Inside DealMAX: Connecting in Cabanas with Tony Hill and Chris Hebble

For the fourth episode of our limited series, “Inside DealMAX,” we’re joined by Trivest Partners’ Tony Hill, our 2025 DealMAX chair, and Houlihan Lokey’s Chris Hebble, co-chair of the DealMAX private equity subcommittee, to discuss how the first quarter is shaping up for dealmakers, why you can’t miss this year’s DealMAX, their favorite things to do in Vegas, and more.

Read a transcript of the podcast below.

MMG: Welcome to the Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast, an ACG production, I’m Katie Maloney. We are back with another episode of our Inside DealMAX series, where we’re going behind the scenes with guests involved in shaping ACG’s flagship conference for the middle market, taking place April 7-9 at the Aria in Las Vegas. Today I’m joined by two guests who you have no doubt run into at an ACG chapter event or a past DealMAX. They are Tony Hill, principal at Trivest Partners and chair of our 2025 DealMAX Committee, and Chris Hebble, managing director at Houlihan Lokey and a former DealMAX committee chair himself. Chris and Tony, welcome to the podcast.

TH: Thanks. It’s great to be here.

CH: Thanks, Katie. Thanks, Tony, for having me join you on this.

MMG: So, Tony, let’s start with you. Can you tell us a little more about your current role at Trivest and then your involvement at DealMAX and what that looks like?

TH: Yeah, of course. Happy to do that. I’m currently a principal and head of business development here at Trivest Partners. For those unfamiliar with us, we’re a midmarket private equity firm that specializes in family- and founder-owned businesses. We’ve been around for 40 years. Today we have about a hundred professionals and $7 billion in assets under management. I’ve been involved with DealMAX now in a formal capacity for, I want to say three and a half years to four years. I’ve been on subcommittees leading up to the main committee this year. You know, I have the distinction and honor of being the main committee chair. And yeah, it’s been very rewarding on so many levels. I can’t wait first off to meet all the other subcommittee members in person in a couple months and really toast to what’s going to be another fantastic edition of DealMAX. But along the way, having the opportunity to work with some of the best deal professionals and M&A partners out there, as well as with the staff at ACG who are just phenomenal. Yeah, it’s been a real pleasure. And while I’m excited to pass on the baton to the next chairman, I am going to miss being referred to as chairman every now and then.

MMG: It has a nice ring to it.

TH: But yeah, I’ve been involved with ACG in other capacities as well. I helped co-found the ACG Miami network here about a year and a half to two years ago with some really phenomenal Miami-based dealmakers and PE professionals and lawyers. [I’ve] also been a board member on ACG South Florida prior to ACG Miami. So, yeah, my career has interwoven and intersected with ACG for a long time. And in fact, I have the distinction having been one of the few people I know that actually attended ACG Euro Growth back when that was a thing. I don’t know how many of those there were in total, but I did get to attend one that was in Amsterdam and that was really cool. I hope they bring it back someday.

MMG: Yeah, absolutely. And we’ll get more into what folks can expect from DealMAX this year under your chairmanship. But first I’m going to go back to you, Chris, and ask you the same question. Can you tell us about your focus at Houlihan and what your work with DealMAX looks like this year?

CH: Sure. I’m currently a managing director in the capital markets group here at Houlihan Lokey, which happens to be the largest capital markets platform in the world with 165 professionals across the globe. And let’s see, I’ve been going to DealMAX now since 2001 when we had a snowstorm in Denver, Colorado. [I’ve] actually been a conference chair back in 2017, if I recall correctly. Since then, I’ve been on a subcommittee, the private equity subcommittee. And I’m just happy that they showed out to you with Tony running the IB committee this year, because he kicked my butt last year and grew his group faster than I grew mine. But I think this year I got it cleaned up because he is not around.

TH: He’s totally turned the tables this year. And by the way, I think he’s embellishing. It was a photo finish, Chris, last year. Probably somebody tipped the scales in my favor, to be honest.

CH: Yeah, maybe one or one or two Houlihan people that might’ve had 50 people at the event last year. Oh my goodness.

