Happy Fri-yay, hubsters! This is Aaron on the Wire today to close out the week. Healthcare services. I listened to a virtual roundtable yesterday about healthcare private equity and M&A, produced by Expert Webcast. Anything healthcare related, you know I am interested in, so I figured I would check it out. One thing that stood out to me is some data about healthcare services. As you all might remember, we got off to a slow start in terms of M&A at the beginning of the year, but there was one sub-sector that was an exception to that. “From Q4 to Q1, the broad MA market saw a 50 percent drop-off in deals,” said Dexter Braff of healthcare M&A advisory group Braff Group. “Healthcare services was down only 16 percent in that same span.” Braff pointed out that we’ve seen healthcare services outperform the broad market before, when the market environment is “a little rough.” Pride. The last Friday of Pride month offers a good moment to highlight a story about a new venture fund that takes an impact investing approach to address structural impediments that LGBTQ+ founders confront in fundraising. It was written by David Bogoslaw, who recently joined Venture Capital Journal as a reporter. David detailed how Colorful Capital aims to broaden LGBTQ+ founders’ access to VC. Colorful Capital was launched by Megan Kashner and William Burckart in early June with a calling to provide capital and support to undervalued founders across varied industries who together have raised less than 1 percent of all US venture funding. Read the whole story here. In case you missed it. PE Hub’s Nina Lindholm wrote a great debut piece earlier this week about Lovell Minnick Partners’ investment in London & Capital and how we expect to see more private equity-backed deals in wealth management. “We think it’s always a good time to invest in financial services, since it drives the global economy,” said Spencer Hoffman, partner at LMP. “It has long-term, secular tailwinds that we think are a great investment opportunity for firms like us.” Read the whole story here. Operational Excellence. Today is the last day to nominate a best-in-class operator for Private Equity International’s Operational Excellence Awards 2022. Find details and the entry form here. Off Duty. Buyouts’ reporter Kirk Falconer has a new off-duty column out. For those not familiar with the series, it provides a snapshot of top investors, including a few details about what they do when not chasing deals. In the latest version, Kristin DePlatchett, a partner with Trilantic North America, is profiled. Here are some excerpts. Professionally, what was your toughest moment? Figuring out what to do with my life when my soccer career ended. I played collegiate and professional soccer – soccer was 99 percent of my focus from the time I was 12 until 23. Colleges really need to add “How to think about your professional career” as required curriculum. I know I can relate to that last point, being a former college pitcher myself. Read the whole story here. That’s going to do it for me. The weather in NYC this weekend is supposed to be amazing! I am heading to the Yankee’s game tonight and then I am dog-sitting - not one but two dogs for the next week, starting tomorrow! Until next Friday… Cheers, Aaron Read thefull wire commentary on PE Hub … | 