Blitzer-Backed PE Firm Raises $400 Million for Sports Bets

Summary

Episode Summary

Podcast: Bloomberg Businessweek
Episode: Blitzer-Backed PE Firm Raises $400 Million for Sports Bets
Date: April 13, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec
Guests: Isaac Harouche & Mike Berlin (Co-Founders, 154 Partners)

---

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the recent $400 million fund raised by 154 Partners, a private equity firm with a focus on founder-led, service-oriented businesses connected to sports and live events. Backed by David Blitzer (Blackstone veteran), the firm's co-founders Isaac Harouche and Mike Berlin share their investment philosophy, deal strategy, the impact of AI on their portfolio, and the niche opportunities they're pursuing, including a notable foray into golf. The hosts explore both the practical aspects and the unique value add of 154’s approach amid a complex fundraising climate.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Firm Identity & Investment Philosophy

• Focus: Founder-run businesses, primarily in business services, residential services, and especially the operational side of the sports and live events industry.
• Sample sectors: Elevator maintenance, plumbing, accounting, guest services for venues.
• Quote (Mike Berlin, 02:29):

  “Our primary focus is investing in founder-run businesses...but then also have an expertise partnering with the businesses that power sports and live events.”

2. Background and Launch of 154 Partners

• Origins: Both founders started at Blackstone, worked closely with David Blitzer in Tactical Opportunities Group, and later in Blitzer’s family office (Bold Ventures) focusing on sports assets.
• Fundamental Insight: Investing in owner-operated businesses yielded the most enjoyable and attractive risk-adjusted returns.
• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 03:09):

  “We bought teams in the US, we bought teams in Europe, but ultimately developed conviction that buying owner-operated businesses was where we were having the most fun. Deploying the most capital and generating the most attractive risk-adjusted returns.”

3. Fundraising Approach & Deployment Plans

• $400M Fund: Sourced from family offices and key industry relationships, leveraging Blitzer’s reputation.
• Investment Rate: Traditional five-year window, aiming for 8–12 platform investments ($40–70M per platform).
• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 04:33):

  “We have a traditional five year investment period…hoping to build somewhere between eight and twelve platforms, deploying 40 to 70 million of equity per platform.”

4. Early Portfolio Companies

• Investments:
  • Accounting services platform (Mountain West)
  • Guest services/staffing firm for sports and live events, supporting NBA and NFL venues
• Deal Structures: Tailored to founders’ needs, backing management teams, sometimes providing liquidity for succession.
• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 05:13):

  “We have a lot of fun tailoring our capital to the situation at hand…we provided some liquidity, but really backed the son and the existing management team to continue running the platform.”

5. AI Disruption: Threat or Opportunity?

• Accounting: Embracing AI for efficiency and process optimization.

• Guest Services: Largely immune, as it remains a “people business”; the rise of AI in other sectors could even increase demand for these jobs.

• Supporting Founders: Helping them navigate and adopt new technologies.

• Quote (Mike Berlin, 06:12):

  “On the guest services side, this is a people business…honestly could be a business that benefits from the displacement of labor in AI…”

• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 06:56):

  “[These] founders…are looking at the threat of AI and thinking, how am I going to react?...it actually helps us cut partnerships, because we can help these companies...implement AI…”

6. Exit Strategies and Holding Periods

• Flexibility: Backed by family offices with longer timelines; not fixated on quick flips or IPOs.
• Exit Options: Sale to strategics or larger sponsors is core; IPOs are unlikely.
• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 07:47):

  “Our founders frequently don’t want us to tell them that we’re going to flip their business in three years…we have a lot of flexibility as tenured capital in terms of our ability to hold these businesses.”

7. Current Fundraising & Market Environment (08:05–09:00)

• Middle Market Insulation: Investments in companies with $2–15M free cash flow are less impacted by macro/geopolitical shocks than larger firms.
• Customer Awareness: Still vigilant about consumer exposures (e.g., gas prices) but day-to-day is less volatile.

