Episode summary
Lessons from a leading operator: Ron Books, CEO at Net Health and Operating Partner at Carlyle
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Ron Books
Summary
Ron Books argues that his career was shaped by moving across sales, operations, CEO roles, and now operating partner work, and that each step made him a more complete operator. He says the biggest lesson from ECI Software Solutions was that private equity can be a true partnership when the firm fits the business’s stage and needs, whether that means helping define the company, guiding a cloud transition, or accelerating growth through acquisitions.
He emphasizes that scaling from $50 million to $500 million in revenue required discipline around systems, integration, and leadership, not just more deals. At ECI, he says culture became a deliberate management system: core values, recognition tools, and hiring decisions all reinforced the same standards. He also argues that M&A works best when the people who will own post-close integration are involved from the start.
Books says the transition to Net Health showed him how transferable general operating skills are, even when the vertical is new. He also believes operating partners can add real value if they listen, build trust, and offer practical help rather than try to manage by force.
Key takeaways
- Ron Books says sales experience mattered because "you're always selling," including in M&A and leadership.
- He says ECI’s growth from under $50 million to over $500 million required tighter process, systems, and a stronger leadership bench.
- Books argues that private equity works best when the firm matches the company’s stage, from defining the business to accelerating growth.
- He says culture only became real at ECI when core values were tied to hiring, recognition, promotion, and firing decisions.
- Books believes the best operating partners add value through trust, context, and experience, not by trying to take over decision-making.
Notable quotes
“I think sales is critical, but the operations side is just as important as well”
“Private equities gets a little bit of a bad rap. People think it's cutthroat or they not trying to take care of their employees”
“We were a little longer in the whole period of inside venture partners. After that, it was every two to three years we would have a new PE firm coming in”
“We developed a different strategy over the years is within 90 days they're on our systems they're on our CRM software they're integrated to our reporting”
“If if I had somebody that can advise you in those stages and it's really every stage”
How the episode opens
Everybody's going all my sing from Wall Street to Melrose Avenue. We're going to venture capitalists to athletes to creators to the person who collected trading cards. Welcome back to the Algo's mainstream podcast.
Today we have the operators view on the podcast. We bring in someone who rose up the ranks of a private equitybacked software company to be CEO of that company ECI software solutions that now generates over 500 million in revenue and 200 million in IBIDA. We welcome Ron Books, now an operating executive at Carile and the CEO at Net Health, Carile Portfolio Company.
He also sits on a number of boards for Carile. He's also the chairman and former CEO of ECI software solutions, a leading global provider of cloud-based software for SMMES, which he successfully sold to Leonard Green and Partners for a multi-billion dollar exit. Ron started with ECI when it was a startup company and rose in the organization to serve as VP of sales, then COO, then CEO, a position which he held from 2009 to 2021.
While serving as CEO, Ron and his team developed and executed a strategic plan that included overseeing 41 M&A transactions and a successful software license to cloud migration across nearly a dozen platform. Over the years, they received investment from NEA, Axel, Insight Partners, Carlilele, Apex Partners, Goldman Sachs, and most recently sold the business to Leonard Green and Partners. Under his leadership as CEO, ECI grew from less than 50 million in revenue to over 500 million in revenue and has sales the company in 2020 at a multi-billion dollar valuation.
Ron has all the hallmarks of a successful entrepreneur. energetic yet thoughtful, a tireless work ethic, the ability to connect with customers and employees, and loyalty to both customers and employees.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private equity operations
- building revenue and ebidta
- mergers and acquisitions integration
- company culture hiring
- operating partner perspective
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GS
- Net Health
- Carlyle
- ECi Software Solutions
- Leonard Green & Partners
- Insight Partners
- Apax Partners
- Goldman Sachs
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Alt Goes Mainstream, this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Sidgmore. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
