Inside DealMAX: Creating Connections with Brent Baxter and Aaron Polack

As we prepare for DealMAX 2025, the Conversations podcast is kicking off “Inside DealMAX,” a limited series exploring the M&A environment, strategies to maximize your time at the conference and the best tips for when you touch down in Las Vegas. For our first episode, we’re joined by ACG’s CEO Brent Baxter and Lion Equity‘s Aaron Polack to discuss corporate deal activity, travel hacks, building valuable relationships and more.

Read a transcript of the podcast below.

Middle Market Growth: Welcome to the Middle Market Growth Conversations podcast, an ACG production. I’m your host, Katie Maloney. Here at ACG, we are hard at work preparing for DealMAX 2025, which will return to the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on April 7-9. DealMAX, of course, is ACG’s flagship conference, bringing together more than 3,100 middle-market M&A professionals to make deals, exchange ideas and expand their networks. Our episode today is the first in a limited series we’re launching, exploring different angles of DealMAX in the months leading up to the conference. To kick off this new series, I’m thrilled to welcome ACG’S CEO, Brent Baxter, and Lion Equity’s Aaron Polack to talk about their experience with DealMAX over the years and what attendees can expect from the conference. Brett and Aaron, welcome to the podcast.

Aaron Polack: Yeah, thanks, Katie.

Brent Baxter: Thanks for having us.

MMG: So, I imagine many of our listeners already know one or both of you, given how active you are in ACG, but for those who might not, can you each say a little more about your current role and what your involvement with DealMAX has looked like? Brent, will you start us off?

BB: Sure, I’d be happy to. So, I’ve been serving as the CEO of ACG now for about 15 months, but I’ve been a member of ACG for 22 or 23 years, most of that time as an investment banker. So as an investment banker, I attended I don’t know how many DealMAXes or Intergrowths, 15 or so, and a whole host of regional events and all that sort of stuff. It’s really fortunate as the CEO to have this sort of insider understanding of how ACG ticks and how important events like DealMAX are to the overall ACG member value proposition, particularly as an investment banker.

MMG: Great. Thanks, Brent. And Aaron, tell us a little bit about your role and your involvement in DealMAX through the years.

AP: Yeah, sure. So, a little context: I’m the head of business development for Lion Equity Partners. We’re a lower middle-market private equity fund that focuses on corporate carve-outs. So ACG and DealMAX more specifically are very essential to my role. I’ve been a part of ACG I think for about 15 years as a consumer and have been attending DealMAX—as Brent mentioned, formerly known as Intergrowth—for the past decade. And I was fortunate enough to chair the first-ever DealMAX in 2023 and have been involved since then with many committee activities, and I was also the founder of the Strategic Acquirer Summit, which is now part of the DealMAX programming. We joke between Brent and a handful of other board members and many other people in this community that we’re DealMAX junkies. We love the event. It’s an incredible opportunity for us to meet all of our colleagues and friends across the entire M&A landscape.

MMG: Speaking of the overall M&A landscape, we’re in this kind of interesting environment right now where we’ve had a few relatively slow years for dealmaking that seems to now be picking up again. So Aaron, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how DealMAX fits into that equation and what role you see for the conference playing in a deal environment like the one we’re in today.

AP: Yeah, it’s a good question. I think the M&A environment’s trying to figure itself out right now. I think since post-Covid it’s been a little bit up, it’s been a little bit down and right now, you know, post-election, we’re trying to figure out, do we have a full head of steam and it’s continued bull market and tons of activity or are we going to have a little bit of a softening period as far as deal volume? I think the interesting thing about DealMAX is that this event really adds a ton of value regardless of the environment that we’re in. You know, when we are seeing high levels of deal activity, you have dealmakers coming together from a transactional perspective, then you have M&A partners and service providers who are really active because as deal activity is up, they’re interacting with those dealmakers pretty consistently. And then even in periods where it’s a little bit quieter, we find that ACG events in general actually have a nice uptick because people are using that opportunity to build out their networks and find their next deal or expand their network in general. So regardless of what environment we’re in, DealMAX and ACG events in general have played a critical role in people’s dealmaking adventures.

