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Chris Reilly

Background

Chris Reilly is a Managing Director and newly made partner at VRA Partners, a boutique investment bank headquartered in Atlanta focused on lower middle market and middle market M&A (enterprise values of $30M–$350M). He leads VRA's in-house origination team of three, covering referral sources, sponsor relationships, and direct business owner outreach.

Chris took a non-traditional path to investment banking. He started in Big Four audit at Ernst & Young working with publicly traded companies, then spent time at a large chemical manufacturer traveling internationally. He earned his MBA at Emory University while working at VC-backed startups, and interned at a large growth equity fund headquartered in Mumbai doing investing in Southeast Asia. Post-MBA, he joined a family office doing principal direct deals on a deal-by-deal basis, where he discovered his calling in deal sourcing. He joined VRA Partners approximately 10 years ago, initially for a coverage/origination role, and has built his career there.

He is based in Florida, while VRA's main office is in Atlanta.

Appearances

  • Ep. 23: Deals Still Run on Relationships — Deep dive into how PE firms should engage boutique bankers, VRA's multi-channel origination strategy, and why COI/referral relationships are the primary deal flow channel in the lower middle market.

Key Views & Frameworks

  • On Engaging Boutique Bankers: The firms that succeed are those who invest in Reciprocal Relationship Building — bringing thematic ideas, market intelligence, and personal connection rather than transactional "show me the pipeline" behavior. Bankers track bid history and process behavior; this determines access to narrow processes and fireside chats.

  • On Referral Networks and COIs: Wealth advisors and M&A attorneys are the tier-one referral sources. Wealth advisors have a powerful economic incentive: AUM capture from liquidity events plus referral fee sharing. Chris advocates the AUM Defense Strategy — independent wealth managers should partner with independent banks to prevent larger banks from capturing their clients' assets.

  • On Origination and Deal Sourcing: VRA runs three origination channels — referral sources (primary), sponsor coverage (secondary), and direct outreach to business owners. KPIs include market visits, pitches (shots on goal), and revenue. Geographic markets are prioritized by density of COI relationships. Chris describes a tactic of building direct calling lists and sharing them with COI partners as a goodwill gesture.

  • On the evolution of BD: The BD professional in private equity has gotten "a lot more sophisticated" — moving from "teaser gatherers" to execution-experienced professionals who articulate criteria well and bring real thematic research.

Notable Quotes

"I feel like I'm in the goodwill business in terms of building relationships." — Ep. 23

"It just can't be super transactional. Show me the pipeline, give me the teaser, we're going to bid. There's plenty of money out there. Everybody sells money." — Ep. 23

"We're an independent investment bank and all we do is M&A advisory and capital raising. So there's no conflict whatsoever." — Ep. 23