This week we continue our conversation with Brett Hickey, chief executive officer, Star Mountain Capital. Based in New York with regional offices and a network covering over 25 U.S. cities, Star Mountain provides strategic partner capital for private equity, mezzanine and other private capital funds as well as growth debt and equity financing for small and medium-sized businesses (typically companies with under $15mm of annual EBITDA). Second of two parts – View part one

The Lead Left: What else did you do in order to help build your rather unique firm?

Brett Hickey: I had good financial modeling skills but not management skills. So I attended Harvard’s 3 year graduate program for business owners and joined the Young Presidents’ Organization to get access to other business leaders and try to learn as much as possible from them. I believe that team building and culture will ultimately be our largest long-term competitive advantages and we invest a lot of time in team and culture including building a large, active advisory committee, with interests aligned to help us be as successful as possible for our team, our investors and the businesses and funds we provide capital to.