MMG: And Brent, anything you’d add there about the role that DealMAX plays in this climate?

BB: Well, I think whether activity is sluggish or robust, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a buyer say, “Oh, we have way too many quality deals and we’re doing way too much origination.” You know, the market still is just incredibly fragmented. Whether it’s lower middle market, or middle market, there are literally thousands of investment banks representing transactions and advisors who know about interested sellers and finding a really efficient way to connect those deals with the folks that are looking to do transactions with the capital, that is seeking to finance transactions, DealMAX just makes that incredibly efficient.

AP: Yeah, and one thing to add is that the M&A environment is always evolving, right? So, whether it’s levels of deal activity or new technologies—for example, AI is a really hot topic right now. And DealMAX and ACG events are on the forefront of education and sharing of best practices. So, we see new hot topics like that come in almost every year, but AI obviously is top of mind. So even if deal activity’s a little bit sluggish, people are coming to DealMAX and ACG events to be on the forefront of that type of education as well.

MMG: That’s a really good point. Brent, I want to come back to something that you mentioned in your intro, which is the quite unique position that you’re in, having been an investment banker and a longtime ACG member and event attendee before becoming CEO of ACG itself. How did your experience attending DealMAX as an investment banker shape your approach to the conference now as the leader of ACG?

BB: Well, I guess if I were to try to summarize it in three words, it’s about how ACG can facilitate more relevant connections. So, with the number of attendees we have, with the number of meetings we had last year, our ACG access scheduling tool, we scheduled 17,000 one-on-one meetings for the attendees at DealMAX. So, you think about 3,000 attendees, that’s a lot of activity. And back to those three words, as an investment banker, more relevant connections is really how to maximize the value of DealMAX, whether you’re an M&A partner, private equity, whoever you are, attending with a thousand-odd private equity, a thousand-odd investment banks, a thousand-odd M&A partners, how do you best meet with the people that are most relevant with what you’re trying to do? So, as we work at the headquarters level on data and curating our data and the scheduling tool and refining the scheduling tool, hopefully our attendees will find it easier to connect with the people that are most relevant with what they’re trying to get done. So as an investment banker back, you know, my early DealMAXes, I’d get 150 invitations, and I wouldn’t know who the heck to meet with and you had to do a lot of homework to try to figure it out. You still have to do your homework, but hopefully we’re making it a little bit easier.

AP: Just to chime in, and Brent brings up a great point, DealMAX is this multiplier effect, right? It’s one of those things where you get more of it the more you put into it. So the homework that you do leading up to the event, you know, really researching the folks that you don’t know that you want to meet with—it’s already an incredible event, but the more you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it.

MMG: And, Aaron, you’ve been actively involved in developing programs for corporate strategic acquirers for ACG, including at DealMAX, and this is also a group you interface regularly within your day job. Can you talk about what you’re seeing as far as corporate M&A activity today, and whether that’s tracking with other patterns we’re seeing in the dealmaking landscape?

AP: Yeah, good question. I think the corporate world in general is actually looking at a high level of acquisitions and divestitures, you know, as the private equity world kind of took a step back to struggle with the change in the interest rate environment. I think we saw the corporate activity kind of fast forward in general—as you mentioned, in my day job, I’ve been highly active with corporate development professionals and actually conduct an annual study of corporate development trends as well as a compensation guide. And this year’s findings really point to a high level of deal activity and appetite for continued acquisitions. I think on average the corporates in my study are completing three-plus acquisitions a year. So, I think that’s going to continue on the corporate front. Additionally, I think corporate development teams are becoming more and more sophisticated in the ways that they source and execute deals. And furthermore, we talked about AI before, but that is absolutely top of the mind as they continue to raise their level of sophistication in the dealmaking environment. And then on the divestiture front, given that that’s our core focus, we’ve actually seen a material uptick in divestiture activity this year. I think corporates are active in the way they’re reviewing and pruning non-core divisions, as well as some pressure from active investors and really just thinking about how to proactively look at their portfolio. So all of these things kind of triangulate to a really, really high level of corporate activity, which is why DealMAX and ACG in general have been really focused on building out corporate development programming.