8. How 154 Partners "Adds Value” Despite Lack of Industry Background

• Operational Teams: Invest in management, not trying to micromanage sectors (e.g., plumbing)
• Partnership Orientation: Combine capital with local, trusted industry operators.
• Quote (Isaac Harouche, 09:23):

  “We need to pair that with a founder that can talk the talk…and can go to founders with us and say, this is the reason why we are a strategic buyer…”

9. Deal Origination & Thematic Sourcing

• Proactive Sourcing: Dedicated business development pros make cold calls, attend conferences, pitch founders directly.
• Thematic Approach: Internal review committees ideate sectors to pursue.
• Quote (Mike Berlin, 10:14):

  “We have two specific business development professionals who are at conferences, making cold calls and getting on the phone with these founders…”

10. Unexpected Focus: Golf Course Management

• Niche Opportunity: U.S. has 16,000 golf courses, with much potential at the smaller end where capital and strategic management are lacking.
• Quote (Mike Berlin, 10:47):

  “While we were at Blackstone, we built a really nice business in golf course management...Right now there aren’t as many for small...golf courses. This is one area where we’re…hopefully partnering with a fantastic founder who’s done this before.”

11. Future Fundraising and Portfolio Construction

• Current Priority: Deploy Fund 1 over 12–18 months, focusing on 8–10 concentrated platforms.
• Focus: Quality and hands-on support over portfolio breadth.

12. Leverage and Return Composition

• Cautious Use of Debt: Companies may be too small initially to tap credit markets—leverage follows, rather than leads, platform building.
• Returns: Prioritize free cash flow yield and organic growth over financial engineering.
• Quote (Mike Berlin, 12:30):

  “We want the composition of our returns to be free cash flow yield…oftentimes private equity, the return composition is leverage and multiple expansion. We’d like it to be the opposite.”

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was people who had conviction in this part of the market…investing in small businesses that were founder-led, coupled with the relationships built over a decade, led to a really nice fundraising process.”
  — Mike Berlin (04:06)
• On AI in service businesses:
  “This is a people business… could be a boon [if] all the people that we staff, this is a great second job for them, being at the stadium, seeing a Taylor Swift event or an NFL game.”
  — Mike Berlin (06:12)
• On local credibility when investing:
  “We backed an amazing founder in the Mountain west who…was a local person in the community that accountants can look in the face and say, okay, I can partner with you. It’s not just Isaac and Mike from New York trying to buy your business.”
  — Isaac Harouche (09:23)
• Unexpected sector focus:
  “One theme that we’re having a lot of success with…in golf. There are a number of golf courses, 16,000 in the United States…these are some that require capital to grow those businesses. The bunkers need help or the greens need help, and members are leaving.”
  — Mike Berlin (10:47)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Firm introduction & philosophy: 02:29–03:09
• Background & origin story: 03:09–04:02
• Fundraising & deployment strategy: 04:02–04:49
• Early investments described: 04:49–05:46
• AI disruption discussion: 05:46–07:17
• Exit and holding period flexibility: 07:17–08:05
• Perspective on market environment: 08:05–09:00
• Value-add explanation for founders: 09:00–10:02
• Deal sourcing and origination: 10:02–10:47
• Unexpected investment themes (Golf): 10:47–11:30
• Outlook/future fundraising: 11:30–12:18
• Debt/leverage discussion: 12:18–13:01

---

Conclusion

This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at 154 Partners, a PE firm tailoring capital and strategy to the quirks of founder-led, service-heavy businesses, especially those powering the sports ecosystem. Backed by heavyweight David Blitzer, the firm stakes its reputation on operational excellence, hands-on partnership, and patience—eschewing traditional short-term private equity tactics in favor of sustainable, attractive long-term returns. The conversation covers everything from their hands-on approach to AI to surprising niches like golf, providing practical lessons for anyone interested in the evolving landscape of middle-market private equity.