MMG: And Chris, we had your subcommittee co-chair, head Ashton Gillespie on the podcast a few episodes ago. So, folks should definitely go back and listen to her episode.

CH: She’s been a wonderful addition to our group and she’s just a go-getter and she’s young and she really knows everybody in the market. She’s really fun to work with as well.

MMG: We asked Ashton, as well as our other guests in this series, what they are watching in the M&A environment leading up to DealMAX. So, I want to put that question to both of you as well. What are each of you watching in the dealmaking space in the early months of 2025? Tony, what are you seeing and hearing?

TH: Yeah, happy to take a first crack at that. So, we see a lot of deals here at Trivest. We have a pretty sizable business development organization. Last year we saw probably almost 4,800 opportunities. Why do I bring that up? I think it means that, you know, we might be a bellwether of which way things are going or a leading indicator. Any way you want to look at it from the buy side of course—Chris has an even further look into the future than we do, given where he sits—but again, speaking from the buy side and from the private equity community, the thing that’s jumping out at us the most is we’re seeing a big jump in deal flow year over year, about 20% more than we saw last January. I think that’s very interesting because the beginning of a year is always a little bit slower. It takes a while for the machine to re-prime. But this year, the fact that we’re way up and it’s happening way sooner—because by the way, February is also run rating at an unprecedented clip for us—I think that’s very promising. And if that continues, then I think that it backs the consensus that this finally might be the year where the floodgates kind of reopen a bit and we see some nice frothy deal activity. And I guess secondly, just from a more anecdotal standpoint, and I’d love to hear Chris’s thoughts on this, but I just feel like the enthusiasm is higher than I’ve seen it in a long time. I know at the beginning of the year, people always have these very rose-colored glasses on that this is the year and this year is no different. But it somehow feels louder and more consistent even than in prior years, which, you know, I think that’s a good thing because sometimes perception is reality. So I don’t know. So far I’m seeing a lot to like about where things are going.

MMG: And Chris, what about from where you sit? Are you seeing the floodgates open and are you seeing the same level of enthusiasm that Tony’s seeing?

CH: Yeah, so I would say it just slightly differently than Tony did, which, and still very much in the same way, which is, I do definitely think that the enthusiasm in marketplace is definitely still there and growing. I would say sitting at the capital markets, that’s one of the things that we see is because interest rates are coming down suddenly with SOFR coming down by about 90 pips already [from] where they were a year ago. And also because interest rates are tightening up pretty quickly because the recovery of the BSL market last spring, right? Both of those things have really driven themselves to more deals getting done in the M&A space. I say LBO volumes on a large scale base are up, I don’t even know, like 65% over last year as well as one of the strongest capital raising markets we’ve ever seen. So those two things I put think put together really kind of drive themselves to a healthy M&A market given that, inclusive of the pitch activity, which I’m hearing about across my firm, which is very strong. So I think Tony’s absolutely right. I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm to get deals done in the given years and it’s being supported by the leveraged finance markets as well.

MMG: Definitely an exciting backdrop heading into DealMAX as well. You know, you both of course are involved in planning DealMAX. We talked about your roles on the committee. So you’ll be coming to the conference with your volunteer hats on I’m sure, but I know that you’re also coming probably to get some work done. So I was hoping you could each talk about why DMAX is an important conference for you to attend and what you’re looking to get out of it this year.

CH: Sure. I would tell you, listen, I’m hoping that we can, Houlihan’s going to take more than 51 people this year than last, right? Which is really just an incumbency of the growth that my firm’s been experiencing, which is really important to all of us. And also I do think that has kind of set the stage for doing more meetings this year than I did last year. Last year I got 50 or so meetings by myself. It really allows me a platform to see more people than I do going to Chicago for a week or Miami for a week. A chance to see all these people from all over the country at once really helps me kind of consolidate my marketing practice for the entry to the year.

MMG: And Tony, I know we’re going to be keeping you busy at DealMAX. You’re moderating the session with the Red Lobster CEO, you’ve got a lot of responsibilities as chair, but when you are in your professional capacity, what are you looking to get out of DealMAX as you attend?

TH: Yeah. That was a little bit of an ominous laugh from Chris. He said they’re going to keep me busy. He was like, you have no idea.