MMG: And Brent, anything you’d add there? I know that corporates are near and dear to your heart as well in terms of an ACG audience.

BB: Yeah, I think one of the little understood facts is ACG has nearly as many corporate members as we do private equity managing a fund. We have something in the neighborhood of 1,300 corporate members across ACG, so they’re very engaged in ACG. And one of the things Aaron and I have worked on together for a number of years now is how to increase that engagement, increase the value proposition to the corporate community as part of ACG.

MMG: And then as far as DealMAX in particular, you mentioned you’ve seen corporate engagement within ACG grow. Is that true within DealMAX as well? And can you talk about what corporates get out of the event?

AP: Brett and I have had a passion for this…we met, oddly enough, at DealMAX many, many years ago, in one of the speed dating kind of deal sourcing banker to private equity groups. And I think we might have pushed our next meeting because we were talking about corporates and this connected passion for corporates in general in ACG, and how to kind of crack the code of getting corporates involved in ACG because historically they hadn’t been involved in Intergrowth and DealMAX as much as we thought that they should have been, and while they were active members, getting them to the events where it was a little bit more PE- and IB-heavy historically was a little bit of a challenge. And I think one of the things that we’ve done is really realize that corporates think a little bit differently. While there is that transactional nature that’s really critical for them to go source deals, another part of it is sharing best practices. So a lot of corporates aren’t part of, you know, 500-person investment banks or large PE funds, they’re a little bit more siloed within their organizations. So having an opportunity to meet with other corporates, have a sounding board to think about best practices and a little bit more content-forward as opposed to just this transactional nature. It has been really important for us to develop that corporate programming. And we’ve seen a really nice uptick in activity at DealMAX, but also a lot of regional events throughout the ACG landscape.

MMG: And we should probably say too there’s the dedicated corporate track at DealMAX. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

AP: Yeah, what we actually developed pre-Covid was a strategic acquirers’ summit. This happened in Dallas, and we had around 120 corporates, corporates being someone who leads M&A or has an M&A bent within their organization. So very similar to a PE buyer, but just for their corporation. And what we developed post-Covid at DealMAX was a separate forum. We learned that corporates want to have a little bit more of an insulated opportunity to share these best practices, think about content, but also meet with their peer groups. So, we basically have a dedicated forum that’s a little bit separate for them at DealMAX that has a bit of a closed-door environment, but also has the opportunity to go meet with the broader environment as well. So, PE, IB service providers, you name it. This separate forum allows that kind of more insulated environment to share best practices, et cetera. So that’s been really effective for us. We continue to see uptick in numbers there. We’re expecting maybe closer to 200 at this DealMAX going forward. So it’s been a great opportunity, great pilot program that’s really developing into a strong suit for DealMAX.

MMG: And anyone interested in that track, there’s more information on the DealMAX website, dealmax.org. There’s also a list of all of the DealMAX strategic acquirer committee members, which is really a rockstar group that’s helping to advise on and put together this program.

AP: That’s a great point, Katie: This content was developed by their peers in corporate development. This content is not just from Brent and Aaron, it’s actually folks who are sitting in the seat, living day-to-day, seeing the challenges of the corporate development community. So we’ve built this incredible committee to really deliver that content and what this should look like.

BB: I’ll add onto that and it goes back to something Aaron said earlier about also doing your homework and being prepared. You know, there is a strong one-two punch for any corporate attendee at DealMAX. You have this whole opportunity of content and best practices and meeting your peers and understanding the best practices of corporate development. But you also have this really unique opportunity to meet the private equity and investment banks who are functioning in your vertical. I often tell the story of Nestle Petcare and this was 12, 13 years ago at an Intergrowth, and they had a corporate development for Nestle Petcare, the largest pet care in the world was one of 15 corporate attendees at DealMAX. And I said, Why do you come? And he said, Well, it’s the best two and a half days I spend all year. I said, Well, how’s that work? He said, Well, I do my homework and I meet the 15 largest private equity firms who have pet care investments, and I meet five or six investment banks who are specialists in pet care. He said, That is an incredibly efficient use of my time, I get so much done. So, the corporates come to DealMAX to both learn and grow, but also to create all those relevant deal connections. It’s really powerful.

