Pencils Down

The episode of Pencil’s Down features Kirk Michie, founder of Candor Advisors, a boutique investment bank and transaction advisory firm. Host Fed Baradello’s conversation with Michie uncovered Kirk’s unique approach at Candor, focusing on founder-centric advisory and transaction services, all undergirded by uncompromis

As fellow “recovering lawyers,” Pencils Down host Fed Baradello and True North’s Ed Gehres engage in a fascinating conversation about how their deep experiences in the field of law prepared them for great productivity and success in investment banking. Sound legal training leads to clarity in execution of business stra

Investment banker and The Silicon Valley Podcast host Shawn Flynn’s turn as a podcast guest with Pencils Down host Fed Baradello is a beautifully rendered story of how human life is relationship-based, in all its fantastic and motley diversity. We all go through the twists and turns of fate and circumstance, and Shawn’

Having spent several decades at the world’s largest bulge bracket banks, including UBS, the ING consortium in Europe, Goldman Sachs, Martin Teevan provides an incredible, behind-the-scenes story in his transition to becoming an independent boutique investment banker with Sheehan Finance, in this latest episode of Penci

It’s almost a cliché that dealmaking in the investment-banking space is a relationship-driven dynamic. Independent investment bankers like to claim this as a fundamental aspect of their work in the business. But it’s the stories behind this dynamic that make it truly come alive as something real and practical—where gen

It’s almost a cliché in the cultural narrative of the U.S.—attaining the so-called “American Dream” and how people here live that out. Sam Kelly’s story reflects a singular aspect of that: how Americans outside of the mainstream—specifically those from migrant or immigrant backgrounds, communities of color, those from