Day: October 25, 2025

• Anish Pathipati was a Wall Street Rising Star in 2018 while working with investing legend Glenn Hutchins.
• Now, he’s launching a new fund, focused on building one big business at a time. First stop: tires.
• He’s bringing along two operational experts, including his dad, as a differentiator.

Anish Pathipati spent years honing his skills as a private equity investor, and now, he’s decided to “hang out a shingle,” launching his own fund, Simha Partners.

The last time we spoke to Pathipati for our 2018 Wall Street Rising Stars series, he was a director at North Island, a private equity firm founded by Glenn Hutchins, a cofounder of Silver Lake. He then joined Periphas Capital, cofounded by Sanjeev Mehra, a cofounder of Goldman Sachs’ private investment arm.

He’s applying what he’s learned from these renowned investors to inform his plan for Simha Partners, which raised $45 million for its first fund earlier this month, Pathipati said, adding that it was oversubscribed. He’s also trying something different, investing all of the capital in the fund to build a single business in a single sector: tire and auto repair.

Unlike search funders who look to buy a blue-collar business after working in corporate or investment roles, Pathipati will have plenty of help from his two other partners: Pathipati’s father, Narendra “Pat” Pathipati, and another close family friend, Tim O’Day,

O’Day and the senior Pathipati rose to CEO and CFO of Boyd Group Services, the parent company of auto collision market leader Gerber Collision & Glass. From when O’Day became president of US operations for Gerber Collision & Glass in September 2008 to when he retired over the spring, Boyd’s stock price had grown 100 times.

O’Day and the elder Pathipati, who retired as CFO in 2022, have decades of experience growing an auto collision business. And now, with the help of the younger Pathipati’s technology investing expertise, Simha Partners will look to replicate that success in the tire and auto repair business.

Pathipati spoke to us about the impetus for Simha Partners’ strategy, how it compares to the growing trend of search funds, how his career led up to this, and what it’s like to work with your dad.

The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

How has your career led you to creating your own firm?

I knew from day one that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I got closer to that goal at each phase of my career journey.

Phase one was institutional training at a mega-cap firm, Silver Lake Partners. Phase two was what I call my apprenticeship, working closely with legendary investors in startup settings. Phase three is now underway with the launch of Simha Partners, where I become the captain of my own journey.

In phase one, my approach was to work as hard as possible at this best-in-class institution. Working on transactions like the take-private of Dell helped me quickly pick up the tools of the investing trade.

In the apprenticeship phase, the key to success was choosing to work with people I had great regard for and who I could learn from.

This third phase requires a different mindset from the first two phases. Instead of trying to replicate what others have done, we want to build something new. In an industry that’s 40 years old, how can we innovate?

What are you looking to do differently at Simha?

I call it our modern-day industrialist vision. The goal is not to have 15 or 20 different portfolio companies, like a traditional private equity firm, but to instead focus on building one platform, standing it up on its own two feet with a self-sufficient management team, and then doing the same for platform two or platform three.

To help accomplish this, I’m joined by two partners with a more operational background.

They’ve grown an exceptional business with a roll-up strategy, implementing an acquisition, integration, and operations excellence program that Tim and Pat helped develop.

Few private equity firms have partners with this type of operating track record, and especially not in the lower middle market, which is where we hope to begin.

With our first fund, we will focus exclusively on the tire and auto services industry. This shows target companies that we’re not just tourists in the industry, and allows us to focus our attention on one industry, as opposed to a typical PE partner who is pulled in a lot of different directions.

The scale is very different, but this focus on building one business vs a larger fund reminds me of the phenomenon of a growing interest in search funds as the industry institutionalizes and becomes more corporate.

While building the Simha vision, I did ask how we’re different from a search fund. One key difference is that our capital is fully committed, unlike a search fund that has to go back to its investors. This allows us to present ourselves very differently to target companies.

