Oct 13, 2026 · 40 min · 12 segments
Why chemistry can kill a deal, bringing operating partners inside the tent, and building a business not just an investor. Miles Otway has spent his career in the UK lower mid-market, most recently…
Was that always the plan, private equity? I mean, we've had people on here before who say they kind of stumbled across it.
And then you've got the opposite side of that coin, which is people that, you know, from 18, they go to uni, they do their economics degree, and they always think, I'm going to be at CVC before you know it.
No, much more an organic thing for me, albeit I got into PE very, very early and then never left, if you think about the time frame.
Most people are aiming to get into PE post a career in accountancy or whatever it may have been for at least eight, ten years.
I was into PE 18 months, two years into my career by luck, as I say, rather than judgment.
I did history at university and gave up maths at GCSE, so if you were to look at the natural path to being a private equity professional, it's not that one.
the interest that the variety and the experience to see lots of different opportunities different businesses different management teams how they operate that was great for my strategy consulting brief period couple of years but at the same time then had real skin in the game had real longevity with those relationships and it wasn't spend two three months working with people give them a report naff off and never come back and The risk of, you know, the classic borrow your watch to tell the time risk.
And then you actually have to go and do the work to execute those with the business.
That was the first real transition for me from thinking like a consultant to trying to be an investor and trying to be a supporter of the business rather than a provider of... opinion, I think the opinions are well and good, but then when the rubber hits the road, you've actually got to go and see whether that delivers.
Yeah, Guy Ellis has talked about this on this podcast before talked about how when he's consulting, it's fine, you can deliver a project, but then you'd have to live with it.
And then private equity is basically doing that by playing in real life with skin in the game.
Yeah, and I think it probably segues quite nicely into the business model we built out, which is that if you look at the next step of that is also to have the humility that going from being consultant to have a project walk away, the next step is put your money where your mouth is, either yours or other people's, and then go and stake your career on that.
And there's a lot of pressure in that, and there's a lot more involvement in that.
But then, of course, the humility to go, well, actually, this isn't being delivered by me.
I certainly think that the experience of having that breadth of things that I've worked on will give a management team some real support and there are clear things I've done multiple times and my co-founder have done multiple times in sectors which give us some expertise But in practice, they're the guys who deliver the value.
There's a lot of people in our industry who will say, and then we delivered, I delivered seven times and five times, three times, whatever it may be on that transaction.
You backed someone who delivered three times, seven times, whatever it may have been for you and for your investors.
but it's a part that's sort of that size and the operational expertise and the team and the delivery came from the people in the business and potentially the people you brought to the table.
Was that always the plan, private equity? I mean, we've had people on here before who say they kind of stumbled across it.
And then you've got the opposite side of that coin, which is people that, you know, from 18, they go to uni, they do their economics degree, and they always think, I'm going to be at CVC before you know it.
No, much more an organic thing for me, albeit I got into PE very, very early and then never left, if you think about the time frame.
Most people are aiming to get into PE post a career in accountancy or whatever it may have been for at least eight, ten years.
I was into PE 18 months, two years into my career by luck, as I say, rather than judgment.
I did history at university and gave up maths at GCSE, so if you were to look at the natural path to being a private equity professional, it's not that one.
the interest that the variety and the experience to see lots of different opportunities different businesses different management teams how they operate that was great for my strategy consulting brief period couple of years but at the same time then had real skin in the game had real longevity with those relationships and it wasn't spend two three months working with people give them a report naff off and never come back and The risk of, you know, the classic borrow your watch to tell the time risk.
And then you actually have to go and do the work to execute those with the business.
That was the first real transition for me from thinking like a consultant to trying to be an investor and trying to be a supporter of the business rather than a provider of... opinion, I think the opinions are well and good, but then when the rubber hits the road, you've actually got to go and see whether that delivers.
Yeah, Guy Ellis has talked about this on this podcast before talked about how when he's consulting, it's fine, you can deliver a project, but then you'd have to live with it.
And then private equity is basically doing that by playing in real life with skin in the game.
Yeah, and I think it probably segues quite nicely into the business model we built out, which is that if you look at the next step of that is also to have the humility that going from being consultant to have a project walk away, the next step is put your money where your mouth is, either yours or other people's, and then go and stake your career on that.
And there's a lot of pressure in that, and there's a lot more involvement in that.
But then, of course, the humility to go, well, actually, this isn't being delivered by me.
I certainly think that the experience of having that breadth of things that I've worked on will give a management team some real support and there are clear things I've done multiple times and my co-founder have done multiple times in sectors which give us some expertise But in practice, they're the guys who deliver the value.
There's a lot of people in our industry who will say, and then we delivered, I delivered seven times and five times, three times, whatever it may be on that transaction.
You backed someone who delivered three times, seven times, whatever it may have been for you and for your investors.
but it's a part that's sort of that size and the operational expertise and the team and the delivery came from the people in the business and potentially the people you brought to the table.
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