Elite Instructors: Founders & Investors
Our instructors are a rare combination of founders, operators, and seasoned buy-side professionals who’ve built, scaled, and sold companies, and continue to invest across industries.
They don’t just lecture, they train through lived experience.
Najeeb BaquiÂ
Najeeb is BuySide Studio's Connector In Chief.
He is the Managing Director at Tinsley Park Partners, a Private Investment firm based in Houston, Texas. He is responsible for all activities of the firm including sourcing, valuation, transaction structuring, portfolio management and all administrative activities.
Prior to TPP, Najeeb was at Hastings Equity Partners, a lower middle market private equity fund where he was involved in multiple private equity transactions, portfolio company operations, negotiations, investment strategy and sourcing. He also worked at First Capital, a private credit firm which was acquired by Ares Capital Management in 2015, Rockspring Capital, a Houston based private equity firm and Asian Tiger Capital Partners, an international asset management and advisory firm. Najeeb started his career at Pershing LLC, a former subsidiary of Credit Suisse.
He graduated from Pace University with a BBA in Finance and a minor in Economics.
Douglas Groat
Doug is BuySide Studio's Deal Architect.
He is an Investment Manager at Tinsley Park Partners, a Private Investment firm based in Houston, Texas. Douglas is responsible for all activities of the firm including valuation, transaction structuring, portfolio management and all administrative activities.
Prior to TPP, Douglas spent 6 years at Värde Partners as a Director sourcing, executing, and managing across energy and industrial sectors with primary focuses on direct asset-level acquisitions as well as structured equity & credit. Before Värde, Douglas was a private equity associate for Ridgemont Equity Partners and an investment banker for Macquarie Capital.
He received his BS in Industrial Engineering and his BA in Economics from Northwestern University.
Jeff Noland
Jeff is BuySide Studio's Real World Professor.Â
Jeff brings over 25 years of operational finance and leadership experience across the finance, real estate, and technology industries. As co-founder, CFO, and COO of DartPoints—a developer and operator of edge data centers—he led the company from startup to a $30M+ business before its sale to a private equity firm, overseeing finance, operations, capital raising, and M&A. Before DartPoints, Jeff served as CFO of a commercial finance firm, where he closed a $30M non-recourse credit facility during the 2008–10 credit crisis, and managed acquisitions and development for a California real estate private equity firm. Earlier in his career, he worked in Silicon Valley at Siebel Systems (later acquired by Oracle), negotiating technology partnerships, and began his professional journey in investment banking.
He earned his B.S. in Finance from Miami University (Ohio) and his MBA in Entrepreneurial Management, Electronic Commerce, and Finance (triple major) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
