The Second Opinion with Marty Pichinson
Every company gets sick. The smart ones get a second opinion. Each week a founder, investor or chief executive brings Marty a real business problem, and he gives them the candid diagnosis and the prescription only three decades at the bedside of American business can provide.
How Every Episode Works
The Symptoms
The guest lays out the problem: cash running short, a stalled round, a market that moved, a partner dispute.
The Diagnosis
Marty asks the questions a seasoned operator asks and names what is really wrong.
The Prescription
A clear plan: what to do this week, this quarter, and what to stop doing now.
The Case File
A life lesson from Marty and a case Sherwood has handled: what went wrong and what was saved. Shared with client approval, with names and confidential details withheld wherever required.
First Season Consultations
- 1
Know Your Numbers Before They Know You
How Sherwood spots the warning signs in a company's finances while there is still time to act, and why the leaders who call a year early keep the most options.
From his past: the fifth grade paper route, phone books and lawn mowing that taught Marty to watch every dollar coming in and going out.
- 2
Fix It or Close It
How Sherwood helps a company decide whether to restructure or wind down, and how to make that call without ego.
From his past: restructuring a 280 store retail chain as chief operating officer of a major shoe company, deciding which stores stayed open and which did not.
- 3
The Quiet Exit
The Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors explained, and why it is often faster, quieter and less costly than bankruptcy.
From his past: learning the ABC in the garment business, then bringing it to Silicon Valley.
- 4
Worth More Than the Bank Account
How Sherwood and agencyIP find buyers for patents, trademarks and code, and why your ideas may be your most valuable asset.
From his past: his seat on the board of the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center and what the history of invention teaches about value that outlives a company.
- 5
The Turnaround
How an established company gets back on its feet, and what a restructuring advisor looks for first.
From his past: helping turn around Famous Amos Cookies as chief operating officer.
- 6
When the Star Leaves
Rebuilding a company after it loses a founder or key leader, and keeping the people and customers who stay.
From his past: helping rebuild the Miracles after Smokey Robinson left and landing them a multimillion dollar recording contract.
- 7
When the Investors Stop Calling
How venture capital and venture lenders decide a company will not return their money, and what a founder can still control.
From his past: the 1999 call from Silicon Valley Bank that brought him into the venture world.
- 8
The Lender's Seat
How banks, credit funds and other creditors recover the most when a company cannot pay, and why every business owner should understand how lenders think.
From his past: explaining to Bloomberg Businessweek in 2008, as credit froze, how investors wind down companies.
- 9
Selling What's Left
How a well run sale of a closed company's assets turns into real money for the people it owes, and why more bidders mean higher recoveries.
From his past: winding down more than 70 companies holding nearly $3 billion in assets during the dot com era.
- 10
After the Black Swan
How Sherwood handles a wave of companies in trouble at once, and how leaders prepare for the shock nobody predicts.
From his past: 2020, when Sherwood went from two to four wind downs a week to two to five a day, and the lessons from 2001 and 2008 that got the firm through it.