Transcript

[Intuit/Chase Commercial Narrator]

Is your multi entity management creating more confusion than clarity. You need the Intuit ERP Intuit Enterprise Suite. It's the AI native ERP solution that's powerful, painless and proven. Learn [e-mail] ERP being a small business owner isn't just a career, it's a calling. Chase for Business knows how much heart and effort go into building something of your own. Manage all your business finances, from banking to payments to credit cards all in one place with Chase's digital tools. Plus access online resources designed to help your business thrive. Learn [e-mail] business chase for business Make More of what's yours the Chase Mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply JPMorgan Chase Bank NA Member FDIC Copyright 2026 JPMorgan Chase Co.

[The Hartford Commercial Narrator]

When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering and claims experience. Learn [e-mail] Riskmitigation policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates. Hartford, Connecticut

[Intuit/Chase Commercial Narrator]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news.

[Carol Massar]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Massar and Tim Stanovec on Bloomberg Radio. Private equity firm backed by Blackstone vet David Blitzer just wrapped up a $400 million funding round. They're looking to invest in unique sports related business like companies that staff venues and more. It's called 154 Partners. Joining us to talk about the latest funding round and more are the firm's co founder Isaac Harouche and Mike Berlin. They joined us here in the Bloomberg businessweek studio, the Interactive Brokers studio. Guys, congratulations on the funding round. Mike, I want to start with you and just get an idea for the identity of what you are sort of building your firm around. Like sports is part of it, middle market is part of it. Like what is the identity of the firm?

[Mike Berlin]

We our primary focus is investing in founder run businesses. So these are businesses that have never had institutional capital or investment before. And then when you think about our sectors we're focused on business services, residential services, professional services. So think elevator maintenance and repair, plumbing accounting firms but then also have an expertise partnering with the businesses that power sports and live events.

[Interviewer/Host]

And you're backed by Blackstone vet Dave Blitzer who's obviously also very involved in sports. So I imagine that still comes up in conversations. Just talk about what kinds of sports industries you are going to be interested in.

[Isaac Harouche]

So to get a step back, Mike and I started our careers 15 years ago at Blackstone working with and for David Blitzer, actually when he founded Tactical Opportunities Group. After Blackstone, I left to help David start and launch his family office, which today is Bolt Ventures. At Bold Ventures we did a ton of different things as a family office does and that included buying and investing in sports teams across kind of the sports landscape. We bought teams in the US we bought teams in Europe, but ultimately developed conviction that buying owner operated businesses was where we were having the most fun. Deploying the most capital and generating the most attractive risk adjusted returns. Most importantly, Mike and I knew we wanted to get back together and work again. He had gone onto Viking Global. So the two of us in January of last year got together, partnered up. David backed us as both a partner in the firm and an Investor to launch 154 partners.

[Carol Massar]

Is it, was it easy, Mike, to, to raise the money?

[Mike Berlin]

I would say the stamp of approval from David was really an incredible launching point for us and the family office relationships that, that Isaac cultivated over a decade. Building the family office is what was really helpful to get us started. And so it was people who had conviction in this part of the market. Investing in small businesses that were founder led, coupled with the relationships built over a decade led to a really nice fundraising process.

[Carol Massar]

What's the timeline for deploying this $400 million?

[Isaac Harouche]

We have a traditional five year investment period. We're operating with a high discipline, so we have a high bar for where we're deploying capital. We have a $400 million committed pool of capital. We're hoping to build somewhere between eight and 12 platforms, deploying 40 to 70 million of equity per platform.

[Interviewer/Host]

And you've already made some investments, right? Mike, tell us about those.

[Mike Berlin]

Sure. So we've made an investment in an accounting services platform in the Mountain west and then an investment in a guest services and staffing business that powers NBA venues, NFL venues, live event venues. And Isaac honestly has been running that deal and has, you know, can talk more about it.

[Carol Massar]

When you say that you've made an investment in these firms, are you outright buying them?

