← Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Travis Guerra, Founder at ONWARD on Scaling Search and Market Trends 4-6-26
00:28:13
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:30]
B
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today I'm fortunate to visit with one of the most inspiring people that I get to visit with. We're visiting today with Travis Guerra and Travis is the founder of a company called Onward who does a ton of work in the search world, particularly focused on private equity portfolio companies, but much much broader than that. Travis before we get into the heart of the conversation, take a moment and tell us about yourself and about the founding of Onward in the core of your business and then we'll start talking about trends in which watching it and where you're focused and a lot more.
- [01:09]
C
Travis yeah, yeah Scott, thanks for having me. Was excited to get some time with you here. So as you mentioned, I founded Onward Headhunting just at two years ago. Prior to that had been in search for about five and then early career was actually over at the advisory board within their healthcare consulting vertical. So as you kind of see through this conversation, the thread of healthcare, you know being being an area we focus in at Onward was was originally inspired by some advisory board days and working with really really exceptional people, seeing where they went and then realizing that I was a lousy finance guy but I was pretty good at relationships and everybody seemed to like me or at least, at least so I expect so I assumed so that is, that is kind of how again getting into the recruiting space and then founding Onward two years ago just felt a deep drive to really work with the best start a retained agency. It's really easy to start a contingent kind of risk based and be all things to all people. But as I was looking at some of the greats in our industry names that a lot of us are familiar with when it comes to executive placement. I was realizing those individuals and those organizations, they don't work for free and they are process driven in most of them unless they're so huge they have their own full verticals for one area they're niche focused. So that's what I started Onward as. So focus primarily in sponsor backed businesses as you kind of go down one more level, mostly healthcare. And then you know, functionally it's corporate development and M and A deal guys and gals, strategic and corporate finance. So individuals that are responsible for financial reporting, developing strategy and some kind of adjacent to growth, more on the strategic side. And then of course pure play operators, so operations, but then also, you know, up to the CEO seat, strategy, direction, people, processes, etc. So that's where we focus and it's been a really good couple years.
- [03:06]
B
No, you do a tremendous job and I don't know about your finance skills. I'm sure they're actually quite good and you're understanding them, but your relationship skills are second to none and your ability to connect people, connect dots and find the right spots for people and the right candidates is second to none of them. What are you seeing currently in the search business? In the private equity business currently with the platform companies, they are holding a ton of platform and bolt on companies. So there's no shortage of portfolio companies of private equity funds here and are constantly needing to find leaders and find the right people. What are you seeing currently in the search business and in private equity currently?
- [03:44]
C
Yeah, yeah. And I think this kind of goes back to a conversation we had several months ago, Scott, is that especially, you know, we got to drop AI as a, you know, hot button here in the conversation, you know, seeing a decrease in more of the. Again, we don't serve entry level roles but people that I know that are in the industry are finding that entry level to mid level roles are much more competitive to some degree. There are some efficiencies that are starting to be driven by, you know, individuals using Claude code or cfo. Client of ours that we just did a placement with was saying I've been dabbling in Claude and oh my gosh, I cannot believe, you know, what the time and kind of leverage I'm getting from an AI platform. So definitely seeing at our end though you can't replace or you can't AI out a strategic thought partner. AI is aiding in those conversations but you still need somebody to sign off, take responsibility. And so we still see a pretty healthy need at the kind of leadership finance level. M and A teams are still needing really capable leaders, even some in kind of the analyst space manager level. There's still a demand, demand there because that is a little more analytical than just cutting a P L or just a simple financial report that are doing the diligence that needs to be, you know, drive consensus between parties and ask questions. So we're still seeing a Pretty strong demand. And then of course, in the operator world, I mean, I think it's the best time to be an operations person because people and processes, you know, finance guys oftentimes are looking at more processes and historicals and then projecting out futures that can. A lot of that can be done by AI and it will continue to be done more. But man, a good operator that can tie and develop processes, interact with people and interact with a product and then a strategy going forward, I just see that those roles are still going to stay in high demand, especially as people are trying to get more juice out of, you know, older assets that, that are trying to get sold, you know, over the next 12 to 18 months.
- [05:47]
B
Thank you. And to your point, I mean, there's so much movement on artificial intelligence, but in terms of actually getting things from point A to point B and actually connecting dots and everything that's to be done to close deals and invest and work with operations, you still do need great people. It's going to be technology and great people. And those people that have personal skills, analytical skills and that have motivation and drive to make things go are still really needed. Where do you see the biggest opportunities, Travis, in the next 12 to 24 months or so? Where do you see the biggest opportunities?