A second difference is scale. With $45 million of commitments and a multiple of that available via co-invest demand, our fund is much larger than a typical search fund.

Third, we’re not planning to run the company ourselves as CEOs. Search fund entrepreneurs are effectively buying a job, but we want to support a management team that can stand on its own.

How does your experience as a tech investor fit into this?

The best competitive advantage comes from interweaving tech with real-world operations. The tire and auto services industry is ripe for the application of technology in operations. This cuts across every part of the business, from customer-facing workflows like scheduling and vehicle inspections to internal workflows like technician staffing and tire ordering.

Technology can’t replace an auto mechanic, but it can allow the mechanics to serve customers faster, cheaper, and better.

What’s it been like working with your dad?

It’s really a dream come true. My dad has always been my closest mentor and greatest advocate — the opportunity to work with him is special. If anything though, it’s made me work even harder. No time is off limits when your dad is your partner.

I’m also very excited about the opportunity to work with Tim. I’ve known him for over a decade and in addition to being an exceptional executive, I consider him a family friend.

It’s been quite valuable for our business too, because many of the targets we would think about investing in are themselves family businesses. We can actually walk the walk, not just talk the talk, right? We can tell our targets that we have the capital of a private equity firm, the focus of a business builder, and top-tier operational experience, but it’s one family and family-friend talking to another.”

• I’ve only recently begun to think about my mother’s age and what it means.
• I’m an only child, and we’ve been through so many things together. We’re incredibly close.
• Thinking about being without her someday is hard, but I’m also beginning to appreciate aging myself.

My mother opened the door to her apartment, joyful to see me in her doorway. She was wearing an oversize black T-shirt with white cursive across the front that reads: “I can’t believe I’m the same age as old people.”

I’ve long accepted that she’s no fashionista, but I’ve only recently begun to grasp that my quirky 76-year-old mother is getting up there in years. (Can we say old? Her shirt says old.)

I’ve only recently started to grapple with her mortality

I’ve seen her scrape the edges of mortality many times: Stage II breast cancer, four joint replacements, rheumatoid arthritis, and a coronary angioplasty. These have been her personal trials, of course, but as her only child, I hope that I’ve borne some of the weight with her. I recall the diagnoses, the doctors’ appointments, the tears, the terror in her eyes from some awkward hospital bed.

But I saw each of these as mere moments in time. Bumps in the road. It took me years — decades, maybe — to internalize that these illnesses culminate in the truth that her mortal body is breaking down.

I inch toward acceptance at times, but then my mind reels. Isn’t 76 the new 56!? I recently Googled life expectancy tables for some reassuring data. I scrolled down to the birth year row of 1949. The average white American woman born in that year can reasonably expect to live to the age of 78. The research is right there, but how does a person process that information?

Our relationship is extremely close, even with its ups and downs

My mother and I have had years of deep, almost psychic, closeness. Whatever is happening in my life, whether auditioning for my middle school production of “The King and I” or discussing the realities of menopause (which I hear is coming for me soon), she understands, offers encouragement, is ever-present. Mom-on-demand.

She thinks whatever I say is hilarious, whatever I choose is smart, whatever I do is the best. Maybe she’s just great at faking it. In any case, I know I’m lucky.

That said, we have also barely made it through confusing and painful seasons of our relationship. Some people might call her…a bit dramatic or complex (I may be one of those people), and our battles have cut deep. My move to college was painful for both of us. A May-December romance she pursued rocked my world. She often felt abandoned by her only daughter. I bristled at feeling smothered.

As I’ve gotten older myself, my own perspective has changed

All of these “issues” that I once wanted to untangle in therapy, well, I just don’t care anymore. At a certain point, you shift from seeing a parent as a parent to another flawed human like yourself. As we’ve both aged, we’ve also naturally mellowed out. I don’t have the time or energy to fight. I relish my own midlife for that very reason. The things that don’t matter fade into the background. Those that are precious sharpen into focus.