AP: Yeah. And the key word there, Brent, is relevant, right? We’ve talked to so many corporates that are multi-billion-dollar organizations and we say, Well, why would you want to be involved with ACG, the gateway to the middle market? And they say, Well, that’s our core focus for acquisitions. We are squarely looking at add-on acquisitions that are being represented by the 800 investment banks that are coming to DealMAX. There’s no better way for us to go scale our organization from an origination perspective than showing up to DealMAX and having two and a half days of meetings from banks all over the United States and Canada. So it’s really a relevant opportunity for them to access the middle market.

MMG: And switching gears a little bit, since you both have been very involved in DealMAX over many years can you each share your favorite memory from the conference? Aaron, you want to start?

BB: Oh, no, I’m going first. Mine was meeting Aaron, of course

AP: That was mine.

BB: That’s why I had to go first, dude. So, we not only found that we were both deeply engaged in building corporate connectivity and passionate about the corporate audience—we found we went to the same liberal arts college in Northwestern Pennsylvania. And since then, Aaron and I have done so many things together inside of ACG and gotten to know each other personally as well as professionally. And Aaron is now the incoming chair of the board and the global board. So that’s my number one DealMAX connection. You’re going to have to come up with something secondary here.

AP: I don’t know. You put me on the spot. I was going to agree.

BB: No, I think we can both match. I think we can declare a match here.

AP: Well, I appreciate that because it’s a great example of a connection that you didn’t know you needed. Right? You know, I thought I was going into a conversation, a quick 20-minute meeting with another investment banker, and it’s turned into a decade-long relationship that has really changed me professionally, opened my networks, et cetera. So just one 20-minute meeting at DealMAX can really open up a world of opportunities for your network. And, you know, as I mentioned before, chairing DealMAX has been one of the highlights of my career so far. The opportunity to lead an event like DealMAX was a bit unnerving. When I said yes to this opportunity, I had never led a multi-thousand-person event or chaired a committee over the course of a year. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken in front of thousands of people before. So, it was a lot to take on, but it’s also been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done with my career. So, as I think about dovetailing that into another opportunity that’s really just changed me professionally, an opportunity to build up my network and then really see an event like DealMAX through fruition, and thinking about on Wednesday afternoon on my flight home and taking a breath for the first time, just that opportunity, that one meeting kind of evolved into the opportunity to chair that event was a really cool full-circle moment for me.

BB: I think in many ways that captures the real amazing value proposition of ACG. M&A by its nature is highly transactional, right? A deal’s a deal, it’s one-and-done, but the reason transactions happen is because of relationships. And there’s just thousands of ACG stories like Aaron’s and mine that we just shared, where you met somebody randomly, maybe even at the cocktail party, and that evolved into working together on something, whether a deal or a committee or a volunteer relationship. And it builds and it builds. And the relationships that our ACG members have are deep and they go way beyond just, Hey, I liked that speaker last week. It’s really foundational to the success of many of our members, if not most.

MMG: So for our final question, we’re going to try something a little bit different that we haven’t done on the podcast before. So, this question is actually more like seven questions but meant to be a rapid-fire round. So first one, and Aaron, you’re up first. This is an easy one. When and where was your first DealMAX or Intergrowth?

AP: So, believe it or not, it was actually the one we just talked about: 2014 in Las Vegas. That was my first DealMAX and I remember being incredible event and the one where I met Brent, so I’ve been coming back ever since.

MMG: And, Brent, where and when was your first DealMAX or Intergrowth?

BB: I don’t remember the year. I don’t have the brain that works that way, but I think it was in Orlando, maybe.

MMG: Okay, my first was San Diego in 2011, so I think I am maybe splitting the difference between the two of you. I’m a little earlier than you, Aaron, and probably a little later than you, Brent.