- [06:26]
C
Yeah, yeah. And to piggyback off what you're saying to your last point, you know, I would agree. Top performers. This is a great time to be a top performer. And those are the only people that we do work with at onward, our top performers, because they're becoming more valuable if you're on, if you're on the bottom end or can't really contribute at that top level, it is going to be challenging. But one of our recent newsletters that I pinned and shared was AI Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt and the White Collar Extinction. We jump into some of the realities and what's hype and then what's kind of realistic there. So as far as kind of what we're seeing, biggest opportunity over the next 12 to 24 months, seeing a lot of growth on the transaction advisory and just advisory side in general. Those were teams that were getting Significantly pared down late 23, 24. I mean you could find a job in transaction advisory or investment banking in late 24 or 25. We are seeing a resurgence of those. In fact, in both of those categories. We've made three director level placements just in Q1 of this year. And those are individuals that are in the 240,250k base range, all in cash comp in the in the mid upper three hundreds. And so I do expect, and from what they expect as well is that there will be a trickle down hopefully to our really good corporate development clients over the next, you know, six to 18 months where they say, hey, all of the sell side books have been created, we're reviewing them, we're having folks, you know, conduct diligence and gosh, our team's getting really overwhelmed because the market's starting to get hot again. We need another VP of M& A or we need a senior director of corporate development. So that's, that's what we're really seeing kind of the downstream, secondary and tertiary effects of transaction advisory and investment banks starting to kind of pick up volume and see more activity even as they're getting assets just ready to sell. You know, in addition, I mean at onward I think we're really working to focus in building a top tier, really a machine here. You know, tightening our retained search model, doubling down on sponsors and sponsor backed healthcare and then rent. Building something that's really repeatable from the talent execution and development side. Plan, plan to be hiring somebody here just within the next few months to really own that. As you can imagine, I tend to be the kind of. If we're thinking of a EOS or traction model, the entrepreneurial operating system, there's two key players there, right? There's the visionary or 80% of what they're doing is developing relationships, building the brand, going out, grabbing new clients, going to new cities, going to conferences. Right? And 80% of what do is that. And then 20% is process people, you know, making the sure trains are moving on time where we're looking to grow. And if any of your listeners are integrators, I am looking for just a really top of line integrator, somebody that wants to do 80% of what I do, 20%. So keeping trains running on time, executing, continuing to build really good and strong processes for identifying the right individuals and really taking ownership of some of our searches. You know, right now it's, it's me and two other folks that are kind of managing all of this and I need, I need help. We had a record Q1 we did in volume and revenue Q1 what we did all of last year and all of last year was, was a great year. We went on a couple of vacations and our kids had more food than they needed. So a lot of good things happening in 2026 I believe.
- [10:08]
B
That's fantastic. Literally amazing. Congratulations. Talk a little bit about you talk about becoming more systematized getting someone on the performance area to make sure everything is done in the same way constantly. So you could scale. Talk about that in the context of the question. For leaders that are trying to scale from doing really nicely or solid to great, how do they do that and what must they do great to try and scale to the next level to make this repeatable. So you've had a quarter this year that beats out the entire last year of the business. An amazing success story. How do you make that sort of systemized, institutional. How do you move that from good to great to consistent?
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C
Yeah, well, to bring in the good to great. Jim Collins One of the few quotes I remember from that book would be first who, then what? You know, identify again. This hire from for us is, is really, really important. I, I think as an entrepreneur and going if you're thinking of, I want to say It's Peter Thiel, 0 to 1. You know, as an entrepreneur you have to get from 0 to 1. You have to be able to cover your own cost. And then you got to figure out how to bring on a few other people that do, you know, some more kind of light processes, kind of back office responsibilities. And then, and then it really is and I think we're at that inflection point of okay, who's going to be that first, first person that comes in as a true partner in the business. And I think we've got our what we're halfway to our who between me and two other folks. But really identifying that person, that's going to take us to the next level.
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B
Right.
