experience across eBay, Jef...
More Women at the Top: Leadership, Performance, and the Power of Listening
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Patricia Lizarraga, Chief Investment Officer of the WCEO ETF and Managing Partner at Hypatia Capital, shares why she believes women CEOs should outperform on average and what that revea...
The Refusal to Lose: Tenacity, Storytelling, and Founder Leadership
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Ben Narasin, Founder of Tenacity Venture Capital, shares how a lifetime of entrepreneurship shaped his view that the true differentiator between success and failure is not just intellig...
Slow to Invest, Fast to Scale: Building Resilient Founder Teams in LatAm
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski sits down with Eduardo Amadeo, Venture Partner at Overboost and Kamay Ventures, to explore what leadership looks like inside the venture ecosy...
Great Followers Make Great Leaders: Military Lessons for Founder Success
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Steve Kiser, General Partner at Veteran Ventures Capital, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to explore what veteran leadership brings to venture-backed companies—and why ...
The Clock Is Ticking: Leadership in PE-Backed Companies
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Andy Drummond, Founder of ShireGrowth Partners, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to explore what leadership requires when time is finite and the clock is always ticking in private equit...
Backing Women: What Investors Miss and How to Fix It
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Hanim Dogan, Partner at Prime Advantage Capital Partners, angel investor, and venture partner, shares why enabling more female founders is both a leadership imperative and a value ...
Empathy at Scale: Keeping the Customer at the Center
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, David Norton, Managing Director at Gale Partners, shares why empathy is one of the most underrated leadership strengths and how customer-centered thinking becomes a competitive advantag...
The Right Way Is the Only Way: What Great CFOs Teach Leaders
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Jeff Glick, Head of U.S. Operations at Outsourced CFO (OCFO), shares why in investor-backed environments “the right way is the only way” and how financial rigor becomes a leadership adv...
Atoms Over Algorithms: Why the Future of Venture Is Physical
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Deborah Magid, Co-Founder and Managing Director at NextStar Venture Partners, shares why leadership is ultimately defined by the opportunities you create for other people—and why trust ...
Always Asking for the Ball: A Trader’s Guide to Leadership
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Michael Frank, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Gildre, shares how a career on the trading floor shaped his leadership philosophy and why the habits that create success in markets tra...
The Mirror of Entrepreneurship: What PE Talent Reveals About Leadership
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Henry Myers, Co-Founder and Managing Director at High Water Search, shares why entrepreneurship is one of the clearest mirrors for leadership and what that reveals about talent in priva...
Beyond the CV: Rethinking CFO Search in Private Equity
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Neil French, Co-Founder & Director at STOIX, shares why the executive search industry needs a more iconoclastic, evidence-driven approach—especially in private equity. Drawing on hi...
From Blank Canvas to Exit: Leading People Through Change in Founder-Led Private Equity
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Anderson Williams, Talent Development Principal at Shore Capital Partners, shares why sustainable value creation in founder-led private equity depends less on spreadsheets and more on h...
Data Over Debate: Why the Next Wave of PE Value Creation Is Digital
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Lee McCabe, Partner at Claymore Partners, shares why the future of value creation in private equity depends on planning for talent early, fixing the broken operating partner model, and ...
You Can’t Buy Culture: Capability Transfer and Leadership in PE-Backed Change
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Don Purdon, Director of Transformation, Operating Models, Organization Design, and Business Change at Purdon & Associates, shares why sustainable value creation in investor-backed c...