CH: It’s only because I’ve been the chair once before and I’ve been the past chair after that and they kept me busy then as well.

TH: Bring it on. We’re going to do this. So, why do I normally go to DealMAX? It’s three things, one is to make new relationships. The second one is to connect and deepen existing ones. And then the third one that I feel like DealMAX, given that it’s the largest conference out there for midmarket deal professionals, it’s the only place where you can walk around and really pick up on like the zeitgeist of the M&A market because it’s not just bringing together all the right people, but if you think about the programming, the entertainment, the subjects, all of it is curated because those are the things that people want to talk about and learn about. So, in a way it’s all being packaged up in one place for you to just breathe it in and say that you were there. So yeah, you know, what’s going to be different this year? I’m going to be doing a few more like DealMAX chairman-related things, which in all honesty, despite Chris’s ominous laugh, I am looking forward to it. You know, this is only something that I’m going to get to do one time. And so, I’m really ecstatic about meeting with our sponsors, speaking with the panelists and Funcast guys and Damola, and helping to make this the best DealMAX that we can. Can’t wait to be on the ground there with Chris and Ashton and the other subcommittee members and very literally toast to what we’ve been contributing to now for several months. We’ve assembled a great, great team. Everybody here on all the subcommittees really cares about their ability to champion the conference and make it another record-breaking year. It’s a testament to their efforts and I think everybody deserves like a big high five and pat on the back when we get there. And that I’m not going to miss. That’s probably the thing I’m most excited about.

MMG: Absolutely. As you know, a big draw for DealMAX for a lot of attendees is the networking, of course, and you both have a ton of experience there from your time both at DealMAX and Intergrowth before that and ACG chapter events. I wonder if you have any tips or strategies that you can share about how to approach those conversations?

CH: Yeah, listen, I would say always try to interpersonalize all your meetings, try to really engage somebody on a personal level, really draws the ability to create friends like I have over the years. And guys like Tony, I’m just getting to know. But I do really know when I ask him about his family and how he is, I mean, but guys like Jay Jester, last year’s Legend Award winner, he and I became friends back in 2004. Why? Because we both went to Intergrowth. And that’s really why: I want to become friends with these people, is try to interpersonal your meetings and make them more valuable than just trying to figure out how to push over a deal.

MMG: Tony, what about you? Any tips or strategies that you’d add onto Chris’s?

TH: A strategy that works well for me, and I was probably, you know, the last guy to figure this out, but just in case there’s someone else out there who hasn’t figured it out, I’ll share it anyway. Don’t do the rat race approach to DealMAX. You’re going to burn yourself out. So obviously be selective about who you plan to meet in advance because you have a lot of control over that. But open yourself up, open up your schedule for the universe to intervene and take you wherever it is your feet take you on the ballroom floor or, you know, to some of the smaller breakouts or even up to the Starbucks, wherever, it’s a vast space. And, you know, talk to the sponsors, to the people exhibiting, you know, sit at the cafe and have an espresso and talk to the guy there. And ever since I’ve started doing that two things took place. One, I met a ton of people I did not expect to meet and who were very valuable folks to have in my network and follow up with and all that. And secondly, you get some much-needed rest because the meetings, they start to wear you out. And I don’t just mean physically, but you know, when you’re kind of doing meeting after meeting after meeting, I feel like almost your mouth needs a break from repeating the same words over again in some cases. And just having some time to recenter and that’s going to make your other meetings all the more productive if you’re in the right head space going into them. One other thing, I probably shouldn’t say this, but if you can score a highly sought-after invitation out to Chris’s cabana, totally something worth doing. That’s a great strategy. Sorry, Chris, the phone’s going to start ringing off the hook now.

CH: Yes, it will. Yes, it will. Well, that’s good enough. I think that’s going to be my next answer anyway, but, okay. Katie, what’s the next question?

MMG: Sure. Well, you kind of preempted it. I was going to ask about a relationship that originated at DealMAX that has since grown into an important business connection for you. Chris, you mentioned Jay Jester and Tony, you had an interesting one. We’ve spoken previously and you mentioned you crossed paths with someone years ago who’s now your colleague at Trivest. So I guess I’ll put that question to you first. You can use that example or another, but what’s a relationship you started at DealMAX that’s grown into something bigger?

