John Palusci, Former Vice President of Transformation and Strategic Finance, BAYADA

In this episode of M&A Science, John Palusci, former Vice President of Transformation and Strategic Finance at BAYADA, joins Kison Patel to discuss how to build a repeatable, Buyer-Led M&A™ engine within a nonprofit structure. John walks through his journey from IT to finance to corporate development, detailing how he helped scale BAYADA’s deal strategy with a focus on long-term value, integration-led diligence, and mission alignment. He shares real lessons from joint ventures, cashless acquisitions, and how to avoid surprises in highly regulated industries like healthcare.

Things you will learn:

• How to structure healthcare M&A for long-term mission alignment
  
  

• What a “conceptual pro forma” is and why it accelerates early deal screening
  
  

• How to manage integration risk in people-first, regulation-heavy industries

________________________

Sponsored by DealRoom—where M&A chaos meets its match.
Your M&A process can so much faster...
DealRoom helps corporate development teams take control—streamlining diligence, syncing integration, and eliminating the back-and-forth.

👉 Learn how you can run a repeatable, buyer-led process

_______________

[00:01:00] John’s unconventional path from IT to M&A leadership

[00:05:00] Running joint ventures with hospital systems

[00:07:30] Third-party valuation in nonprofit deals

[00:10:00] How BAYADA sourced and filtered deals

[00:13:00] Key reasons to kill a healthcare deal early

[00:16:00] How BAYADA transitioned from for-profit to nonprofit

[00:22:30] Standardizing diligence with a conceptual pro forma

[00:27:00] Managing talent transitions in home healthcare

[00:34:00] Cashless deals: how they work and when they’re possible

[00:38:30] Integration-led diligence and DealRoom’s role in execution

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

Ryan Gable, Managing Partner, BW Forsyth Partners

Ryan discusses how his team uses a hybrid private equity model backed by Barry-Wehmiller to execute people-first, long-term acquisitions. With over 55 deals and zero exits, Forsyth has developed a sourcing and integration playbook that challenges traditional PE norms, focusing instead on trust, cultural alignment, and multi-decade value creation.

Ryan breaks down how to build relationships that convert to proprietary deal flow, structure rollover equity with flexibility, and align seller incentives for lasting outcomes.

Things you will learn:

• How to source proprietary deals by building trust with founders and prioritizing cultural fit

• Why Forsyth avoids traditional PE norms like over-leveraging and fixed exit timelines

• How they structure flexible equity rollovers and provide liquidity without needing to sell

• [00:02:00] From Investment Banking to Building Forsyth with Barry-Wehmiller

• [00:07:00] Why Barry-Wehmiller Created a New Investment Arm Instead of Scaling Internally

• [00:10:00] The Hybrid Equity Model: Strategic Backing + PE Agility

• [00:14:30] Rollover Equity and How Forsyth Structures Flexible Liquidity

• [00:23:30] From Auction Fatigue to Sourcing Proprietary Deals

• [00:26:00] How Forsyth Builds Trust With Sellers (And Wins Deals Off-Market)

• [00:31:00] Why Founders Should Think About Selling Before They’re Ready to Retire

• [00:41:00] Structuring Earnouts that Sellers Actually Want to Hit

• [00:49:00] The “Less is More” Approach to Post-Close Integration

• [00:56:00] The Future of M&A: Return Expectations, Capital Saturation, and Deal Discipline
  
  

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

Todd Olson, CEO and Co-founder, Pendo

From buying startups to speed up roadmap execution to preserving founder autonomy post-close, Todd breaks down the real levers behind successful acquisitions. This episode dives into how Pendo thinks about M&A without a corporate development team, why it rarely buys for revenue, and how Todd’s team avoids common post-close integration mistakes by keeping culture, product, and people at the center.

Things you will learn:

• Why speed and product alignment—not revenue—drive most of Pendo’s acquisitions

• The cost of delaying integration and how Todd learned to fix it

• How to retain founder energy post-acquisition without over-relying on cash

________________________

Sponsored by DealRoom—where M&A chaos meets its match.
Your M&A process can so much faster...
DealRoom helps corporate development teams take control—streamlining diligence, syncing integration, and eliminating the back-and-forth.

👉 Learn how you can run a repeatable, buyer-led process

_______________

• [00:04:30] – Taking a buyer-led approach from day one

• [00:05:30] – When is the right time to do M&A as a startup?

• [00:07:00] – The real reason behind Pendo’s first acquisition (spoiler: mobile gap)

• [00:10:30] – How the team visit to Tel Aviv sealed the deal

• [00:15:00] – Why preserving a legacy tech stack was a painful mistake

• [00:19:30] – Walking away from a $1M customer (and why it was worth it)

• [00:23:00] – Choosing smaller, simpler teams over “obvious” targets

• [00:27:30] – Why AI startups are attractive—but only with the right integration mindset

• [00:33:00] – Deal structures that actually retain entrepreneurs

• [00:50:00] – Post-close surprises, real value creation, and the “pink wash” trap

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