Demystifying Technology by the MacLaurin Group

Cybersecurity is not just about protecting the data. It is also making sure that your core systems are readily available at all times. Alan and Jim set US/Canada relations back 200 years while discussing the evolving state of cybersecurity with Dom and Christian of Cyber SC. Spoiler, this is no longer the domain of larger corporations. Our friends from north of the border discuss the importance of cybersecurity due diligence during the PE deal process, cybersecurity roadmap creation and...

Are you a sucker for a good technology survey? We are too! Listen to hear what surprised us in our yearly review of the Stack Overflow developer survey. Ryan and Alan are joined by industry expert, Partner of ParkerGale and fellow podcaster of the Private Equity Funcast, Jim Milbery.

It scales with you, is easily manageable, and has incredible recovery capabilities, saving you time, money, and worry -- Alan and Ryan discuss Aurora, the MySQL and Postgres compatible database-as-a-service from Amazon AWS which has done wonders for managing and scaling databases in production.

Legacy is something that you leave behind with the expectation that you are paving a path for the success of others. So why do we fear the word ‘legacy’ when referring to code? Jim Headley sits down with Andrea Goulet of Corgibytes who explains that legacy code is not always something to fear, but something that can be built upon and improved. View on Medium

Would you like to get an insider’s view of the current M&A seller’s market? Lisa Hedrick, Partner at Hirschler and Issue Group Leader for the American Bar Association’s biannual “Private Target Mergers & Acquisitions Deal Points Study”, provides valuable insight into this extensive report’s most significant acquisition trends. Discover what this could mean for your business or portfolio companies. View on Medium

Is it a painful, manual, time consuming, or non-existent process for your IT team to trace a problem back to its source? In this podcast, Alan and Ryan discuss the importance of good logging practices and outline three litmus tests to evaluate if your enterprise logging system is heading in the right direction.

Ryan Burch and Alan Williamson talk about how you can utilize different types of messaging queues to decouple applications, with a focus on the three main players in AWS -- SQS, SNS and Amazon MQ. They then dive deeper into how to securely access these and other AWS services while your applications are running inside of AWS without having to pass around the equivalent of usernames and passwords. View on Medium

We all have fear. As he faces harsh criticism while writing “Dynamic Proxies in Java”, Dr. Heinz Kabutz says that there seems to be this perception in which we always have to look like we know what we are doing and that we have to have it right all the time. The key takeaway -- Accept feedback from people that you respect and do not allow negativity to determine your self-worth in your career. View on Medium

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. We are joined by Gretchen Perkins, of Huron Capital, as she discusses with Alan Williamson investment strategies for both the traditional buyout versus non-control equity. Gretchen goes deeper into how their Flex Equity...

Are you confident that your sales team has the knowledge to spot when deals will move with the appropriate velocity to get them across the line? Robin Green, President of Sandler Training, talks with Alan Williamson and Jim Headley about advising companies to develop methodology and data-driven sales processes as they expand. Robin emphasizes the three key ingredients needed in the recipe to increase sales — build better habits, reinforce positive beliefs and execute innovative strategies.

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. How does a founder flawlessly navigate a competitive sales process? Jim Headley sits down with Brian Alas of Boxwood Partners, a boutique investment bank in Richmond, to share advice with founders for effectively...

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. When choosing a transaction advisory partner, it is important that the firm has a dedicated practice with people that possess a significant deal & industry experience. Sidney Glick of Cherry Bekaert, a full service...

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor of this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. It is not always about valuation in a seller’s market - trust in a right-fit partner plays a key role. Lisa Hedrick and Andrew Lohmann of Hirschler, a Richmond-based law firm, sat down with Jim Headley to talk about the...

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. In this episode, Jim Headley sits down with Liza Bowersox, recognized by the American Society of Appraisers as an Accredited Senior Appraiser and Vice President of Venture First to discuss how she approaches valuation for...

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. In this episode, Alan Williamson interviews Jack Surma of Tecum Capital, a PE fund prescribing mezzanine debt, minority equity, and control equity, named by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 50 Founder-Friendly Private...

MacLaurin Group was a proud Gold Sponsor at this year's ACG Richmond Capital Conference. While there, we hosted a series of short conversations with experts in the private equity space to discover their outlook and areas of excitement as they look toward the coming year. In this episode, Alan Williamson speaks with Jonathan Brabrand, Managing Director of Fahrenheit Advisors, Entrepreneur and author of “The $100 Million Exit: Lessons for Every Business Owner” expected publication April...

Programming language - why should I care? What is a typical development stack inside of a portfolio company? The MacLaurin Group looks at development stacks and discusses why the choice is so important. View on Medium

We talk with Kirk Pepperdine, co-founder of jClarity, a Java based performance tuning company that was recently acquired by Microsoft. Discover the evolution of jClarity and how bringing a structured performance model, using machine learning, for tuning language runtimes led to success and an exciting future with the most unlikely of Java bedfellows: Microsoft.

MacLaurin Group’s Intimate Conversation series continues with our guest Justin Marquardt, Principal at New Harbor Capital in our Part II of the discussion for learning about the process of deals in Private Equity. Justin continues to share insights about the process — from deal valuation to determining when it makes sense to delay a deal.

You keep hearing that you shouldn’t store passwords in clear text. Why though? What does that actually mean, and what are the risks? Jim and Alan discuss this thorny issue, provide some insights as to what-is-what and how you can easily rectify this. Once you’ve listened to it, you can head over and read a more in-depth article on the issue. https://medium.com/maclaurin-group/what-is-clear-text-passwords-and-why-you-shouldnt-store-them-e61c604b1fb7