I recently shared that revelation with my mom. “I’m glad you find that getting older is better,” she emailed me. “It’s just a journey, you know? As you age, for some reason, living gets lighter.”

For so much of my early life, it was the two of us in an 800-square-foot apartment against the world, and I desperately feared losing her. And yet we remain. We may live 30 miles apart, connected by text messages most days, but the closeness endures.

I still fear the loss of her one day, but it’s tempered now with the wisdom and gratitude of an adult, not the panic of a child. I believe that this strange, almost miraculous, connection we have will outlive us both. Life expectancy tables be damned.

• Instagram Reels now has a watch history that shows you everything you saw on Reels recently.
• It’s only for the last 30 days, but this is hugely helpful.
• Now you can find that old Reel you saw last week from the account whose name you couldn’t remember

If I could have back all the time I’ve spent searching Instagram in vain for a Reel I saw in passing — trying for weeks to come up with the right combination of hashtags or keywords that would bring it back — well, I’d have back hours, I’d guess. Enough time to go to the gym or call my mom. These are the sacrifices I make to pursue my goal of pushing the known human limits of how much short-form video content can be consumed before one is driven to madness.

Which is why I was thrilled — Ecstatic! Rapturous! Ready to smash that like button! — upon learning from Instagram head Adam Mosseri that Instagram has added a new “watch history” feature.

This new tool lets you scroll back through all the Reels you saw over the last 30 days.

To access the watch history, go to your profile, then the Settings menu > Your activity > Watch history (scroll all the way down). You can sort from oldest to newest, or even by author.

Hallelujah!

Finally, I can use this to go back and find that weird video I saw last week, I forgot to save, but want to show someone today.

Despite my initial reservations, I’ve come to really enjoy Reels. It’s developed a sort of culture of its own, and I’ve noticed that its algorithm leads me to very different types of content than I get shown on TikTok. (I see a lot of front-facing videos of people talking about topics I’m interested in on TikTok; on Reels, I tend to get more slice-of-life videos of people doing things outside. I don’t understand why this is different.)

Instagram knows that most people are now spending time on the app watching Reels and DMing their friends — and often DMing Reels to their friends. It’s rolled out a handful of new features that cater to this. You can now see the videos your friends “liked,” as well as the “Blend” feature in DMs, where you can essentially share your algorithm with a friend to show them the crazy videos you get shown (this feature is actually really fun).

Just recently, Instagram also launched a big redesign that puts messaging and Reels at the forefront of the bottom nav bar.

It’s slightly sad that Instagram, as we knew it, has really changed — it’s no longer an app for people to post brunch pics. But I do appreciate that it’s been launching new features like “Blends” in DMs to accommodate new behavior. (Meta’s new product/feature launches aren’t always so good; Vibes, the new AI slop feed in its Meta AI app, is a total dud.)

Now, the only downside to this new Reels history feature is that it goes back only 30 days — that’s not far enough!

(One note: As of Friday afternoon, there was a small bug that makes it seem as if you can pick a custom date range further back than 30 days — Meta confirmed to Business Insider that you can’t, and that there’s a fix in the works.)

TikTok already has the watch history feature, and it will let you go back six months. Which is far better when you know you’ve seen some funny or interesting thing and want to pull it back up.

Is it mildly creepy to see your own watch history? Slightly! Feels a little embarrassing when you notice you went down a 10-video rabbit hole of one person’s account, like an older man who makes near-daily videos complaining about the parking situation on Nantucket or a 20-something who filmed his mom yelling at him about how he needs a haircut, and then you had to see all his other videos to see if the mom was right. (I can’t tell you why I was so rapt by this, other than to say I appreciate the full breadth of the human experience.)

But we’re way past the point of feeling creeped out by realizing Instagram remembers what videos we’ve seen. Of course it does! Duh!

