Why We Started a Podcast About Roll-Ups
The roll-up model is everywhere right now. Private equity firms are backing buy-and-build strategies across every traditional service industry you can think of — facilities management, healthcare services, home services, industrial maintenance. The thesis is straightforward: acquire fragmented businesses, bring them together, create a platform that's worth more than the sum of its parts.
But here's what most people don't talk about: the integration.
Buying companies is the exciting part. Integrating them is where the real work happens. CRM consolidation across five different systems. Data migration from legacy platforms nobody documented. Training teams who've been doing things their own way for twenty years. Getting consolidated financial reporting when every company runs a different version of Sage or Xero.
That's where the stories are. And that's why RolyPoly exists.
Post-Merger Integration Stories You Won't Hear Anywhere Else
Every episode follows the same loose structure: we start with the guest's origin story — how they ended up in the roll-up world — then get into the real work. What does post-merger integration actually look like when you're doing it across three, five, ten companies? What goes wrong? What did they wish they'd known?
We cover the topics that matter to anyone involved in acquisitions and integration:
- How operators handle IT systems consolidation after a merger — the practical reality of getting acquired companies onto group systems without breaking operations.
- The data migration challenges nobody warns you about — from CRM integration post-merger to ERP unification, why moving data between companies is harder than anyone expects.
- Building integration playbooks that actually work — how the best operators create repeatable processes so each acquisition gets easier, not harder.
- The human side of post-acquisition integration — training employees on new systems, managing resistance, and keeping acquired teams engaged through change.
We also get into the bigger questions. How is AI changing post-merger integration? What does a good first 100 days plan look like? When should you outsource integration vs. build an internal team?
Who This Acquisition Podcast Is For
If any of these describe you, you're in the right place:
- You're a COO or operations leader at a roll-up, managing the messy reality of integrating acquired businesses while keeping day-to-day operations running.
- You're a private equity investor backing buy-and-build strategies and want to understand what integration actually looks like on the ground — beyond the deal thesis.
- You're an integration manager or IT director responsible for unifying systems, data, and workflows across companies that were never designed to work together.
- You're a founder or operator building a roll-up and trying to figure out how to scale without the wheels falling off.
- Or you're just curious about how businesses actually come together after an acquisition — the stories, the lessons, and the reality behind the headlines.
About the Host
Dylan Harrocks is the founder of PMI Stack, a consultancy that helps roll-ups execute the technical side of post-merger integration — data migration, system unification, and getting acquired companies onto group platforms without disrupting operations.
Before starting PMI Stack, Dylan founded Nexus Creative, a Webflow studio for B2B tech companies. He's spent years in the trenches of systems integration and saw firsthand how roll-ups struggle to unify their technology after acquisitions.
RolyPoly is his way of pulling back the curtain on what integration really looks like — by talking to the people doing it every day.
