Nicole Markowski - Former Director of Business Integration and Operations, Wipfli

Join Nicole as she shares unvarnished truths from managing 30+ transactions. Nicole reveals how integration-led diligence prevents value destruction, why traditional deal economics often miss critical human factors, and practical strategies for maintaining the human touch while scaling M&A programs from 3 to 16 concurrent deals.

• Why integration leaders must be involved in deal economics discussions to prevent value destruction
• How to scale M&A operations from 2-3 to 16+ concurrent deals without losing the human touch
• The critical difference between project managers and true integration leaders in M&A success

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The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.
The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration.

📅 October 30, 2025
🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET
💻 Free & Virtual

Learn from leaders who’ve built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.

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Join us for the 3rd M&A Science Fair IN PERSON

Get pure, off-the-record collaboration between corporate development, private equity, and integration leaders. Instead of passive listening, you’ll be sharing real frameworks, trading ideas, and testing what actually works in modern deal execution. Everything’s practitioner-led, and every topic is surfaced by the attendees themselves.

October 16th — NYC
8AM-7:30PM
Request an invite here: https://luma.com/khkuh6yw

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[00:02:00] Engineering an M&A Career – From Accenture consultant to integration expert

[00:04:00] Tale of Two Velocities – Contrasting measured vs high-volume M&A approaches

[00:07:00] Why cost pool analysis can destroy deal value

[00:17:00] When Sellers Walk Away – The Mac vs PC deal breaker story

[00:22:00] Integration-Led Diligence – Why integration leaders should quarterback due diligence

[00:32:00] Keeping It Human at Scale

[00:37:00] Bridging cultural gaps in professional services

[00:47:00] Beyond Project Management – What makes a true integration leader

[00:53:00] When IT Walks Out – Crisis management

Questions, comments, concerns?
Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.

Byron Lichtenstein, Managing Director at Insight Partners

Byron brings over a decade of experience scaling M&A operations across one of the world's leading software investors. In this episode, Byron breaks down how Insight executes buyer-led M&A at scale, supporting CEOs across their 500+ portfolio companies from sourcing through integration. He shares frameworks for strategic positioning, the critical difference between types of M&A deals, and why strategy must drive every acquisition decision. M&A professionals will learn how to build repeatable M&A processes and avoid the common trap of unfocused deal-making.

Things You'll Learn

• Strategic positioning framework: How to "write the S-1 on day one" and create a clear 5-year vision that guides every M&A decision
• M&A categorization strategy: The three core types of M&A (market consolidation, product expansion, geographic expansion) and how to execute each differently
• Integration execution: Why integration must be 100% of someone's job and how to build flexible 100-day plans that actually get executed

____________________

The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.
The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration.

📅 October 30, 2025
🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET
💻 Free & Virtual

Learn from leaders who’ve built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.

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Episode Timestamps:

[00:02:00] Building M&A at Scale – Byron's journey scaling Insight's portfolio support from 6 to 120 people across 500+ companies

[00:06:30] The Evolution of Software Roll-Ups – How the market shifted from simple consolidation plays to product-focused strategic acquisitions

[00:10:30] The NMI Case Study – Real example of product expansion M&A strategy in the payments infrastructure space

[00:14:00] Focus vs. Expansion Dilemma – When to stay focused on core customers versus expanding to new segments and markets

[00:28:30] Strategic Positioning Framework – The "write the S-1 on day one" approach to creating long-term M&A vision

[00:35:00] Founder-Led But Not Founder-Limited – Key qualities that determine which founders scale successfully through M&A

[00:38:00] Integration Planning and 100-Day Plans – Why someone needs to own integration full-time and how to build flexible execution plans

[00:48:30] AI and the Future of M&A – How AI is changing software M&A and the Optimizely orchestration layer case study

[00:52:30] Market Sophistication – Why software buyers are becoming more discerning and what this means for deal strategy

Questions, comments, concerns?
Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.