Founder-Centricity in Corporate Venture World

Founders are key to building high-growth businesses.

There is a reason why Dream Big is our first Principle at ABI. The Founders in our ecosystem are the ones who first had the Big Dream. In many cases, they quit high-paying day jobs and stepped off the “normal” career path to chase their Dream, for a fraction of the money they were making. They took both personal and professional risks to chase their Dream and we should have a profound respect for their having done so.

We know that People are the most important part of our business, which is why recruiting and retention is so critical for our success. But imagine how hard it is to recruit and build Teams, when you are under-funded and unable to pay market salaries, are crammed in a shitty office, and are unable to provide employee benefits. Founders that have built Teams are successful because of their ability to convince People to share their Dream. These early-stage employees also take significant personal and professional risks, working for lower than market salaries, forgoing promotions, benefits and in many cases, work-life balance, to help achieve the Dream.

The Founder and their key employees are the Dream Team. We need to be mindful of their shared Dream, of their sacrifices and respectful of their grit and determination to make their shared Dream a reality.

Founders wake up in the morning, every day, with the sole purpose of realising their Dream. They have a singular vision, passion and purpose and in many cases, the scar tissue from being told their Dream is unrealistic, from struggling to make payroll, from carrying the burden of having shared their Dream with others and of setting expectations. Founders' passion, grit and determination are infectious and the Dream Team feeds off of this.

When we acquire a small business, we become custodians of their Dream. We have to buy into the Dream and our mission is to help the Dream Team dream even bigger and then to enable their success by giving them the space (autonomy) to build their businesses, the oxygen (capital) to fund their growth, and to make available our assets (People, capabilities, reach, etc.) to shift their growth curve up and to the right.

We structure our deals to ensure the Founders are incented to driving growth for the long term. We need them to wake up every morning, excited about the Dream, embracing the challenge and building even bigger Dream Teams.

Let’s be worthy of their trust in us, as their Dream is also our Dream.