TH: Wow, you guys remember that? By the way, I could come up with a laundry list of these. But the one that I think is nearest and dearest to my heart is I was at ACG Intergrowth 2010 that was here in Miami Beach. And that was one of a heck of a show. It was at the Fontainebleau, and so unbeknownst at the time, I was doing investment banking for a local boutique. And anyway, I remember bumping into this kind of tall, slender, sharp-looking PE professional obviously. And I was much, much younger at the time, by the way. But anyway, I bump into him. I introduce myself. I had a quick conversation with him and he was super charismatic and I never forgot it. And then fast forward several years and that gentleman, Jamie Elias, who’s a managing partner here, and he heads up our TGIF non-control fund—he’s now my boss. You know, one thing led to another and yeah, I eventually joined Trivest, but back then who would’ve thunk it?

MMG: And what about you, Chris? You mentioned Jay Jester. Is there anyone else who springs to mind that emerged as a chance encounter at DealMAX who now is a valuable business connection?

CH: Oh yeah, absolutely. Glenn Oken at Mangrove [Equity Partners]. Mark Jones at River [Associates]. Dave Santoni, now with Audax, but was with Goldman Sachs at the time. Jeremy Holland, the Riverside Company. All those guys have become personal friends of mine over the years. I said Tony and I are going to be long friends after this now that he’s replaced Derek McDowell in my eyes as the ultimate Trivest BD guy. I am all good with that.

TH: That’s a deep cut.

CH: That’s how old I am, by the way.

MMG: When we record one of these five years from now, it’s going to be someone who heard about Chris’s cabana on this podcast episode, showed up at the cabana and became a lifelong friend to Chris Hebble. You heard it here first. I’m predicting it.

TH: That’s probably already happened a bunch of times, by the way.

MMG: Yeah, right. It probably has. We’ve kind of been talking around this a little bit, but I did want to ask you both to weigh in on how you would say that DealMAX or even ACG more broadly has influenced your career and your professional life.

CH: You know, it’s interesting you said that: My son, who just called me while we were recording this podcast, he reminded me of a comment I made to him, which was, “I want you to be a participant and not a spectator.” So, my being involved has helped me actually be part of the organization, be part of the community, be part of the networking broadly defined throughout the U.S., right. And part of ACG and also working with you, Katie, and the rest of the ACG team, you all have become really good friends of mine. I miss Ariel quite a bit, but it’s great to have Christine Melendez back, Shannon and you and Gloria and everybody else. It’s really kind of part of my everyday life right now, which I really enjoy and I’m, you know, happy to be part of. But yeah, I always believe in being a participant and not just a spectator.

MMG: I love that. Tony, what about you?

TH: For me, I guess from a business standpoint, look, it’s been very productive for my career as a business developer, right? It’s just kind of covering the basic blocking and tackling of DealMAX. I’ve easily added hundreds of people to my network, you know, maybe over a thousand in recent years. That’s obviously led to a lot of great dealmaking opportunities, some of which have closed. I think personally, you know, to me DealMAX is the pinnacle of M&A networking. It’s like the Super Bowl and participating in the Super Bowl of anything, I think is always something you should try to do. You know, it’s a privilege and an honor. It’s also a learning moment. So, again, speaking from more of a personal standpoint, I think just being able to be out on the field with some of the best players in the game, it makes me a better business developer myself. It’s just such a great way to get better at this craft because it’s one that you can improve year over year, both passively and actively.

MMG: So for our last segment we’re asking a list of questions, kind of a rapid fire round that we’re asking everyone on the podcast. So first up, when and where was your first DealMAX or Intergrowth as it was known then probably?

TH: My first was in Miami Beach at the Fontainebleau in 2010.

MMG: And Chris, I think you said yours earlier.

CH: Yeah, Denver, Colorado. And there was a black-tie dinner and a snowstorm. It was an interesting night for us. Ever since then, we only did places that were warm. Right. Ever since then for Intergrowth or DealMAX now, now we’re always in Las Vegas. But yeah, definitely.

