The good, the bad and the ugly of the world of consulting.
Consulting Uncensored is where we have straight talk on key topics impacting the consulting industry. Hosted by industry veteran Neal McNamara, who is never short on unfiltered opinions on most things but in particular matters of strategy, leadership, talent and culture.
With decades of experience building and leading high-performing consulting teams, Neal sits down with other industry participants, investors, executives and consumers of consulting services to talk openly about realities of the industry - especially realities that many don't openly discuss or analyze.
Whether you’re a veteran in the industry, early in your career or someone considering a career in consulting, Consulting Uncensored offers an unfiltered look at the industry, what it takes to succeed and ways to grow and build great practices and/or businesses with some fun and entertaining dialogue along the way.
No consulting speak. Real talk. No filters.
Private Equity Is Coming for Legal Services | Seth Deutsch | Consulting Uncensored
What happens when private equity, AI and a $400 billion legal industry collide? In this episode of Consulting Uncensored, Neal sits down with Seth Deutsch, founder of Samson Partners Group, to unpack the rapidly evolving market for private equity investment in legal services. Seth Deutsch brings the perspective of an operator, advisor and investor who has worked extensively with private equity and founder-led businesses. Samson Partners Group advises founders and privately held companies thro...
20 Oct 2026
Independent Sponsors vs. Private Equity Funds: Which Model Wins?
What does it really take to succeed as an independent sponsor in today’s private equity market? In this episode of Consulting Uncensored, Neal McNamara sits down with David Acharya, Managing Partner of Acharya Capital Partners, to talk about the independent sponsor model, middle-market private equity, deal sourcing, and creating value without a traditional committed fund. David shares his journey from investment banking to private equity and ultimately building his own platform, along with le...
28 Sept 2026
Industry Update: PE plus Law, AI Consulting, Deals
This Episode of the Consulting Uncensored Podcast, hosted by Neal McNamara, CEO of Virtas Partners, features a solo episode sharing Neal’s five key observations from Canaccord’s annual Growth Conference. Drawing on conversations with investors and professional services leaders, Neal explores the growing investment activity in law firms, the evolving impact of AI, the rise of AI consulting, a loosening M&A market, and the increasingly common use of Co-CEOs in professional services. Neal br...
14 Sept 2026
The Client Relationship Management Mistakes That Turn a Potential Client Into an Enemy
Consulting Uncensored Podcast, hosted by Neal McNamara, CEO of Virtas Partners, features a solo episode rather than a guest interview. Neil explains how a professional services firm can turn a potential client into an enemy through disrespectful conference communications, weak internal coordination, and poor leadership follow-through, showing listeners how to avoid damaging relationships before they can convert. Neil brings the perspective of an industry veteran who has attended and presented...
29 Jul 2026
Big Four Culture, HUNC Partners, and the Myth of Partnership with Angus Buchanan
Every Big Four practice has partners who haven't sat in front of a client, or sold a dollar of work, in years. Everyone knows exactly who they are. Nobody will touch them. In this episode, Neal sits down with Angus Buchanan, Senior Advisor at Virtas Partners, who spent a decade in the British Army before working across three of the four Big Four firms, plus Accenture. From that rare vantage point, Angus names the thing insiders whisper: the "HUNC" partner (high units, no clients) and the mode...
15 Jul 2026
AI as a Digital Worker: Moving Consulting from Personal Productivity to Organizational Impact with Ray Hsu
Every CEO is telling their teams to "do something with AI," so most firms hand out ChatGPT licenses, call it transformation, and move on. Then they ask it to forecast demand or reconcile five years of data, get a generic answer, and decide AI "isn't ready." In this episode, Neal sits down with Ray Hsu, Vice President and General Manager at RapidCanvas, a native-AI company that pairs a secure, agentic platform with human experts in the loop. They explore the gap almost no one in professional s...
1 Jul 2026
How to Turn a Potential Client into an Enemy: A Conference Invitation Failure
Have you ever watched a firm with real talent completely sabotage a relationship through sheer carelessness? In this episode, Neal shares a firsthand account of being disinvited, and essentially accused of planning to crash a party, by an investment bank conference his firm had attended and presented at before. Neal uses the experience as a real-world case study in how poor communication, absent leadership, and a lack of accountability can turn a potential client into an adversary overnight. ...
17 Jun 2026
The Long Game: Building Relationships and Credibility in Consulting with Grant Marcks
What separates great business development from everyone else? In this episode, Neal sits down with Grant Marcks, Partner at The Riverside Company, to explore why winning work in private equity and consulting depends on patience, credibility, and long-term relationship-building. Grant explains how thoughtful “no” responses can create future goodwill, why silence damages trust, and how strong references compound across tight professional ecosystems. The conversation also dives into what priva...
3 Jun 2026
The Buy-and-Build Playbook: How StoicLane Is Rolling Up Professional Services and Keeping It Forever
Most investors are laser-focused on the exit. StoicLane Co-founder and President Matt Foran is playing a completely different game: acquiring fragmented, founder-led businesses in finance, insurance, and real estate, and turning them into best-in-class organizations they intend to own indefinitely. In this episode, Neal sits down with Matt to explain the philosophy behind StoicLane's permanent capital model, from $300M+ deployed across 87 acquisitions to their accounting firm roll-up, Archer ...
22 May 2026
New Challenges to the Big 4 and the Questionable Responses
The consulting industry is entering a more volatile phase as the Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) face a new kind of competition: former partners building well-funded firms designed to compete directly with them. As industry giants respond with aggressive legal action, they are forced to balance protecting their market share with broader risks around culture, talent, and long-term positioning. In this episode, Neal explores whether these hardball tactics could backfire, impacting ...
22 May 2026
Leading from the Front: How to Build and Lead Boutique Consulting Firms
Most consulting leaders say “people are our greatest asset,” then design firms where the best people burn out, stall out, or quietly leave. In this episode, Neal sits down with Jason Gandy, CEO of Performance Improvement Partners, a technology advisory and private equity–focused consulting firm, to examine what it actually looks like to lead from the front in a modern consulting business where careers, culture, and revenue all collide. Listen in as they discuss the real implications of ...
22 May 2026
The Current State of the Consulting Market: What Are Private Equity Investors Saying about Deals, Fund Raising and AI?
In this episode of Consulting Uncensored, Virtas Partners founder and CEO Neal McNamara provides an update from two recent private equity conferences on what investors are saying about the consulting industry with regards to deals, value creation, and the disruption being caused by AI. Neal shares what’s real, what’s noise, and what consulting and Office of the CFO leaders need to pay attention to next. To read the full show notes and explore more resources on consulting, private equity, and ...
27 Apr 2026
Consulting Uncensored - Intro Trailer
What really happens inside the world of consulting? Consulting Uncensored is a space for unfiltered conversations about the realities most people don’t talk about. Host Neal McNamara draws on decades of experience across the industry, from technical delivery and leading global teams to building and scaling a consulting firm from the ground up. This podcast will dive into leadership, strategy, culture, career growth, and industry trends—without the usual consulting speak. Expect raw insigh...
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