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Hi all - you may have noticed we have not shared any new deals over the past couple of weeks. Simply put, nothing that has crossed my desk recently has met our bar. Maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio is core to what we are building at Road To Carry.
Behind the scenes, we are investing heavily in initiatives like the Serial Acquirer Conference, the Roll Up Bootcamp, and several early-stage projects that will bring even more value to the community.
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State of Play
Over the past year, one topic has quietly moved from “interesting experiment” to “boardroom agenda item” across private equity firms: AI.
Many funds have started piloting tools.
Some have hired AI teams.
Others are still unsure where to begin.
To better understand what this transition might actually look like, I recently sat down with Ed Brandman, former Chief Information Officer of KKR and now founder of AI platform ToltIQ.
We talked about:
His career path to CIO of KKR
Why PE professionals are approaching AI the wrong way
Where adoption is actually happening today
How diligence workflows may fundamentally change
How AI will disrupt PE investing careers
If you prefer to listen to this interview, you can find it here
In the world of PE, where perfection is expected on the first go, AI adoption runs counter to the industry's core culture. But according to Ed, that mindset is dangerous. Models improve rapidly. The competitive advantage comes from iteration and learning, not one-time deployment. The firms willing to experiment are quietly pulling ahead of the ones waiting for a perfect answer.