Leadership Quotient
Leadership Quotient, powered by The Crucible, explores the people side of private equity—how operating partners, portfolio executives, and advisors build, align, and scale leadership teams. Each episode offers candid conversations from across the PE ecosystem on the strategies, challenges, and decisions that drive value creation.
Episodes
48 episodes
Leadership Under Pressure: Prioritization, Team Fit, and the Founder's Dilemma
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Tony Medrano, CEO and Founder of LongevityPlan.AI, about the realities of entrepreneurship, leadership, and building resilient organizations. Dr...
Beyond the Company: Growing Leadership Through Stronger Ecosystems
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Ellen Chang, Managing Director at CapZone Impact Investments, about why long-term value creation depends on building ecosystems, not just...
The Right Buyer: Leadership, Fit, and Successful Exits
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Gregg Blake, Managing Director at CapM Advisors and Managing Partner at Brocair Partners, about the leadership dynamics behind successful mergers ...
Shooting the Closest Alligator: Leadership in Fast-Growth Environments
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, Founder and CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Shelby Faubion, Founder and Managing Partner of Vector Advisory, about the leadership disciplines that enable companies to sc...
Confidence Through Challenge: Leadership, Scarcity Mindsets, and the Power of Exposure
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski speaks with Leticia Souza, CFO at SAVii and angel investor with Epic Angels and GVAngels, about the leadership lessons learned from building a bootstrapped startup into a venture-b...
Leading with Awareness: Empathy, Execution, and the Future of Value Creation
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with John Sirianni, owner of Deep Tech Strategies, about leadership, organizational resilience, and the human factors that drive performance in investo...
Built for Uncertainty: Entrepreneurship, Failure, and Productive Tension
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Rishad Usmani, physician, angel investor, and serial entrepreneur, about the realities of building companies in environments where outcomes are un...
Being Real: Leadership, Trust, and Investing in People
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Uzair Bawany, CEO at Oii.ai, about leadership, entrepreneurial mindset, and why great businesses are ultimately built around people. Drawing from ...
Developing One Life: Leadership, Learning, and Lasting Impact
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of The Crucible, speaks with Aian Guanzon, Chief Marketing Officer at Global Dominion Financing, about leadership, long-term vision, and why relationships remain at t...
Founder Evaluation: Leadership, Transparency, and Venture Risk
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski, CEO of the Crucible, speaks with Heath Naquin, Senior Vice President of Innovation and New Ventures at University City Science Center, about the realities of venture investing, ...
Hiring for the Future: Leadership Lessons from Private Equity
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Giacomo Sonnino, Advisory Director at Charlesbank Capital Partners, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to discuss how private equity firms can create more value, faster, by buildin...
Built on Curiosity: Deep Tech, Humility, and the Undervalued Opportunity in Latin America
In this episode of Leadership Quotient, Lindsay Guzowski speaks with Pedro Lopez Sela, Managing Partner at FrissOn Capital, about why Latin America and the Global South are often systemically undervalued in venture capital, despite pro...
The Sum of Vectors: Building Leadership Teams That Actually Move Forward
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Lindsay Guzowski sits down with Andrey Kostyuk, General Partner and CEO at AAlchemy Ventures, to discuss what it really takes to build leadership teams that can adapt, align, and grow i...
Distribution Beats Product: Leadership Lessons from Corporate Venture
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Kelvin Tan, CEO at Audax, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to discuss what it really takes to build and lead a corporate venture-backed business. Drawing on his experience spinni...
Relentless and Adaptive: What Sets Exceptional Founders Apart
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Anna Magiera, Managing Director of Partnerships at ICLUB, shares how an accidental entry into venture became a long-term commitment to building the future through founders, investors, a...
Nurture Capital: Rethinking Leadership in the Age of AI and Quantum
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Sunil Goyal, Managing Director and Fund Manager at YourNest Venture Capital, shares how decades of experience in capital markets and operating leadership shaped his philosophy of “nurtu...
Betting on the Jockey: Leadership, Culture, and Long-Term Capital
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Andrew Donald, Director at RAF Equity, shares how a long-term investment model changes the way investors evaluate leadership, culture, and growth. Drawing on experience across eBay, Jef...
More Women at the Top: Leadership, Performance, and the Power of Listening
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Patricia Lizarraga, Chief Investment Officer of the WCEO ETF and Managing Partner at Hypatia Capital, shares why she believes women CEOs should outperform on average and what that revea...
The Refusal to Lose: Tenacity, Storytelling, and Founder Leadership
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Ben Narasin, Founder of Tenacity Venture Capital, shares how a lifetime of entrepreneurship shaped his view that the true differentiator between success and failure is not just intellig...
Slow to Invest, Fast to Scale: Building Resilient Founder Teams in LatAm
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski sits down with Eduardo Amadeo, Venture Partner at Overboost and Kamay Ventures, to explore what leadership looks like inside the venture ecosy...
Great Followers Make Great Leaders: Military Lessons for Founder Success
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Steve Kiser, General Partner at Veteran Ventures Capital, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to explore what veteran leadership brings to venture-backed companies—and why ...
The Clock Is Ticking: Leadership in PE-Backed Companies
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Andy Drummond, Founder of ShireGrowth Partners, joins The Crucible CEO Lindsay Guzowski to explore what leadership requires when time is finite and the clock is always ticking in private equit...
Backing Women: What Investors Miss and How to Fix It
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Hanim Dogan, Partner at Prime Advantage Capital Partners, angel investor, and venture partner, shares why enabling more female founders is both a leadership imperative and a value ...
Empathy at Scale: Keeping the Customer at the Center
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, David Norton, Managing Director at Gale Partners, shares why empathy is one of the most underrated leadership strengths and how customer-centered thinking becomes a competitive advantag...
The Right Way Is the Only Way: What Great CFOs Teach Leaders
In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Jeff Glick, Head of U.S. Operations at Outsourced CFO (OCFO), shares why in investor-backed environments “the right way is the only way” and how financial rigor becomes a leadership adv...