[Isaac Harouche]

So two different scenarios. We have a lot of fun tailoring our capital to the situation at hand. The accounting business was backing two incredible founders we gave them a capital commitment to do what they do best and consolidate accounting firms out of the Mountain West. Our staffing business in sports was a dad and son round run business. We provided some liquidity, but really backed the son and the existing management team to continue running the platform. So we go back to our Tac Ops days, our tactical opportunities days to structure capital and partnerships in the way that best fits the opportunity at hand.

[Interviewer/Host]

I have to ask you guys about the threat of AI. It's something that we've been talking about a lot and it's, it's come into focus as you know, more private markets are invested in companies that seem vulnerable to AI. So you have accounting services consolidation platform, sport and live event focused guest services platform. How are those two companies reacting to the threat of being disrupted by AI? They sound like software companies.

[Mike Berlin]

It's a great question. On the accounting side, it's certainly a company that needs to be at the forefront of investing in AI because there are so many things that you can do around improving the, and optimizing the process that it takes for accountants to do your tax returns. On the guest services side, this is a people business. These are the folks in the stadium that are taking your ticket, that are the ushers, that are on field security. That's not an AI business. That is the opposite. It's almost the opposite. And honestly could be a business that benefits from the displacement of labor in AI because all of our staffing or all of the people that we staff, this is a great second job for them, being at the stadium, seeing a Taylor Swift event or an NFL game. So we actually think that on the labor that could be a boon for us on the side.

[Isaac Harouche]

Also I just quickly, in our segment of the market, these are founders who have never taken in outside capital. And in many cases they themselves are looking at the threat of AI and thinking, how am I going to react? How am I going to adopt the latest trends in technology? And it actually helps us cut partnerships because we can help these companies, help these founders implement AI in fighting kind of what's going on in the world.

[Carol Massar]

Ultimately, when you hold one of these companies for a while, you then do whatever you do to improve the business, to bring margins up to make the business more efficient. Do you hold on to it? Are you going, do you spin it off? Does it ipo? Do you sell to another private equity firm? Like what does that look like?

[Isaac Harouche]

We have a traditional fund life, but the beauty of our business is that we're backed today by a lot of family offices. Who have permanent capital themselves.

[Carol Massar]

So they're not necessarily looking for that big payoff the next number of years.

[Isaac Harouche]

And our founders frequently don't want us to tell them that we're going to flip their business in three years. So do we look at an ipo? Probably not. But we have a lot of flexibility in terms of selling to a strategic, selling to a larger sponsor, which is a core part of our thesis, and have a lot of flexibility as the 10 year of capital in terms of our ability to hold these businesses.

[Interviewer/Host]

How would you kind of rate the current, I guess, fundraising environment? Like how easy is it to deploy capital when this is a year that there's obviously rising geopolitical tensions, People talking about, you know, I taking over everything and obviously a lot of headlines about private, mostly private credit, but difficulties in private market. Private market investing.

[Mike Berlin]

At our part of the market, we're investing in businesses between 2 and $15 million of free cash flow. And this, as I mentioned, could be a plumbing business that is super focused on the local jurisdiction that they are and don't really have the same issues facing them as large macro mega cap companies. And so we're really just focused on improving the operations of those businesses. And certainly if, you know, with gas prices increasing like that could have an effect on a consumer. And so we have to be cognizant of who are the end customers that we're selling to. But in terms of the day to day operations, it's not really affecting them so much.

[Carol Massar]

But if you go to a business like this, they might look at you guys and say, what do you know about plumbing? What can you actually do for us? Like you don't know how to change, you know, do you know how to change the toilet?

[Isaac Harouche]

No, I think, I think we think like, I don't when we're looking at even a thing.

[Carol Massar]

Yeah, you got to change the toilet.

[Isaac Harouche]

Okay, you got to everybody. So I think, I think for our

[Carol Massar]

business you need to, I'm not a plumber.

[Isaac Harouche]

You need the capital, you need the team, you need the idea. Like plumbing services, we meet on a monthly basis. Mike oversees our review committee process. We meet, Mike, David and I to review themes like plumbing, to say, okay, we're going to go out and chase businesses in this sector. But it's not just the capital, it's not just the team, it's not just the idea. We need to pair that with a founder that can talk the talk and can go to founders with us and say, this is the reason why we are a strategic buyer that's what we did in accounting, we backed an amazing founder in the Mountain west who could. Who was a local person in the community that accountants can look in the face and say, okay, I can partner with you. It's not just Isaac and Mike from New York trying to buy your business. And that's how we win deals.

