[PE & Wisconsin Entrepreneur Series] People-First Approach to Private Equity With Sequoya Borgman

Sequoya Borgman is the Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital, a private equity firm focused on acquiring and growing lower middle-market businesses across the United States. Since founding the firm in 2017, Sequoya has led investments in more than 20 companies and built a network of over 500 accredited investors.

With over two decades of mergers and acquisitions experience, including leadership roles at RSM US LLP and KPMG LLP, Sequoya brings expertise in deal structuring, due diligence, and value creation. His investment philosophy emphasizes trust, long-term value creation, and preserving the legacies of the business owners he partners with.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:10] Sequoya Borgman shares the humble beginnings that shaped his entrepreneurial journey
• [9:10] Why reading became Sequoya’s secret to lifelong learning
• [12:59] What happens when your first big deal falls apart
• [17:10] The challenge of replacing a founder after an acquisition
• [21:25] The top reasons private equity deals fall through at the last minute
• [28:20] Why Borgman Capital favors established, cash-flowing businesses
• [33:34] How Sequoya thinks about timing an exit
• [41:59] The idea behind Pass the Hat and direct access to private equity deals

In this episode…

Building a successful investment firm takes more than financial expertise — it requires resilience, calculated risk-taking, and the ability to keep moving when deals fall apart. But what happens when years of preparation lead to a major setback just as an entrepreneurial dream is beginning?

For Sequoya Borgman, a private equity leader with more than two decades of mergers and acquisitions experience, resilience, relationships, and a strong work ethic are essential to turning setbacks into opportunities. He highlights how lessons from a humble upbringing shaped his approach to risk, persistence, and business. When his first planned acquisition collapsed at the last minute, he relied on relationships and persistence to secure an even better opportunity. These experiences ultimately shaped his thoughtful approach to deal-making, company growth, and long-term partnerships with business owners. He also emphasizes the importance of trust, careful evaluation, and adapting to changing market conditions.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Sequoya Borgman, Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital, to discuss building a resilient private equity firm. They explore turning failed deals into opportunities, evaluating businesses, and building lasting relationships with owners and investors. Sequoya also shares lessons from navigating COVID-19, changing valuations, and successful exits.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Sequoya Borgman on LinkedIn
• Borgman Capital
• Gilman Cheese
• Bring a Trailer
• The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc
• Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
• Pass The Hat

Related episodes:

• “[Top Giver & PE Series] Mastering M&A Networking and Deal-Making With Lou Sokolovskiy” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Private Equity & Top Author Series] Servant Leadership Meets Private Equity With Adam Coffey” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Private Equity Series] Building Success and Diverse Leadership With Vivian Gonzalez” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Gener8tor.com & Sconnie.com: How to start a Nation..Sconnie Nation -with Troy Vosseller [Top Wisconsin Entrepreneur Series]” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Private Equity Series] The Power of Deep Networks and Niching With Dan Lee” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Lands’ End: How to Grow Companies Online, Triple Renewal Rates, Add $8million in a quarter -with Michael Smith [Top Wisconsin Entrepreneur Series]” on Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “Nothing after grad school has been as difficult as growing up and seeing what my mother went through.”
• “If you enjoy your job, it doesn’t feel like work, no matter how many hours you put in.”
• “Once a seller has a number in their head, it’s hard to sell for less.”
• “You can’t control a global pandemic, but you can control your business.”
• “Take care of the people, and they’ll take care of the customers.”

Action steps:

1. Read widely and continuously to keep learning: Build a daily reading habit to expand your knowledge, stay informed, and adapt to changing business environments.
2. Build and nurture meaningful relationships: Invest in relationships with business owners, investors, and partners to build trust, create opportunities, and overcome challenges.
3. Develop resilience and adaptability through setbacks: Learn from failed deals and unexpected challenges, then adjust your approach and keep moving forward.
4. Align decisions with your core values: Partner with people who share your vision and values, especially when it comes to caring for employees and preserving business legacies.
5. Focus on fundamentals and what you can control: Stay grounded in strong business practices and focus your energy on the areas you can influence, especially during uncertain times.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here. I am the Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Sequoya Borgman. You can check them out at BorgmanCapital.com and Sequoya. Before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out, since it’s part of the Top Private Equity Series and from the Top Wisconsin Leader Series, because Sequoya and his team are located in Wisconsin. I had Lou Sokolovskiy, who runs a private equity. I don’t know if you know Lou, Sequoya, but he runs a mastermind group, Opus Connect, you do know Lou?

