Shows / Engineering Alpha in Private Equity
Engineering Alpha in Private Equity
Engineering Alpha in Private Equity is a podcast about how software engineering and data science excellence create operational alpha. Hosted by Dave Mangot, the author of _DevOps Patterns for Private Equity_, who has worked with operating teams at Thoma Bravo, Hg Capital, and other top-tier PE firms. Co-hosted by Paul Karner, PhD, an economist with two decades inside PE-backed companies. Each episode explores the intersection of technology decisions and investment outcomes.
Episodes
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityAI-Washing Layoffs, Budget Reallocation, and the Valuation Multiple Trap
When major tech firms announce massive workforce reductions while simultaneously pouring billions into AI infrastructure, PE board members and Operating…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe State of Portfolio Ops 2026: AI Ops Titles, Forward Deployed Engineers, and the EBITDA Capture Gap
How are elite Private Equity firms restructuring their internal Value Creation and Portfolio Operations teams to capture AI returns? In Episode 20 Paul and…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityAgentic Software Factories: Specialist Agents, Cutting Cloud OPEX, and Protecting Production
When generative AI accelerates code creation by 5x or 10x, writing code ceases to be the organizational bottleneck. Every other stage of the Software…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityRethinking Incentives: (AI)ms vs. Goals and the Economics of Experimentation
When PE backed companies attempt to drive AI R&D performance, they often set local targets—like story point velocity or code commit volume that inadvertently…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe New Calculus of Buy vs. Build: Claude Code, Undifferentiated Heavy Lifting, and Slashing COGS
With generative AI tools making code generation faster and cheaper than ever, Private Equity deal teams and portfolio company executives are re-examining…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityMeta's Experiment: Why You Can’t Outsource System Ownership to AI
When Private Equity boards attempt to capture AI returns, a common line item targeted is engineering headcount. In Episode 16, Paul and Dave analyze a recent…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe Developer Productivity Viper Pit: Why DevEx is Your Real EBITDA Driver
When Private Equity boards want to optimize engineering costs, they often fall into a dangerous trap: using software to measure "developer productivity" using…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityEngineering Alpha Internally: Burning the Ships and the '30-Hour Analyst' Dividend
How many private equity firms tell their portfolio companies to "innovate with AI" while their own deal teams are still drowning in manual Excel sheets and…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe 15x Fallacy: Why Coding Speed Isn't Your AI Bottleneck
In Episode 13, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot sit down with tech veteran Michael Frendo, the current CTO of New Relic (a Francisco Partners and TPG company) and…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityDoing Math on Opinions: Why Bug Counts Aren't Science
Paul and Dave sit down with tech veteran and quality pioneer Elisabeth Hendrickson (former VP of R&D for Data Products at Pivotal). Together, they shatter one…
Engineering Alpha in Private Equity3 a.m., the 2x Productivity Cap, and the ceiling of AI Automation
In Episode 11 of Engineering Alpha in Private Equity, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot react to a recent Anthropic ad showcasing Claude Code automatically fixing a…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe 85% Inventory Trap: What 28 Million Workflows Reveal About AI ROI
In Episode 10 of Engineering Alpha in Private Equity, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot dive into the hard data from the 2026 CircleCI State of Software Delivery…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe AI "Hoax," Economic Accounting, and Nobel-Winning ROI
In Episode 9 Paul Karner and Dave Mangot tackle a recent Fortune interview (https://fortune.com/2026/06/21/nobel-laureate-daron-acemoglu-ai-productivity-capital…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityToken Economics, Data Moats, and the Future of Tech Due Diligence
In Episode 8, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot are joined by Dan Bender, Kirby Montgomery, and Jason Langenauer from the global tech due diligence firm Code & Co…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityDouble-Speed Baseball and the new SaaS Multiple
In Episode 7, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot unpack a core thesis of the show: why "agentic proficiency" is the modern equivalent of the SaaS multiple. While the…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe 'Maintenance Window' Red Flag & The AI Death Spiral
If a software company still uses "maintenance windows" to release updates, it is a glaring operational warning sign. In this explainer episode, Dave and Paul…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityThe AI Amplifier Effect & Why Rework is Killing Your EBITDA
In our first dedicated research episode, Dave and Paul are joined by Nathen Harvey, who leads the DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) program at Google…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityMeasuring the ROI of Tech Transformations
How do you actually prove that a massive technology transformation is working? In Episode 4, we flip the script and dive into Paul Karner’s world of data…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityUber COO questions tokenmaxxing
In this hot-take episode, Paul Karner and Dave Mangot analyze a massive red flag in the current tech landscape: Uber's COO recently admitted it's getting…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityFinding “Free EBITDA” in Cloud Contracts & The AI Optionality Playbook
In this news review episode, we break down the recent wave of partnerships between major cloud vendors and private equity firms, starting with the Thoma Bravo…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityWhat's Engineering Alpha & Why You Can’t Just Rub AI on It
Welcome to the first official episode of the Engineering Alpha and Private Equity podcast! Hosts Paul Karner (economist and data scientist) and Dave Mangot…
Engineering Alpha in Private EquityEngineering Alpha in Private Equity Trailer
Welcome to Engineering Alpha in Private Equity, the podcast about how software engineering and data science excellence create operational alpha in private…