MMG: I was going to say, I’ve never experienced a snowstorm at DealMAX, so I think that event probably changed the tide on where we host these things.

CH: I am sure it did. Yes.

MMG: Okay. Next up, your favorite DealMAX memory?

CH: Chairing the conference in 2017 was quite the honor and the experience of meeting A Rod in 2018. I still have pictures of me being interviewed with him. Christine sent those to me a long time ago, but those are my two favorite memories so far.

TH: I guess for me, I would normally go with the Jamie Elias story since I ended up getting a job eventually with him. But a second standout is this: One year I took a meeting with a friend of mine, his name is Ryan Elpers. He’s at KSM. And I didn’t know him at the time, but he invited me to do supercar racing. This was two or three years ago. It was a small, curated group of folks. I don’t know, I don’t do much supercar racing so, when I think of DealMAX, top memory is the one that just revs to mind, pun intended, driving actual supercars with a professional driver at this track that’s right outside of Vegas. If Ryan is hearing me, I hope he does it again, and if he wants to throw me an invite, I would totally do it again. But it’s incredible. And I would never have done that if it weren’t for DealMAX. But I think it speaks to the fact that, this is how big it is and people are doing these great cool things onsite, offsite, morning, very early morning, midday, late night, very late night. And you just never know the kinds of relationships you might form or where it’s going to happen. I can tell you that racing a car that fast with other people, it’s a bonding experience because everyone’s just like, oh my god, that was insane. So yeah, shout out to Ryan for doing that and I’m looking forward to seeing what this year brings.

MMG: So, sticking with you, Tony, what’s an opportunity at DealMAX that you would say is maybe underrated or people don’t take enough advantage of?

TH: Well, I’m going to try not to repeat something I said earlier. At least I’ll repeat it, but very briefly and then I’ll try to come up with something different. Walk the floor. There’s so much to see and take in, so carve out some time. One of the days, both of the days, just waltz around and see what’s happening because it’s big and there’s no other event like this. I really like speaking to the sponsors. You know, they invest a lot of time and resources and treasure into supporting this great event. You learn a little bit about them, they learn about you, and it’s just a nice way of expressing gratitude for their part in all this.

MMG: That’s a really good one. Chris, what’s your underrated aspect of DealMAX?

CH: I would tell you it’s usually the content. Having been responsible for it in years in the past, Danielle Fugazi has been a complete massive upgrade with our organization trying to really step it up. And so don’t miss any of the content that we’re actually putting forth as part of the event or part of the organization. Anything that you can get your hands on, come and get that content out of whatever we’re presenting if you’re not too busy.

TH: That’s a good one.

MMG: Great suggestion. And a lot of that now is all up on the website. I think it went up in the last couple weeks and is continuing to be updated. But anyone listening to this that wants to see what the sessions are looking like or start to plan their schedule, it’s all up on dealmax.org. That’s a great suggestion, Chris. This is a lighter one, but a lot of people I hear track their steps while they’re at DealMAX. So I wonder if you have done that and if you have an estimate of what your record is for distance walked during the event.

CH: Well, I’ll go first on this one because it’s pretty innocuous, but I will tell you that having to walk back and forth from the floor to the cabanas about 18 times a day is probably about 20,000 steps pretty easily. Although that’s one of one reasons why, back on one of the questions you were going to ask, which is what’s one of the new things, new features? Really was the steps, cutting down the distance to the cabanas. That’s what I’m looking for. I really want to do those. Because I want to cut down my steps about 50 or 80%. Who knows?

MMG: I was going to say a lot of tiny violins, Chris, that you would walk too far to your outdoor cabana. But I’m glad that that will be shorter for you this year. It’s a great point though. I think our team did a lot of work on cutting down that distance, because you’re right, it was pretty far and now it’s a lot closer. So yeah, cuts down that time between meetings.

CH: I agree.

