Investment Criteria

We try to select and manage investments in a value-added style, focusing on both the strategic and operational levels of our portfolio companies.  We look for investments with solid underlying strategic characteristics that include:

• Large and growing market
• A real solution to a real (and immensely painful) problem
• A solution developed with significant customer input
• World-class management team
• Significant barriers to entry
• A well-conceived plan
• A defensible niche focus
• Ability to be dominant in industry
• Profitable long-term business model
• Ability to attract and retain employees

These strategic factors enable (or inhibit) the opportunity for an investment to grow into a market-leading entity. Without these factors favoring an investment opportunity, superior execution by the company will not yield the market leadership and financial returns that our investors expect.

Also preferred are opportunities where structural, regulatory, scale or technological barriers to entry exist and can be sustained over the life of the investment. These barriers to entry offer rewards to those who have overcome them: fewer competitors, less pressure on prices and margins and, consequently, more potentially lucrative cash flow streams.

Even if the strategic factors are favorable, solid “nuts-and-bolts” execution is still a critical defining success factor for young companies. Accordingly, we help entrepreneurs with:

• Management team recruitment
• Salary/compensation planning & administration
• Business & market planning
• Financial structuring & financial projections
• Competitive intelligence
• Strategic planning & alliances
• Operational design & reviews
• Accounting systems design & management
• Information technology planning & selection
• Board and senior management level participation