BB: Yeah, I was there in San Diego and it was not my first DealMAX. So somewhere before 2011.

MMG: Okay. We’re getting closer.

AP: We’ve established in this lightning round already, we have terrible memories.

BB: Exactly.

MMG: We’re creating a timeline.

AP: Good. Thank you for calling us out on that.

MMG: Alright, this one is going to you first, Brent: What is one opportunity at DealMAX that you would say is underrated or that people don’t take enough advantage of?

BB: I’d say folks don’t take enough advantage of just meeting total strangers and it’s that just stop by and say hi to somebody that’s sitting at the table by themselves. And, you know, I think some of the most valuable long-term relationships I’ve made in ACG have just been a random connection at a cocktail party or trying to find some place to eat my scrambled eggs.

AP: It’s such a great point, Brent. As we talked about the efficiency and the scheduling tools and all these things that ACG does really well to make this the most efficient opportunity to crank out as many meetings as possible, but some of the best stories are this serendipitous moment where you bumped into somebody you didn’t know you wanted to meet. You know, it’s funny, I’ve started bringing my associates to the events and I tell them, at every evening event, or even just walking around, find 10 new people that you haven’t met yet. Just setting like that easy KPI of just this proactive meeting of people that you haven’t met yet is such a critical opportunity for you to go. And like we said, we always do our research and find people that we want to meet, but those people that we didn’t know we wanted to meet sometimes are the most fruitful relationships out of something like this.

BB: It’s kind of a different version of five degrees from Kevin Bacon, right? Inevitably, almost anybody I talked to in an ACG event, we have connection within three iterations, whether it’s “I was on a membership committee” or “I did a pet care deal.” It happens really fast.

MMG: That’s a really good point too, because especially with the meeting scheduler and how efficient that is, it is tempting to book your calendar solid. But I think to both of your points, leaving room for some of the serendipitous connections can often be some of the most fruitful ones.

AP: Yeah. And that’s why I started bringing a broader team, more people from my team to allow for more of that. So we all have our scheduled meetings, but the opportunity to have more meetings, just walking around the halls or meeting vendors or going to evening events. We started bringing a bigger team to DealMAX just so we could have these opportunities built in.

MMG: Okay. I’m coming back to you, Aaron. What is your record for steps taken at DealMAX? It can be a best estimate.

AP: That’s a good one. I’ve not tracked that, but over the course of two and a half days, we do so much walking. I mean, I usually go through a pair of shoes at DealMAX, but it could be 10-plus miles I would imagine, because it’s not a small floor. And there’s so many people that are there that you might have one meeting in one corner of the deal source room and then walk all the way to the other, and over the course of two and a half days, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s 10 miles over the course of a trip. But now, I’m going to set my watch this time and track it for this year, but it’s a lot, which is great.

MMG: Brent, what’s your best guess for most steps taken at a DealMAX?

BB: I don’t know, mid-15,000? It’s probably the same as Aaron, you know, close to 7, 8, 10 miles.

MMG: Okay. Brent, we’re going to you: What is your favorite thing to do in Las Vegas?

BB: Oh, that’s a good question. It’s such a spectacle, right? So maybe people-watching, but the restaurants are really remarkable. I had a conversation with the chief operating officer of the Association of Meeting Professionals. So they do meeting stuff all around the world and they said that Las Vegas now by far has the highest density of high-quality eating establishment restaurants of any place in the world.

AP: That’s got to be mine as well, eating and now we just talked about walking 10 miles a day, so I feel less guilty about it. But you know, that’s another important point, is the evening life at DealMAX. You’re busy all day with meetings and having efficient opportunities to connect with deal professionals, but the fabric of evening events, whether it’s happy hours, dinners, you name it, there’s a great opportunity to try all those different foods. There’s just any number of evening events that go to almost midnight every night.

MMG: Alright, we’re back to you, Aaron, for this one as our first respondent. Best travel hack when you’re flying for business?

