Dino Mavrookas

She's like, OK, you say whatever you want. And so sure enough. And I'm like, you know what, screw this. I'm going to go into private equity. I'm going to figure it out. So I started building financial models in my apartment at business school. In my off time from class and kids and everything else, I was staying up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning building financial models.

I completely reverse engineered my first one. These are Excel spreadsheets that are... It can be anywhere from eight tabs to like 30 tabs long. They're insane. And the first one I reverse engineered took me three weeks to do. This is something that should take somebody that's not even that good two hours. Took me three weeks.

I completely reverse engineered my first one. These are Excel spreadsheets that are... It can be anywhere from eight tabs to like 30 tabs long. They're insane. And the first one I reverse engineered took me three weeks to do. This is something that should take somebody that's not even that good two hours. Took me three weeks.

I completely reverse engineered my first one. These are Excel spreadsheets that are... It can be anywhere from eight tabs to like 30 tabs long. They're insane. And the first one I reverse engineered took me three weeks to do. This is something that should take somebody that's not even that good two hours. Took me three weeks.

I went into literally every box in Excel, read the formula, retyped it, and just went back and forth. And then just did it again and again and again and again to the point at which when I started interviewing full time, I had heard enough of, Hey, you can't do private equity because you have to go to investment banking.

I went into literally every box in Excel, read the formula, retyped it, and just went back and forth. And then just did it again and again and again and again to the point at which when I started interviewing full time, I had heard enough of, Hey, you can't do private equity because you have to go to investment banking.

I went into literally every box in Excel, read the formula, retyped it, and just went back and forth. And then just did it again and again and again and again to the point at which when I started interviewing full time, I had heard enough of, Hey, you can't do private equity because you have to go to investment banking.

So I just walked into the interview and I talked, was talking to the managing partner and I said, you know, Let's just get something on the table right out of the gates. I didn't do investment banking. I know that and you know that. So let's have that conversation. Let's not talk about my SEAL career and you think I'm a great leader.

So I just walked into the interview and I talked, was talking to the managing partner and I said, you know, Let's just get something on the table right out of the gates. I didn't do investment banking. I know that and you know that. So let's have that conversation. Let's not talk about my SEAL career and you think I'm a great leader.

So I just walked into the interview and I talked, was talking to the managing partner and I said, you know, Let's just get something on the table right out of the gates. I didn't do investment banking. I know that and you know that. So let's have that conversation. Let's not talk about my SEAL career and you think I'm a great leader.

And then I walk out of this room and you say, great guy, but can't do the job. Let's talk about how I didn't do investment banking, why I can build you financial models. And if you want me to just go build you one, Just give me a computer and I'll go in the room next store and I'll just build it for you. And then we can talk about it. And he looked at me and said, you build financial models?

And then I walk out of this room and you say, great guy, but can't do the job. Let's talk about how I didn't do investment banking, why I can build you financial models. And if you want me to just go build you one, Just give me a computer and I'll go in the room next store and I'll just build it for you. And then we can talk about it. And he looked at me and said, you build financial models?

And then I walk out of this room and you say, great guy, but can't do the job. Let's talk about how I didn't do investment banking, why I can build you financial models. And if you want me to just go build you one, Just give me a computer and I'll go in the room next store and I'll just build it for you. And then we can talk about it. And he looked at me and said, you build financial models?

I was like, yeah. I've been working on this for two years. This is what I've been doing. These are all the things that I recognize the gap in my skill set that I needed to close in order to be successful at what I wanted to do next. And I just put all of my energy into it. Impressive. And so I ended up working at HIG Capital, moving to Vista a year later, and Vista was phenomenal.

I was like, yeah. I've been working on this for two years. This is what I've been doing. These are all the things that I recognize the gap in my skill set that I needed to close in order to be successful at what I wanted to do next. And I just put all of my energy into it. Impressive. And so I ended up working at HIG Capital, moving to Vista a year later, and Vista was phenomenal.

I was like, yeah. I've been working on this for two years. This is what I've been doing. These are all the things that I recognize the gap in my skill set that I needed to close in order to be successful at what I wanted to do next. And I just put all of my energy into it. Impressive. And so I ended up working at HIG Capital, moving to Vista a year later, and Vista was phenomenal.

I was there for four years. The team's incredible. I got to work on cool deals. It was like closing deals in London and Australia and working around the clock. It was fun.

I was there for four years. The team's incredible. I got to work on cool deals. It was like closing deals in London and Australia and working around the clock. It was fun.

I was there for four years. The team's incredible. I got to work on cool deals. It was like closing deals in London and Australia and working around the clock. It was fun.

It's the stage of company and the amount of ownership that you're going to take. So venture capital are the investors that we have now. And typically they're minority investors and they're investing much earlier. So the risk profile is much different. So venture capitalists will look at companies and say, you know what? I'm going to take a bet.