🎥 Hg's Chris Kindt - AI's transformative role in value creation for private equity

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s episode provides a fascinating window into the world of private equity value creation and how AI can help transform both portfolio company and investment firm processes and operations to create value.

We sat down in New York with Hg Partner and Head of Value Creation Chris Kindt to dive into how he spearheaded the growth of the firm’s in-house value creation efforts and has built a high-performing team to meet the evolving needs of portfolio companies.

Chris brings 15 years of experience in architecting and driving value creation to bear, with 11 years of experience at Hg and another 8 years as a consultant at BCG and Parthenon.

Chris and his team are responsible for driving value across a portfolio of 55 companies that represents over $180B in enterprise value and would represent the second largest software company in Europe after SAP if it were a conglomerate.

Chris and I had a thought-provoking discussion about value creation and the impact of AI on investing and operating companies. We discussed:

* How to build a high-performing value creation team.

* Where value creation has the biggest impact.

* How AI is transforming investment processes.

* How Hg has become an “AI-first” investment firm.

* Where AI will have the most impact in a company today and why agentic AI is transforming certain roles and processes within companies.

* How professionals can generate the most leverage from utilizing AI — without having cognitive decline.

* Why prompting and prompt engineering is so critical in the age of AI (and how you can use your weekends to perfect prompt engineering).

* How a management team can buy into AI and why the current time period represents an interesting opportunity for incumbents, particularly for those building mission-critical enterprise software.

Thanks Chris for sharing your expertise and wisdom on company building and AI. We hope you enjoy.

Note: This episode was filmed in August 2025.

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Clip #1: What does it mean to be an AI-first culture?

Clip #2: How do you think about AI as a part of value creation in portfolio companies?

Clip #3: The impact of AI on software engineers.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus Fund Solutions, a leading full-service fund administrator for asset managers in private and public markets. As private markets continue to move into the mainstream, the industry requires infrastructure solutions that help funds and investors keep pace. In an increasingly sophisticated financial marketplace, investment managers must navigate a growing array of challenges: elaborate fund structures, specialized strategies, evolving compliance requirements, a growing need for sophisticated reporting, and intensifying demands for transparency.

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Visit www.ultimusfundsolutions.com to learn more about Ultimus’ technology enhanced services and solutions or contact Ultimus Executive Vice President of Business Development Gary Harris on email at [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Message from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

01:18 Welcome to the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast

02:10 Guest Introduction: Chris Kindt

05:57 Value Creation at Hg

07:15 Pre-Investment and Diligence Process

08:11 Management Team Collaboration

09:16 Areas of Impact in Value Creation

11:50 Building a Cross-Functional Team

13:17 Scaling the Value Creation Team

13:51 Systematic Problem Solving

16:31 Measuring Value Creation

21:07 AI in Value Creation

21:37 Internal vs External AI Applications

23:07 AI First Culture

23:46 Effective Use of AI Tools

25:36 Prompt Engineering

27:41 Experimenting with AI Agents

28:07 Choosing the Right AI Models

28:55 Strengths of Different AI Models

29:29 Transformative Impact of AI

30:09 Skills Needed for AI Integration

30:22 The Role of AI in Work

31:01 Philosophical Questions on AI and Talent Development

32:21 Building Grit in the Age of AI

33:18 Maintaining Discipline with AI

34:15 AI as a Value Creation Lever

34:42 Operational Efficiency and AI

35:40 Emergence of Reasoning Models

36:03 Agentic Frameworks in AI

36:41 AI’s Impact on Engineering Efficiency

37:50 Partnerships and AI Agents

38:42 Challenges in Implementing AI

39:42 AI Immersion Strategy Days

42:26 Organizational Agility and AI

43:11 AI in Fund Administration

43:55 AI and Market Adaptation

44:53 AI in Investment Strategies

46:07 AI and M&A Strategies

47:25 Developing AI Products In-House

48:12 Vertical Expertise and AI

49:55 AI Fatigue and Disillusionment

51:07 Building AI Products and Incubators

51:58 AI Product Platforms and Talent

52:48 Future Waves of AI Impact

54:55 Globalization and AI

56:38 Long-Term Value of AI

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.

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