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C
So we are using some automated workflows, tying in some custom built chat GPT agents that take data, whether it's client data, whether it's candidate data, whether it's inbox emails, etc. And runs that through a workflow that then pushes back into our systems from a CRM standpoint and documentation side of things. So that's one area that we're using AI now there's things like openclaw. This person would come in and say, hey, I'm going to own Open Claw, I'm going to buy the Mac Minis. I'm going to become an expert in this kind of building out some of these automated processes. And I'm going to come back to you Travis, and tell you, hey, this is where, where we're at this week. I've taken ownership of this. We're going to try to drive cleaner, more accelerated processes for our clients. We have built out some great processes already. Again, that was always a focus was process and a niche focused. But I know juggling everything in my capacity, I just can't do it all for the foreseeable future. And we're going to do great work in 26, 27 and 28. And this person that will come on is going to be a big part of that.
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B
That's fantastic. And talk a little bit about as you work at placing great people, what's one thing that you see there's doing great either ones that you're placing or clients that you work with that are looking to hire people. What are one thing that you see some of your people doing great in this changing world of technology and people?
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C
Yeah, for sure. Well, can I, can I give you more than one?
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B
Please, Please, Yes.
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C
I mean this topic, I mean think about thousands, hundreds of thousands of books have been written on this topic and penned by guys like you, which I'm excited. I've got your book already pre ordered. My wife continues to ask me, hey, what's this thing in our Amazon orders that's not coming till June. So anyhow, I always get a good laugh. I'm like that's my friend Scott's book.
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B
God bless her, God bless her. Exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly. Click and order more. Exactly.
- [13:48]
C
Yeah man. I, I believe great leaders really again do a ton of ton of things. Two that really come to mind from a founder standpoint is that they learn on someone else's dime and no pun intended, but they press onward towards their five to ten year goals and they're able to focus on the kind of in, in the weeds in the work items during the day. But when they sit back and they have a little bit of time to strategize or they sit down on a quarterly basis as really any founder should and kind of assess the business, it's still where are we at in relation to where we want to be at year five and where we want to be at year ten. So I think leaders do two, two things they, they learn on someone else's dime. Most entrepreneurs usually it's not the first business that they start that it's the first time they're jumping into a space. Usually they've worked for somebody, learned on someone else's dime, had some security around educating themselves and then they see something they want to iterate on or an area that they want to dive further into. For me it was sponsor backed recruiting at the exec level of kind of all things to all people, which tended to be lower to middle level recruiting. And then I think also in light of like A Jim Collins. It's bringing people to the table and exciting them about a shared vision and objective. You know, I think in tandem with that it's. They also have to be brutally clear, I think be brutally clear having a mission, vision and values that everybody at the organization can reference. It's not business speak. Someone I really like that discusses this topic and several of their books and have heard Speak live is, is Donald Miller. And it's so often it's where our company exists to help people and our make our clients feel like they can achieve greatness, blah blah blah. And it's a ton of business speak hit for him. It's like what problems do you solve? What is the you know, short term vision for or mission for the next 12 to 24 months? I, I really enjoy his kind of mission, vision, values breakdown. And I think any good leader has to be super clear on that and they have to be so that everybody in the boardroom can recite it and they don't have to look at the wall in the entryway to read off a paragraph of something that really ends up being pretty obscure.
- [16:10]
B
No. Fantastic. And I think that clarity of communication is so, so important in terms of leadership. Talk for a second. Take us back for a second. Because you started your own firm a couple years ago, done a tremendous job with it. Talk about one inflection point that helped shape your career and maybe the drive towards building your own business too.
- [16:29]
C
Yeah, so man, I, I think that I was sitting on, on this question here a few days ago and I have to say the greatest inflection point of starting Onward and who I am as an individual and how I think about other people and developing relationships and you know, going, going out of your way to do the right thing for others even when there's maybe, you know, there's not an immediate incentive for you to do that was really inspired by my dad. So my late father, I, I watched him never give up and I was just always have been really impressed. He built three, three businesses over, over my lifetime and one of them is still running, running and run by his partner. It's a several figure business and that was really the inflection point. I think my dad believed in me so much that I believed in myself. And yeah, he actually kept my business card by his. It's actually on his mirror at my parents house and you know it says Onward the source for you know, elite executive and finance talent for private equity and high growth businesses. And my mom, my mom told me here several weeks ago, just your dad had that there because he was thinking about you and he prayed about your success in your business every day. And so knowing that he believed in me, and I knew, I knew he believed in me from the day he bought me, went, went to Menards with me and you know, signed that I could get a small loan there for a mower to. So, you know, like a true Midwest kid out mowing lawns.