AP: You know, for me, and I think a lot of folks that come to DealMAX or travel in general for business, a lot of people try to squeeze in workouts and I’ve always found bringing an extra bag to put the sweaty workout gear in after, whether it’s your shoes or that gear. Nobody wants that next to your nice sport jacket. So I always try to bring an extra bag to keep that stuff separate.

MMG: That’s a good one. And maybe here we should plug Run Club, which listeners may or may not be familiar with, but in the mornings during DealMAX, there is a group of runners that head out to the Vegas strip, I believe, and do a morning jog. So great way to get your workout in and network at the same time. And if you’re smart like Aaron, you bring a separate bag for those clothes. Alright. Brent, what’s your best travel hack?

BB: It’s probably never checking a bag, but in a more random sense we were just having some version of this conversation and I had read somewhere that savvy travelers bring large clips with them, alligator clips to close the draperies that always have the gap. And one of my colleagues said, You don’t need to do that because the hangers have those little clips on them for trousers and skirts and you just use the hangers to close the drapery gap. So there you go. Travel hack.

AP: You just ruined a whole industry now.

BB: The large clip industry.

MMG: Yeah, I think those people will be fine. Okay. If you could pick anyone in the world to sit next to on the plane to DealMAX, who would it be and what would you want to talk to them about? Aaron, we’re coming to you. Who’s it going to be?

AP: I mean, celebrity status? I think the one that popped in my head immediately was the Pope. I actually just got back from the Vatican, I was there for a nine-day church pilgrimage, and I was actually in St. Peter’s Square with the Pope. The Swiss Guard did not let me get close and talk to him. So if I had the opportunity to sit next to him on the plane, I would love to pick his brain about the secrets of life and, even more interesting, like what challenges does he have being the head of a church? And you don’t think about him as a normal human being, like all of us, but thinking about just what challenges that he’s had on a day-to-day basis. And it’s interesting; I was at a DealMAX dinner where we were going around and making introductions and someone actually just asked: Say where you’re from, but also a challenge you have. And that actually turned into an incredible dinner where we actually got to know each other as human beings. And, you know, I encourage everybody, if you sit down in one of those environments, to not just ask like, what’s great about your life, right? But also challenges. It’s a great way to connect with somebody.

MMG: Oh, I love that. Okay. Brent, we’re coming to you.

BB: Okay. I guess we’re going to go with like a Leonardo da Vinci that was such an incredible innovator, changed the trajectory of thought and art and culture. So yeah, but I’d have to learn to speak Italian.

MMG: He’d probably get a kick out of being on the airplane too. A nice Italian theme to our seatmates on the flight. Perfect. Okay, so the last question I have for you both is for someone on the fence about attending DealMAX in April, what would you tell them?

AP: I think, to simplify, that DealMAX is a can’t-miss event. If you are in the corporate community, dealmaking community, have any interest in M&A or growing a business in general, DealMAX is absolutely a can’t-miss event. We always joke it’s the Super Bowl of M&A and growth for the middle market. And I truly believe that. Thinking about the quality and caliber of professionals that show up to DealMAX, if you want to be a better version of yourself professionally, DealMAX is the place to be. So if you haven’t been, it’s absolutely worth the try. And if you have been, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

MMG: Alright, Brent, you get the final word. Why should someone come to DealMAX?

BB: So, sort of a three-part answer. Be an ACG member and take advantage of early bird because that’ll lower your price. But it’s what we’ve already talked about: Do your homework. So last year at DealMAX, I ran into an early-stage entrepreneur, CEO, who had registered two days before, and he said, I heard there’s a lot of money here, what should I do? And the answer goes back to what we talked about: Do your homework, dude. Figure out who is here that invests in your area of interest and expertise. And with a little bit of homework, boy, you can make connections out the wazoo at the Super Bowl of M&A.

MMG: Great advice. Well, Brent and Aaron, thank you so much for being here today to kick off our new podcast series and I look forward to seeing you both in person in Las Vegas in April.

AP: Thanks, Katie, always good to talk to you.

BB: Thank you, Katie.

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.