TH: Yeah, look, the distances are…it’s Vegas. They do this on purpose. We all know this. The distances are vast. It’s an optical illusion and everything feels a lot closer than it is. But yeah, you’re going to get in miles a day. I don’t even, you know, I try to not put in miles a day and I wind up with miles a day. Although this year I could probably use the extra steps. This is a fitness year for me, hopefully. But yeah, look, you know, even though the distances are what they are, when you’re in the thick of things, I feel like you’re not even noticing it. So anybody who wants some accidental exercise, that’s another reason to go to DealMAX. You’re going to get it, not knowing it.

MMG: And a great excuse to go crazy and enjoy the great food at Vegas restaurants. Which brings me to my next question, which is, your favorite thing to do in Las Vegas. Tony, you want to take that one first?

TH: Yeah, so I’m going to go with something that probably most people would not. I really like looking at the Vegas skyline at night, so I like finding somewhere where you can do that. And there are places and you know, look, there’s no other skyline in the world like it. I mean, it’s surreal, beautiful, full of mystique. And to me, I just love to stare at it and to kind of take it all in, especially at night. During the day it’s looks a little bit different, but at night it is just completely magical.

MMG: That’s a great one. And Chris, when you’re not at your cabana and you’re out on the town in Las Vegas, what do you like to do?

CH: Given I live in LA, it’s usually being able to drive in and drive home, which is one of the few things I can do for an event like this. Really just get in and out of there whenever I want to, so it’s not terrible. The other thing I’d love to do is, is there used to be the Elvis impersonator guy singing at the Golden Nugget and then in the lounge you have two single deck blackjack tables there. You sit there all that long and play single deck blackjack and listen, oh it was great.

TH: That reminds me of a future favorite thing I want to do. I’ve spoken to some guys about this, and Chris, if you want to do this with me, but this would be the ultimate team up. But I can’t do it this year as chairman. I have other duties to attend to. I always thought it’d be fun to get a few people together and like do a tour of some of like these really older but institutional, off the beaten path Vegas institutions, casinos, whatever, and just check them out because I think that part of that old Vegas world is still there. It’s just a little bit off the strip, you know?

CH: Yeah, I totally agree. That’s a great idea.

MMG: Yeah. Well, speaking of getting out of the heart of Vegas a couple years ago after the conference, my husband and I drove out to the Grand Canyon. I’d never been before and that was really cool. So not technically in Vegas, but for me, I think that was my favorite conference-adjacent thing that we did.

TH: I’ve been wanting to do that as well. That’s a good one that you mentioned. Also, I think the Hoover Dam is only an hour to 90 minutes away or something.

MMG: Yeah. It’s closer than you’d think and it’s amazing going from Vegas to that. But yeah, highly recommend. Okay, next one on the list is your best travel hack when you’re flying for business. I know you’re both on the road a lot. So what is your go-to travel hack that you want to share with the world?

TH: So I’m based in Miami, which means that, whether you like it or not, you need to fly with an American. Nevertheless, something I discovered way later than most is probably what’s called the mileage upgrade. And I think a lot of people may not know this, but you can just book a regular flight and then sometime before the flight you just call American, you say, hey, I’d like to put my name on the mileage upgrade list. And that just means if something opens up they’ll actually put you in that nicer seat ahead of people that actually have status, for just a tiny token fee, like almost nothing. They don’t seem to market that. But I’ve done it several times and, again, for you American flyers out there it’s worth trying if you haven’t.

CH: So mine is always get to the airport early and take a few minutes to relax, get to the bar, people watch. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Give myself about 90 minutes rather than just like 18 minutes, right? And just sitting there, just decompress a few minutes. I’m about to jump on a plane and probably work the entire time as I log into Wi-Fi. I’ll take a few minutes right before and, you know, no one’s going to wonder where I am, where I’m not, I’m parking or whatever it’s going to be. So why don’t I just take a few minutes and just decompress—one of my favorite things to do.

MMG: Well, now they know you’re not parking, but I do like that as a tip.

CH: Shhh.

MMG: We’re just revealing all the secrets here. No, I like that a lot. I think that’s because, you’re right, it’s like easy to just kind of like charge hard the whole time. But I feel like sitting, taking a breather, taking it in, watching people at the airport…

CH: I love people watching at the airport. Whether it’s amateur hour travelers, whatever it’s going to be, it’s certainly one of my favorites.