- [18:08]
B
100%. I love it. And I think that is just a fantastic story. And I know your, your father passed away recently and was a huge influence on you. And I love the story of, of having you borrow the money at Menards to buy the, the mower, to really have an investment in the business and then having to pay that back. That's an amazing story and inflection point in life and in entrepreneurship.
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C
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, you know, you know, you're a Midwest guy or gal. If you go to the Menards to buy a, you know, what commercial size walk behind mower. Right.
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B
100% or we don't have, we don't
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C
have them in Nashville, so.
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B
Or a shovel or a snowblower. Either one of those. Exactly. Even as. Or more Midwestern. 100%. Yeah. And talk a little bit about as you head towards the end of the middle middle or the, the rest 20, 26, what are you most excited about and focused on? And are there any trends you're watching most closely right now too?
- [19:04]
C
Yeah, you know, I'm, I'm excited about just the continued growth. I think, you know, whether or not the market is challenging or easy. You know, we have a flywheel here that over the past 26 months, at this point I've been heads down, building the top of the funnel, executing on things that, you know, retained searches we bring in. And then I dedicate myself towards that. And I think regardless of the market headwinds for someone like me that has the energy and the drive to be the best and put forth my full effort, you know, I'm not concerned. And again, we're at a point where that flywheel of relationship development, there's a ton of opportunity out there. Right. And so, so I'm excited about the remainder of the year again, going into 27, 26, as we think about kind of what we initially put as our five year goals and starting onward. You know, I would say the labor market is, you know, quietly tightening. You know, unemployment still, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is sitting around 4.4%. But you know, hiring has slowed. I think this was a little bit on kind of where we even were last year is that it's kind of low hire, low fire. Obviously there's some recent, recent realignment at some larger organizations. But again, at the level that we're working at, you know, organizations can't go without a COO or a CFO or even, you know, kind of senior director levels and up to C level. So not as concerned there, I would say. You know, our lane being mostly made up of healthcare clients, whether it's at the fund level or at the platform level. Healthcare historically, over the past several years has really been carrying the labor market, you know, a huge. I know you're probably close to this as well, but a huge percentage of job growth over the past, you know, 12 to 24 months has actually come from healthcare. And you know, according to what we see on LinkedIn from kind of their insights, even some of ZipRecruiter, some of these other platforms that obviously have really great insight, everything they have produced continues to show that if there are any declines, the individual industries that are hit the least, healthcare is always one of the top two. So again, strong, I don't want to say strong labor market, but not as concerned for our healthcare folks as maybe we would be for some other sub industries.
- [21:38]
B
And it's fascinating you say that because there's a great article in the Wall Street Journal just today that speaks about how healthcare is the driver of the middle class going forward because a lot of those jobs aren't going and still needed. So I think, I think it resonates what you're saying, resonance with what we're seeing out there.
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C
Well, I'm glad they didn't say the opposite thing. And I looked uneducated.
- [21:57]
B
Yeah, I think you're actually right on as usual. And let me ask you this question, Travis. You are also, in addition to being sort of like a born entrepreneur and just great at connecting with people, literally a plus on relationships and execution. Talk for a second. You've got other hobbies and two of them line up. At least one of them lines up with one of mine is coffee and cigars. And does beer or wine fit into those hobbies at all as well? But if not, doesn't matter. Tell us about coffee, roasting and about cigars and where you view some of that. And what's your favorite thing of these things?
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C
Yeah, hey, these. We should have just done the whole conversation around coffee and cigars. We could do that next time.
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B
We would love to.
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C
And maybe you can come in with, with, with the wine. I, I feel like you probably have fine finer taste in. In wines than I do.
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B
I don't. I don't. But every once in a while I'm not really a serious wine. I drink beer, I drink IPAs. I don't drink hard alcohol at all. It just doesn't agree with me. But I drink wine and every once in a while I have a, a really good battle wine and I enjoy it. But I'm not at all an aficionado. But, but by chance a colleague had. Has owns a. CEO of a health system, owns part of a vineyard. So I bought a, a bottle of wine from their vineyard, Lassiter Family Vineyards, and it was fantastic. And I had bought a more expensive bottle wine than I'm used to. But I am not a wine guy at all. But we happen to enjoy that, which was great, but it was a, it was a relationship purchase and ended up being fantastic. So we enjoyed it tremendously.
