2025 McGuireWoods Independent Sponsor Conference - Learnings & Reflections
I visited Dallas last week to attend the 2025 McGuire Woods Independent Sponsor Conference at the Fairmont hotel. The main goal of the conference was to connect capital providers with independent sponsors (who need capital for their deals). The capital providers came in all sorts of shapes and sizes: small funds focused on equity investments of independent sponsors, large senior debt lenders looking to break into a new asset class, and family offices (typically for wealthy individuals) looking to make some choice investments, just to name a few. The independent sponsors came from a range of backgrounds - the “emerging independent sponsor” as Doug Song has coined as well as the veteran sponsors with dozens of deals under their belt. The majority of the time spent at the conference is scheduled 1:1s.
I’m going to tally off learnings, reflections, and a few tips:
- Number one takeaway - it’s incredibly loud. There was this feedback loop occurring where each table attempts to speak even louder than the table next to them resulting in a thunderous roar. I was blown away by all of the simultaneous networking taking place in a single room. Quickly though, it became a nuisance. Some of us are not blessed with voices that travel well in those environments. I’m not going to beat the dead horse - but I believe the conference has outgrown the space - maybe even the format.
- My hack for this was to ask my 1:1 partner if they’d like to go find a corner in the lobby or go for a walk. I honestly believe those conversations were the most fruitful. We didn’t have to yell at each other. It’s also just hilarious how many people, within moments of meeting each other, are yelling at one another and going hoarse. Okay, I am beating the dead hoarse.
- Shout-out to the baristas. They were champs and they churned out drinks faster than any Starbucks I’ve been to. They knew what we needed - this was about caffeine, not latte art. That really goes for all of the staff at the conference. No trash was overfilling, drinks were always at the ready, hot coffee available all day, and everyone was courteous and kind.
- Every conversation I struck up out of the blue resulted in an interesting conversation. No need to lean on scheduled 1:1s to make connections at this conference. If you see someone sitting alone looking at their phone - go strike up a conversation. Shout out to Bryce, another fellow independent sponsor, who was kind enough to share his wisdom with me early in the morning before things kicked off. Just re-iterating that point, some of my favorite conversations were with other independent sponsors, not capital providers. Talk to both camps.
- Being new to independent sponsor deals, I was worried that capital providers might shrug me off - that they might only be looking for folks with deals under LOI. I even shared that fear with a few people I spoke to, and the overwhelming response was “No, I don’t care, I’m playing the long game and just trying to build my network and create more deal flow”. This note is for the new independent sponsors. This is obvious in retrospect, but just go in with a positive attitude, speak to your strengths, demonstrate active listening through precision questions, and show appreciation for peoples’ time. If you do all of those things, you will learn a ton and build connections.
- Wear comfy shoes. No one is losing a deal because they wore some new, stiff leather shoes. Props to the gentlemen who wore sneakers. You’re braver than most.
- Don’t over-schedule. Build in buffer time. I was very enthusiastic when scheduling meetings this year. I booked my first day nearly solid. I was smart enough to leave a 30 minute gap for lunch. Conversations will go over, so that 10 minutes between 1:1s will go by fast. Side note: while waiting in line at the men’s restroom between meetings, I overheard a capital provider strike up a conversation with an independent sponsor in front of him and exchange business cards. That’s hustle - watch him land a deal. Seriously though, you probably want to have a 30 minute buffer every 1.5 hours. It will give you an opportunity to wrap up any notes from the previous conversations, get a coffee, use the restroom, and give your hoarse voice a break.
- Ditch the briefcase / laptop. I realize some folks probably have to work, but if you can help it, leave it in your room. Stick with the pen and notepad provided by the conference. I regretted lugging around my briefcase full of stuff I didn’t need. The goal is to have conversations and build connections. Nothing in that briefcase is going to do that for you.
- Potential hot take, but I really don’t want the physical one-pager of your firm. If you have a QR code I can scan that takes me directly to a PDF, that would be way better. With a PDF, I can attach it to your firm’s profile on my CRM and can copy-paste interesting data. That said, I love the one-pagers. I took pictures of every one of them and found them very helpful.
- Related note - come with your own one-pager. Or have one handy to send off following the meetings. This might be obvious to veterans, but was new to me.
In other news, I experienced a catastrophic shoe failure in the middle of the first day. I was literally dragging rubber by a thread and had to go to the hotel front-desk and ask for scissors to perform surgery.
Overall, I had a great time! It was clear a lot of care went into planning the conference, so kudos to all of those involved in making the event possible. I look forward to attending next year and using my notes above to my advantage.