Behind the Scenes of Private Equity: Jeff Hart Shares his Strategic Approach [Video]

Jeff Hart is a partner at AE Industrial Partners, a Private Equity firm with over $6 Billion in AUM that has invested in some of the most exciting aerospace, security, and industrial companies across the country including Firefly Aerospace, Sierra Space, and York Space Systems.

Jeff has spearheaded the Aerospace & Defense sector within the firm with his partner Bryan McElwee and has taken multiple companies public including Redwire and BigBear.ai where he remains on the board of directors.

— Contents of this video —

Jeff’s background and how he got started as an investment banking analyst 02:01

Why he switched to private equity and what he did early on to carve out his own path in PE 04:15

AE Industrial Partners’ history and their focus 8:27

Jeff’s main focus as a Partner in the firm 13:57

Thematic-driven investments and how they look for companies that match their philosophy 15:52

The SPAC craze and why they took multiple companies public through SPACs 18:43

How companies change when they go public 23:00

Do space companies have a future in being publicly traded companies? 26:03

What they look for in an investment. 31:14

Their playbook in taking a 7-10 year plan and executing it in 3-4 years 35:37

How they partner with their CEOs and portfolio companies 40:15

What makes the best CEOs 45:07

Most common critical failure of a CEO 46:09

The #1 thing that helped Jeff achieve success in his career 50:40

Best piece of advice Jeff has received 54:04

Favorite book – Atomic Habits by James Clear 56:14

Jeff’s parting advice 57:58