Look, I came to Instagram to do two things: feed advertisers data on my personal shopping preferences to increase shareholder value, and to LOL at some funny videos. And guess what? I’m going to do both until my brain oozes out of my ears.

• Joe Friend spent more than two decades at Microsoft across three separate stints.
• He was laid off from his manager role in May — a job loss that upended his retirement plans.
• Friend shared why he won’t return to Microsoft and plans to steer clear of Big Tech altogether.

After three stints at Microsoft spanning more than two decades, Joe Friend was laid off in May. He’s still figuring out what’s next, but there’s one thing he’s sure of: His time in Big Tech is over.

About six months earlier, Friend, a director of product management overseeing a team of nine, started hearing rumors of company restructuring that could affect managers. However, he didn’t believe his specific role was in jeopardy.

But he was wrong. In May, he learned that he and 14 other members of his working group — including four other managers — had been laid off.

“I wasn’t entirely surprised by the layoffs. I was surprised to get caught up in them,” said the 62-year-old, who lives in Washington state.

Friend said the layoff was “doubly shocking” because it upended his retirement strategy. He had planned to stay at Microsoft until at least his 65th birthday — a milestone that, under company policy, allows most stock grants to continue vesting even after the employee leaves. Once he turned 65, he planned to either retire or pivot to something new. Now, that timeline was out the window.

“My plan was to figure out what I wanted to do over the next three years,” he said. “Then all of a sudden I’m at the doorstep, and I have to make that decision now.”

Friend is among the thousands of Microsoft workers who’ve been laid off over the past year. After cutting about 6,000 jobs in May, Microsoft laid off roughly 9,000 more in July. A company spokesperson previously told Business Insider the company was focused on reducing management layers and streamlining processes.

Google, Intel, and Amazon have also announced plans to reduce the number of managers — part of a broader trend dubbed the “Great Flattening.” While overall layoffs remain low by historical standards, tech workers have been disproportionately affected, and a slowdown in white-collar hiring has made it harder for many to land new roles.

In this challenging environment, Friend shared what he’s hoping to find in the next chapter of his career.

A final goodbye to Microsoft

Transitioning away from Microsoft was something Friend had done twice, but this was the first time he hadn’t left by choice.

Friend first joined Microsoft in 1994 as a lead program manager, working on Microsoft Word. In 1997, he and his family moved to Indonesia, where he spent more than six years working for an international NGO — a move driven by his long-held desire to live abroad and do work he found meaningful.

In 2003, when Friend returned to the States, he initially considered staying in the nonprofit world but found it less economically viable in the US. So he reentered the tech industry and found himself back at Microsoft.

Friend spent the next 14 years at the company, but by early 2017, he was feeling burned out and decided to move on. He said he interviewed at a few large firms but soon concluded that none of them were the right fit.

“I finally realized that I didn’t want to work at another big company,” he said.

He accepted a role at the developer site Stack Overflow, a move he said provided the change of pace he was looking for. But Microsoft came calling once again.

Someone Friend knew at Microsoft kept nudging him to join their team. Initially resistant, he eventually agreed to hear them out — and saw the recent internal restructuring in his former business area as a positive sign.

“I was really impressed with what I saw as significant cultural change at the company and agreed to go back,” he said.

Friend returned to Microsoft in 2018 and remained until May 2025, when he learned he’d been laid off.

Purpose over profit

After being laid off, Friend continued receiving paychecks until mid-July, when he received a “very comfortable” lump-sum severance payment that amounted to close to what he would have made if he had been employed the rest of this year. He said he was fortunate to be in a strong financial position, which gave him time to figure out his next steps.

“It feels like a betrayal, and it impacts me financially, but it’s not going to hurt,” he said of the layoff.

Rather than rushing into his next move, Friend met with a financial advisor to see whether an earlier retirement might be feasible. He began exploring job leads that came his way, but nothing stuck.

Friend now considers himself to be “semi-retired.” He said that in recent months, he’s focused on helping a young entrepreneur build a small business.

