THE COSTS OF INACTION - OPPORTUNITY COST
There's nothing more frustrating than when you're giving a precious client advice that you have garnered over 30 years of assisting fast growth companies to scale and optimise VALUE CREATION and ultimately EXIT
when that well-meaning heartfelt advice is
IGNORED
It's a little like when I used to present strategic opportunities to the Gresham Private Equity board 2000-2008.
Examples :
We discussed each of these individual options for 5-6 hours and then ALWAYS
NOTHING ever got green-lighted.
Let's not even mention the Virgin Active investment (2001) declined (bizarrely and irrationally by an autocratic narcissist CEO - that was "no credit committee" for sure) - ONLY a ￡100 million plus capital gain MISSED, gratefully accepted by Bridgepoint (but allegedly according to said narc CEO "the returns weren't adequate" WTAF?); or indeed
declining my proposed re-investment into 1st Credit (2004) which, ONLY left a ￡250 million EV uplift on the table by 2006.
You get my point.
Well, Karma is a wonderful thing and a few short years after I left Gresham PE in early 2009 (and a couple of other excellent Investment Directors jumped ship a year or so prior to that) the whole $1 bn fund was in liquidation
WHAT A WASTE
Just as it was a complete WASTE last week when my client of around 3 months standing,
baulked at the plan to prepare a detailed financial model led by Swan Partners.
The team at Swan Partners has been helping me raise money for startups since 2009.
I've been in management team as either respectively CIO/CEO/CFO (see in the end even I can get demoted?) and collectively raised c. $1bn
Swan Partners role has been fundamental to all of the hardest of those fundraisings so I'm delighted that we are working together again.
What's their VALUE ADD. They definitely have a capabilty to ask the difficult, curious questions, there's a rigour to all of their models as they have T accounting at their foundation, the business model assessment is granular and the process is creatively innovative (always taking us in unplanned directions which add enormous insight and value), the sensitivities are always well thought through commercial drivers of the business and
ultimately the PROBABILITY of raising money with a Swan Partners financial model is probably enhanced by 25-50% every time (depending on the starting point).
In the case of my client that's deferring the project
kicking the proverbial can down the road
Er, hello, its 2023 we're supposed to be going faster
"SLOW IS DEADLY, ONLY according to the $125 bn net worth bloke from Amazon, Jeff Bezos...
So anything INNOVATIVE needs to be
putting THE PEDAL TO THE METAL
Why?
Disruption is UBIQUITOUS
did I mention that it's the inflection point of the 4th and 5th INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The greatest VALUE CREATION OPPORTUNITY in HUMAN HISTORY
Don't bother waking up you're local friendly PE investor
He's likely way too busy making sure his LOSS RATIOS conform with the requirements of his INSTITUTIONAL "LP" INVESTORS
Question : ever met anyone that improved (in any material or valuable way)
after spending 20 years getting INSTITUTIONALISED
Hmmm, didn't think so.
领英推荐
Make the LAND GRAB before someone else steals your lunch
I ran a back of the envelope calculation and
I think my client is going to be down ￡100-200m in 12 months on a 5 year view to 2028.
But then what do I know ?
On to the next "wannabe" Unicorn
I have a veritable sausage machine generating a pipeline of opportunities
just maybe that's because I do know what I'm doing?
And now I have a FUND to raise as well
so that we can control the access to funding for
these DISRUPTIVE IP RICH businesses
So I'm NOT short of things to do and
KICKING CANS DOWN THE ROAD
will never be on my TO DO list.
And while you’re here…
Meantime let’s NOT lose sight of what Mvrck Capital actually does :
WE TAKE MORE CARE OF YOU?
INVESTORS |?FOUNDERS RAINMAKERS |??OUR STAFF
We lead from the heart, with ZERO lie-ability
Mvrck Capital targets ?? ONLY SUPER SEXY?
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RICH companies?
Rich IP : think IT, software, systems integration, saas, Augmented Intelligence, synthetic biology, blockchain, deep data, the Metaverse, gaming, biotechnology, nanotechnology, 3D printing, IoT, advanced robotics
IR4 now blurring the lines between digital, physical, medical
IR5 soon, blurring the lines between man and machine?
Read that again?
anything IP RICH
And by accessing/ deploying intelligent CAPITAL?
to accelerate our client’s SUCCESS?
we help generate a MASSIVE DELTA
For their TIME MONEY and FREEDOM
Because OUR IP is knowing HOW to help Founders access MORE $CAPITAL and yet deliver a LESS DILUTIVE capital structure?
Meantime if you’re a FOUNDER of a disruptive wannabe UNICORN?
You better HIRE Mvrck Capital
Answers on a postcard Babyboomers?
Use the notes ?? GenXers & GenYers