AI-First Value Creation: Inside Hg's Approach to Transforming Software Companies
• 1 minute read
We're excited to share a fascinating conversation between Hg's Partner and Head of Value Creation, Chris Kindt, and Michael Sidgmore of Alt Goes Mainstream, a leading podcast exploring the intersection of alternative investments, culture, and innovation.
In this wide-ranging discussion, Chris provides a rare window into how Hg has built one of private equity's most sophisticated value creation capabilities—a 60-person team supporting portfolio companies that collectively represent over €180 billion in enterprise value.
Listen to the full episode: Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast
Key Insights from the Conversation
Building Value Creation at Scale
How Hg grew its value creation team from 4 to 60 specialists organized across eight functional areas
The importance of thinking like a tech conglomerate rather than a traditional PE operations team
Creating systematic solutions through strategic partnerships, proprietary software, and cross-functional collaboration
The AI Revolution in Private Equity
Why AI represents the single biggest value creation lever in the past 12 months
The shift from "co-pilot" efficiency gains (10-15%) to "agentic" AI delivering 10-20X productivity improvements in specific tasks
How Hg has become an "AI-first" investment firm, applying the same transformation internally that it drives with portfolio companies
Engineering Transformation
Real-world results: Teams working AI-first have reduced product development timelines from 12-15 months to under three months
The partnership with Cognition's Devin and other AI engineering agents enabling mid-level engineers to hand off tasks and achieve 10X leverage
Why software engineering represents the most significant AI opportunity today
What Matters Now
Organizational agility has become more critical than ever—not necessarily correlated with company size
The importance of backing businesses with true vertical domain expertise and proprietary data
Why "prompt whispering" and discipline around AI outputs are essential skills for the modern workforce
Looking Ahead
The acceleration of agentic AI's impact across customer support, product development, and operations
The evolution from operational efficiency to solving entire customer workflows—"service as software"
Listen Now
Full Episode: Alt Goes Mainstream with Chris Kindt
About Alt Goes Mainstream: Alt Goes Mainstream explores how alternative investments are becoming accessible to a broader audience, featuring conversations with leading investors, operators, and innovators at the intersection of finance and culture. Subscribe at altgoesmainstream.substack.com.
📽️ More from Hg on Alt Goes Mainstream
This conversation with Chris Kindt is part of a three-episode series featuring Hg's leadership on Alt Goes Mainstream:
Episode 1: Building Hg Wealth Martina Sanow, Head of Hg Wealth, discusses creating institutional-quality investment access for private investors, building a business within a business, and how Hg transforms good companies into great ones through partnership and operational excellence. Listen to Martina Sanow on Alt Goes Mainstream →https://altgoesmainstream.substack.com/p/hgs-martina-sanow-unlocking-opportunities
Episode 2: What is Mission-Critical Software? Hg's Senior Partner and Co-Head of Investments, Nic Humphries, explores the firm's investment philosophy, the power of mission-critical software, AI's transformative impact on the industry, and how Hg builds global software champions through long-term private market investing. Listen to Nic Humphries on Alt Goes Mainstream →https://altgoesmainstream.substack.com/p/hgs-nic-humphries-investing-at-an
Episode 3: AI-First Value Creation (This Episode) Chris Kindt, Partner and Head of Value Creation, reveals how Hg's 60-person value creation team drives transformation across the portfolio and why AI represents the biggest value creation opportunity in private equity today. ➡️ https://altgoesmainstream.substack.com/p/hgs-chris-kindt-ais-transformative
Related Insights:
Why European Software?
The Hg Fusion Evergreen Fund
Meet the Hg Wealth Team