[Carol Massar]

How do you find the businesses? Like, obviously you have an idea. Okay, I think this could be a good category to go after. But there are, you know, x number of businesses in that category, and not everyone is created the same.

[Mike Berlin]

Got to get on the phones. So we have once we ideate a theme, as Isaac mentioned at our review committee, we have two specific business development professionals who are at conferences making cold calls and getting on the phone with these founders to see is this investment in this sector even viable. And then all of our investment professionals as well moonlight not just on execution, but also. Let me see if I can go get in front of these founders and convince them that we are a trusted partner which. With which they should do business.

[Interviewer/Host]

Mike, tell us about one of those themes. Maybe one that's more unexpected than we would think.

[Mike Berlin]

More unexpected. So one theme that we're having a lot of success with is in the sports realm is in golf. And so while we are at Blackstone, we built a really nice business in the golf course management and ownership category. And right now, there are a number of very large platforms in that sector, but not as many for small at the. On the smaller end of the scale. And you have a number of golf courses, 16,000 in the United States. About 11,000 are public, 4,5000 are private. And these are some that require capital to grow those businesses. The bunkers need help or the greens need help, and members are leaving. And so this is one area where we're partnering or hopefully partnering with a fantastic founder who's done this before to go out and build a business of scale.

[Carol Massar]

Isaac, you guys just raised this $400 million fund. Are you already starting to think about raising the next fund?

[Isaac Harouche]

I think we're having a lot of fun focusing on our day job, which is building the firm, building the team, and finding great investments. We're really excited about the first two deals that we've done. We have a very active pipeline that we've been developing over the last 12 months. I think we see line of sight to deploy Fund 1 over the course of the next 12 to 18 months. But our priorities to deploy the capital in the right way and to build our portfolio companies.

[Carol Massar]

How many businesses do you think you will acquire of this. With this fund, I think we will

[Isaac Harouche]

operate slightly more with more concentration than a typical private equity fund. I think we're excited to build 8 to 10 platforms. We want to be more concentrated because we want to be able to lean in and help our companies grow and scale as opposed to spread ourselves too thinly over a big portfolio.

[Interviewer/Host]

This is kind of a selfish question because now I'm covering credit, but are any of the portfolio companies like tapping into debt markets and if so, are they able to or they're too small for that right now?

[Mike Berlin]

Oftentimes they're too small. I think the way we think about it is let's build a platform, get the first couple of businesses where we can operate with them and then think about leverage thereafter. But once again, very modest. We want the composition of our returns to be free cash flow yield, meaning we buy businesses at attractive and fair valuations and then organic growth, oftentimes private equity. The return composition is leverage in multiple expansion. We'd like it to be the opposite.

[Tom Keene]

This is Tom Keene inviting you to join us for the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast. It's about making you smarter every business day.

[The Hartford Commercial Narrator]

I'm Paul Sweeney. We bring you complete coverage of the US Market open. We cover stocks, bonds, commodities, even crypto. All the information you need to excel.

[Alexis Christopher]

And I'm Alexis Christopher. Bloomberg Surveillance also brings you the analysis behind the headlines. We do that through conversations with the smartest names in economics, finance, investment and international relations.

[Tom Keene]

We do all this live each and every weekday, then bring you the best analysis in our daily podcast. Search for Bloomberg Surveillance on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere else you listen.

[The Hartford Commercial Narrator]

On the east coast, listen at lunch and on the west coast, listen as soon as you wake up.

[Alexis Christopher]

That's the Bloomberg Surveillance Podcast with Tom Keene, Paul Sweeney, and me, Alexis Christophorus. Subscribe today wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tom Keene]

Bloomberg Surveillance Essential listening each and every business day.