Sequoya Borgman: 01:05

Yeah. Small world, small world.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:06

Yeah. Lou’s great, and he’s got just amazing people kind of in the M&A space. He does different virtual in-person events, etc. Great. Great people. Adam Coffey, I had on the podcast, he’s got a couple great books out there. Vivian Gonzalez was an interesting one. Sequoya, which is more geared towards, she does search for companies. So, you know, private equity backed companies will hire her to do search for leaders. And, you know, big part is having good people a part of the company. So she focuses on that. And there’s many more on InspiredInsider.com.

And from the Wisconsin side, Troy Vosseller, who’s sort of Gener8tor. I had some friends who actually went through Gener8tor, which is an accelerator for companies. And I’ve had since I went to Madison, I’ve had some of the board members of the business school over the years. Dan, is actually, you know, runs the entrepreneurship school over at University of Wisconsin. He’s a, he’s a good one. And, what’s another one? Michael Smith, he ran Lands’ End, in, you know, CEO of Lands’ End, LifeSketch, Nordstrom.com and many more. So that’s an interesting one as well.

So check them out on InspiredInsider.com. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. Rise25. We help businesses connect to their dream relationships. We do that through podcasting. We launch and run podcasts for businesses. We also do it through gifting. So, you know, sending gifts to your best referral partners, strategic partners, clients, prospects, even staff from a culture perspective. So, you know, for me, Sequoya, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my relationships. And I’ve found no better way over the past few decades to profile the people I admire on the podcast and send them sweet treats in the mail, so check it out. You can email support at InspiredInsider.com to learn more and ask any questions.

I am super excited to introduce Sequoya Borgman, the Founder and CEO of Borgman Capital. Like I mentioned, it’s a Milwaukee based private investment firm that partners with lower middle market business owners across the US. Since launching the firm in 2017, Sequoya led investments in more than 20 businesses while growing Borgman Capital’s investor network to nearly 500 accredited investors who invest alongside the firm. And, you know, really excited to dig into entrepreneurship, private equity lessons he’s learned from partnering with businesses. So Sequoya, thanks for joining me.

Sequoya Borgman: 03:40

Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. It sounds like you’ve had some great guests in the past. I’m honored to be included.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:46

You know, there’s so many questions I have for you. I kind of wanted to start with your humble beginnings. I find that kind of fascinating when, you know, you just see someone, you kind of make a judgment call on their background, right?, talk a little bit about that. Your humble beginnings and some of the, the stuff you had to go through just to get to where you are.

Sequoya Borgman: 04:10

Yeah. I can talk a little bit about that. I mean, I’m very fortunate at this point to kind of understand and be introduced to the kind of the magic of capitalism here in the US, but I didn’t start out that way. I mean, I was raised by a single mother. She had dropped out of high school and she was a teenager when she got pregnant with me. So as you can imagine, she didn’t have much, much, much chance to, to be introduced to kind of the, the, the, the benefits of capitalism and benefits that we have here, fortunately, she raised me working three jobs, at a time. And, I mean, fortunately I did well in school, went went to college, got my grad degree in accounting and I went started out at, at the time, one of the largest private equity, public accounting firms in the country.

Arthur Andersen is no longer around, but great training, and that’s where I got introduced to, to private equity and transactions and deals. And it’s great, great learning. Worked with a lot of really, really smart individuals, worked on some very large transactions all over the country and, and did that for almost 20 years. I stayed in big, public accounting firms working with some of the best private equity firms in the country. So that’s really where I got the idea and the, the, the basis to, to launch the firm almost a decade ago, was that training just working on hundreds and hundreds of transactions.