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C
Well, at least you didn't have to tell them it was. It was bad, you know, good year and pleasantly surprised 100 and I probably
- [23:40]
B
would add, said it was good regardless. But it was literally fantastic. It was literally great. So it was, it was great. But I'm not at all a wine. But it was great. Anyways. Let me just go back to cigars and coffee roasting and tell us where we should be at on those things.
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C
Yeah. Yeah. So not. Not necessarily a beer wine guy. You know, I do have a knack for bourbon. You know, I'm not necessarily a child of the south because I grew up in Chicago, but I've been in Nashville for 16 years and saw the, saw the bourbon rush, of course, over Covid and I have a nice shelf myself. Bourbon does pair very well with cigars. But on the topic of coffee and cigars, I can definitely speak more at length. You know, I, I always encourage people if someone is unsure, I always just say get, get into a room and from there, you know, don't overthink it and you know, find, find a friend that, that enjoys a cigar or find a friend that maybe enjoys coffee and, or listen to my recommendations and, and hopefully have a good time. You know, when it comes to cigars, you've got, you know, kind of your, your light medium and, and heavy. If anybody's looking to get in, you know, the, the light end and start smoking cigars. A Connecticut a. That's a type of leaf and, and kind of a color differential. So that's a lighter cigar than medium is. And, and you're also. It's very interesting in cigars. There's, there's a binder, there's a filler, and then there's a wrapper. And all three of those can be a little bit different, whether it's, you know, a wrapper from Nicaragua or a Dominican filler. There's just tons of different flavor profiles you can get out of cigars, which is really beautiful, especially if you're one for, you know, light obsession over topics or, or things to enjoy, you know, together with other people. Cigars can get you there. One way to learn about them is to come to one of the onward cigar events. We do so here in Nashville. We do a quarterly event that brings about 35 to 45 gentlemen. Sometimes we have some gals, which is fun, that we come out, we pair a cigar, usually with some bourbon, have a speaker come out, and really just develop our finance and private equity investment banking network. That's. That is a lot of fun. But again, you know, if you're interested, always go with something lighter and, you know, cigar. You know, you should never feel intimidated going into humidor because there are usually no, no more chill individuals than the guys that are working behind a, you know, cigar cash register enjoying a cigar all day. They're usually aficionados. And, you know, just go, go in with kind of an open mind and ask those individuals. They'll always help you. Now, when it comes to coffee, this is a topic I really love. Again, if you obsess over, you know, kind of some, some, some nuanced aspects of one thing, coffee is a place you could spend your whole career and probably just get the tip of the iceberg. I actually recently started to roast my own coffee, and so I'm even deeper down the rabbit hole here. But, you know, I prefer. You've got different regions. And then of course, you know, your birthplace of coffee was Ethiopia. And so not just because it's the birthplace of coffee, but because I tend to like the flavor profiles of an Ethiopian or an African American being they're typically more fruity, aromatic, a lighter coffee. And then your South Americans or Costa Ricans are often more of your dark, chocolatey caramels. And again, I typically like a lighter flavor profile. Berries, florals come from that Ethiopian and African origin, whereas more chocolates come from South America. So again, it's. It's a space you can really get lost in. I always enjoy getting a good pour over. I refuse. If, if we were at an event and all they had was Folgers coffee, I would drink water. So I'm a. I don't want to act like I'm a snob. But yeah, sometimes you got to be a little bit of a snob. You have to have standards, right?
- [27:23]
B
We respect it so fully. What I respect most, Travis, what I respect most is there's a, there's a pattern of you are into subjects, you're deep in everything that you do, and I love that. So it's like whether being in the search business and, and owning it and being a leader in it and going deep in it and really being great at it, I love that. And it's the same kind of thing that you take to this coffee roasting or you take to cigars is you don't know it on a surface level, you know it at a deeper level. And I think it's indicative of who you are and what kind of person and leader you are. I find myself again with Travis Garrett today, founder of Onward. I love the lifelong entrepreneurship story. I love going to buy the lawnmower when you're a kid and financing it to make money doing lawns, mowing lawns. You know, I love it. And I love the lifelong learning in all these other areas, too. Travis Garrett, one of the best of all time. Thank you for joining us today on the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. It's always just great to visit with you. Thank you so much. And congratulations on all your success and what you're doing. It's fantastic.
- [28:34]
C
I appreciate it, Scott. It was a pleasure. And I will hopefully see you soon.
- [28:37]
B
We're looking forward to it. Thank you so much for joining us, Travis.