“It’s not about making money,” he said. “It’s about supporting somebody who wants to transform their life.”

If Friend were to retire fully, he believes he and his wife can make it work financially without major lifestyle changes, but he’s not sure he’s ready to leave the workforce yet.

What he is sure of is that his next job won’t be with Microsoft. He said he believes the company once had an implicit “deal” with employees: If you performed well, you’d be rewarded financially and enjoy job stability. He said he no longer thinks that’s true.

Friend said some of his concerns apply to the tech industry more broadly, which is why he plans to be highly selective about his next role.

“I think I’d rather earn $50,000 a year doing something I’m excited about,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I won’t jump back into a job, but it certainly won’t be Big Tech.”

• Former magazine editors Lauren Brown and Kristina O’Neill wrote a book on coping with job loss.
• It features insights from celebrities and career experts, with a focus on women’s experiences.
• The authors share four tips for securing a better severance package, saving money, and moving on.

Losing your job doesn’t mean you suck.

That’s the message the co-authors of a new book — and the celebrities who contributed to it, such as Oprah Winfrey and Lisa Kudrow — are aiming to get across.

“All the Cool Girls Get Fired,” by former fashion magazine editors Lauren Brown and Kristina O’Neill, is a survival guide for anyone who has been let go from a job, though it’s especially geared toward women.

They said that’s because there are more widely known examples of high-profile men who’ve been fired, such as Steve Jobs and Michael Bloomberg.

“It took us a minute to even figure out which women’s stories to include in the book,” said O’Neill. “It’s not part of that many women’s lore, getting fired.”

Brown lost her editor-in-chief job at InStyle magazine in February 2022 when the fashion publication went all-digital, while O’Neill was let go from WSJ. Magazine in April 2023 as part of a restructuring at The Wall Street Journal.

In addition to famous people’s accounts of dealing with job loss, Brown and O’Neill offer insights in their book from human resources, legal, and other career-related experts for moving on. They shared four tips with Business Insider on what to do after being let go:

Don’t sign anything, just decompress.

When executing layoffs, employers will typically ask the workers they’re letting go to quickly sign severance or other termination documents. There’s no need to comply right away, and it’s best you don’t, since getting the boot is a jarring experience, said O’Neill.

“You might be in shock,” she said.

Take time to process what’s happening, then review the materials you’ve been asked to sign, added O’Neill. You may want to negotiate for extended healthcare coverage or the option to keep your work phone.

“You’re actually the one in control,” she said. “Because what are they going to do? Fire you? They already fired you.”

Hire a lawyer who only gets paid if you win.

People tend to be too vulnerable after a layoff to do a good job of negotiating a better parting package for themselves, said Brown. She recommends getting expert help.

“The lawyer is your fighter, sword and shield,” she said. “They write the tough emails for you when you can’t.”

You don’t need to spend money up front on legal representation, as many attorneys work on contingency, noted Brown.

“You really have nothing to lose,” she said.

Regain control with spending hacks.

No longer having a steady income can cause anxiety. To regain a sense of financial security while job searching, look for small ways to trim your expenses, such as bringing cash to the grocery store instead of using a credit card.

“It makes you mindful of what you spend,” said O’Neill.

Use your new abundance of free time to negotiate lower fees for recurring expenses like internet service, and to reassess whether any monthly bills can be eliminated altogether, added Brown.

Also, take advantage of your lighter schedule to see every health-care provider you normally visit annually before your insurance runs out, said O’Neill. Likewise, if you’ve been putting off a medical concern, now is the time to get it checked out.

“Go on a doctor tour as fast as possible,” she said.

Lift your periscope.

Not only is there nothing wrong with asking people in your network for support after a layoff, it’s also a smart way to move forward, the authors said.

“Fall on your face for a week if you want, but then lift your periscope,” said Brown. “Ask for help. Women especially carry shame about being fired, but people will help if you ask.”