You see what, what works well, what doesn’t work well. And really, I always had an entrepreneurial itch. So after 18 years, almost, almost two decades in public accounting, I’d made partner early in my career and, and, had a really good, steady career, but I always wanted to do something more and, just working with these private equity firms, I saw how well they were doing and, and that they were seeing the entire life cycle of these investments first, just getting the transaction over the finish line. And that seemed like a lot more fun than what I was doing. So took, took the, took the risk and took the jump and walked away from a really nice career and launched the firm, here in Milwaukee, almost ten years ago.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 06:34

So what lessons did you learn from your mom? I mean, obviously I could see probably a hard work, but I mean, growing up, either something she instilled in you or you just observed from her.

Sequoya Borgman: 06:47

Yeah. I think it’s hard work. I try and teach my kids. I have teenagers right now. That work ethic, it’s either you have it or you don’t have it. And I think she really she did whatever it took to raise me. And I have I have a younger sister, but really on minimum wage jobs, all through my growing up years, it’s very, very difficult. And she did whatever it took to, to make it work. And, and I brought that through my whole, whole career. And I look at, I mean, I, I worked full time jobs in high school, I worked second shift at factories and jobs like that. And that’s just what.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:25

Were the hours for you on that?

Sequoya Borgman: 07:27

I worked from the 3 to 11 shift, with, with adults that, that was their career. I, I’d get off high school at 230 and go into a factory till 11 and get home at 1130. Sleep a few hours and go back to high school. And then in the morning and, and you just I mean, nothing nothing in life is that I’ve done once I got out of grad school has been as difficult as that experience, kind of growing up and seeing what my mother went through. And so I always say, I mean, it could be so much more difficult. No matter how stressful these investments get, no matter how many hours we work, we never work as many hours as, as I worked then and throughout college, I mean, I worked a lot of jobs through college, to pay my way through college. It wasn’t like I had somebody that was paying for that schooling for me and, and that experience. And then when I got out in public accounting, I mean, public accounting, they always talk about the hours you work. And sure, I worked 100 hour weeks, plenty of times for, for months on end like everybody else that goes through that experience. But it didn’t seem that that difficult or that challenging to me. I mean, it was a.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:36

You had built that muscle over years and decades, actually. It’s like it’s all perspective, right? It’s like, okay, compared to what this was, but I’m curious, how did you have time to even study? And also, I don’t know if you could like, okay, I can’t do any extracurriculars because you’re like school, work, sleep, maybe eat in between. But how did you even study or were there extracurriculars that you could squeeze in to, to your life at that point? Or just it wasn’t an option?

Sequoya Borgman: 09:10

Yeah, it was, it wasn’t really an option. I’ve always my really my whole life since I was real little been an avid reader. So I think that helped me just if I didn’t have time to study, I, I usually tested very well. And, that’s really it. And up to this day, I mean, I read really every day. I mean, you have to stay ahead of what’s going on in the business world. And I think that helped me get through, high school and college is just having that background and, and any spare minute that you have is spent trying to learn more and maybe not, you’re not learning exactly what that class is teaching you, but you you’ve had enough experiences that you do well in the tests, and that kind of gets you through that, that part of your education.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:55

Do you, because of your background and you had to and your work ethic, do you have a hard time turning it off?

Sequoya Borgman: 10:04

Yeah, yeah. People ask me what my, my, hobbies are and it’s work, more work. And, yeah. And these days with the technology we have, I mean, you can pretty much work 24 hours a day, no matter where you’re at, you’re, you’re on vacation or you’re, you’re out of out of pocket. You’re still checking your email and responding and taking calls, all that kind of stuff. So, but I enjoy what I do. I mean, again, this is very challenging. It’s intellectually stimulating. It’s, it’s a lot of fun. And, I mean, that’s if you have a job or a career that, that you enjoy. I mean, that’s, that’s, it doesn’t feel like work no matter how many hours you put in. And, and sometimes I’d rather be working than sitting on some beach somewhere on on vacation and, and dealing with some, some business issue or some challenge. I mean, that’s just fun, fun, fun time.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:55

We’ll get into the business and the inception of it. But I’m curious, you mentioned you’re a reader. I’m wondering, are there any specific books over the years, business entrepreneurship, leadership books that are some of your favorites over the years?

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