MMG: That’s a really good one. So, if you could pick anyone in the world to sit next to on your flight to DealMAX, who would it be and what would you talk to them about? And I’m going to go to Tony first because this is a much more consequential decision for you, I guess, because Chris is not flying, but either way you would have the longer flight.

CH: I could actually drive somebody in my Uber.

MMG: Okay. Yeah, we’ll frame it that way for you, Chris.

TH: Ooh, I think this would vary by the minute, the answer to this question. But yeah, I think it would be somebody like Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI. I would just want to be able to pick this guy’s brain on like, where are we? What’s up in the future, like a year out, like two years out, like five years out? Because I doubt anybody knows what’s 10 years out, but like, tell me everything you think is coming down the pike and I would just shut up after that and let this guy talk the entire flight. I probably would be terrified at everything he says. There’s a chance maybe I’ll be like, oh, you know, that actually sounds nice, but if nothing else, maybe he could finally help me figure out how we can use AI to source deals ahead of the competition, since, you know, I’m still working on that.

MMG: That’s a great one. I love it. Okay, Chris, who’s sitting in your passenger seat on the drive from Los Angeles to Vegas?

CH: I would’ve said any of the guys that do SmartLess, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, or Will Arnett, right? Those three guys, they crack me every Monday morning when I’m driving to work. I just cannot help but laugh my ass off. Three of those guys, the way they just beat each other up during their opening remarks, whatever it is, they’re just comical.

MMG: I just had the mental picture of you driving and the three of them in the backseat on your way to down to the Aria.

CH: Yeah, the back of my Prius. Exactly.

MMG: So Tony, I want to keep your walk-on song a surprise, so I’m not going to ask you this one, but Chris, when you were a former chairman of DealMAX, do you remember what your theme music was when you went on stage that year?

CH: Yes, it was Justin Timberlake’s “I’m the Man.”

MMG: Love it. Tony, hopefully that’s some good inspiration if you haven’t chosen your song yet and next year when we talk, we’ll have you recount it and everyone can wait in suspense to see what you walk out to.

TH: Yeah, I’m afraid we’re not going to be tipping the hand on that yet.

MMG: Totally understand. Last question I have in our rapid fire round: For someone who’s on the fence about attending DealMAX this April, what would you say to convince them? Why should they come?

TH: I would probably just say, which I do say to people all the time, you’ve got to go at least once. If you work in this business, you have to go because you just don’t know what you don’t know. So get out there once, no matter what, it’s going to be a good experience. Is it one that you ultimately decide, it wasn’t worth it? You know, fine. But it’s going to be a very worthwhile experience even that one time. But I’m convinced anybody who goes, goes back. It’s hard to avoid the siren call of DealMAX when you start seeing those calendar placeholder emails go out.

MMG: And I think the statistics bear that out. I mean, people come back so there’s definitely something to it. Chris, why should someone come?

CH: Tony Hill.

TH: Oh my gosh.

CH: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

MMG: You’ve been waiting for that the whole interview.

CH: I’ve been saving that up. Tony, you had to know that was coming. Alright. Alright. So really, it really is the best national platform event of the year. I mean, I’ve been to all the other organizations’ stuff, whether it’s TMA in Vegas or whatever it’s going to be, or even our chapter events, whether it’s LA’s September event, which is great, it’s a great event for the West Coast contingency, but you draw the national kind of audience. But really for a national platform, this is the best event of the year in finance.

MMG: Chris and Tony, I want to thank you so much for doing this. This was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see you both in person in just a couple weeks in April in Las Vegas. So thanks again for joining me on the podcast.

TH: Same here. Thanks, Katie. Chris, can’t wait to see you there, bud.

CH: Same, brother. You as well, Katie. Thanks for having me.

MMG: Absolutely. And for anyone listening, take the advice of Chris and Tony and sign up for DealMAX. You can do all of that, check out the agenda, register for the conference all at dealmax.org. So, make sure to go do that soon and book your spot for this year’s event.

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

The Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast is produced by the Association for Corporate Growth. To hear more interviews with middle-market influencers, subscribe to the Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Soundcloud.