That’s especially true today, she continued, given that more people are looking for work than there are open jobs.

“There’s more empathy,” said Brown. “Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people are going through this. You don’t have the exclusive.”

Meanwhile, remember that your value doesn’t disappear when your job does, added O’Neill. She pointed out that one of the experts she and Brown spoke to for “All the Cool Girls Get Fired” likened employees to library books.

“The company borrows you, but doesn’t own you,” she said. “The knowledge is yours.”

The writer of this article also previously worked at the Wall Street Journal.

• I didn’t realize how true the saying, “It takes a village,” was until I had kids.
• We don’t live near family, but I spent time intentionally building my village.
• While I have plenty of friends and people who come through for me, it’s not the same as family.

Almost as soon as I became pregnant with my first child, I started hearing a familiar refrain. “It takes a village,” co-workers and friends told me repeatedly. I had no idea what raising a child entailed, so I smiled and nodded in response, not realizing how much their words would ring true years later.

At the same time, my parents warned me that having children without family nearby would be difficult, that there was no substitute for family. Yet, my husband and I were confident we could raise our children in Washington, DC, where we had settled, even though we didn’t have family nearby. And, after all, we would have a village if we needed help, I reasoned.

I started building my village early on

Without meaning to, I started building my village before my daughter was born. Another expectant mom in my birth class invited me to join a group of pregnant women with similar due dates. Many moms in the group also lived far from their families, and we vowed to become each other’s support systems. We would cook each other meals after we each gave birth in turn and exchange babysitting once our babies were a little older. Friends without children vowed to be fun aunties who could step in to help.

After I had my daughter, the village came through. After birth, my daughter needed to stay in the NICU. Friends brought me food, support, and love. When my daughter was finally allowed to come home, we had a never-ending stream of visitors that continued for weeks. Friends held my baby so I could shower or drink a cup of tea while it was still hot. Later, they would keep me company on one of my many walks to her follow-up doctor’s appointments.

The village works, I told myself. We would be OK, even without family nearby.

My village got bigger as my children grew

I went on to have three more children, and my village grew. A group of moms I met at the playground formed a babysitting co-op. We cared for each other’s children as if they were our own, on a rotating schedule, for a few hours each week.

Once my children started elementary school, my circle expanded. Those of us who lived far from our families became each other’s emergency contacts. We pledged to drop anything for each other, and we meant it. Once, when I was sick for a few weeks, friends rushed over with food. They took my children for endless walks in the park so I could rest and recover.

I have a long list of people I can text to pick up my youngest child from school if I am running late or need backup for after-school care. There are at least a dozen friends I could call in the middle of the night if I needed help. Friends did not hesitate to offer to check on my husband when he was recovering from an injury, and I needed to go out of town for work.

I am lucky to have such a big village, but I still wish I had family nearby.

Even the best village isn’t the same as family

My village is solid and expansive. However, even the best village doesn’t have the strength of family. Some friends I once considered ride-or-die have faded from my life in a way family never would. Some moved away, and others I stopped seeing as much when our children stopped going to the same school. With others, we simply drifted apart in the natural ebb and flow of life. My village is not a constant presence in the same way that family would be.

Moreover, although my friends don’t keep score, I still hesitate to ask for favors in a way that I wouldn’t with family. I’m careful not to ask for too much help, too often. Yet, if I had family nearby, I would not hesitate to ask for more support. In many cases, family would offer to help without my saying a word.

There are things I would never ask of my village, either. For example, absent a dire emergency, asking friends to take on the heavy lift of staying with my kids overnight is something I would only ask of family.

Sometimes, I think about how nice it would have been to raise my kids near family, knowing we were surrounded by people who loved them almost as much as I do and would always be a part of their lives. People who would always be willing to help. My people. Although my village is fantastic, even though they often feel like family, it’s not the same and never will be.