Category: Business Financing & Funding
Rational Investing vs Irrational Entrepreneurship (Admirable Idealism)
When asked at this year’s meeting, “What matters most at Berkshire Hathaway?” Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett quickly agreed: “Seeing things the way they are.” Rational As Opposed to Smart Warren and Charlie then went to one of their favorite topics about how the success of… Continue reading
Diverse Fundraising Market Requires More Filtering than Ever
Private company fundraising is becoming more diverse, robust, and complicated by the day. This is good news for private companies, but not without some downsides. When unique (and often better) doesn’t fit traditional fundraising A core hypothesis of my investment fund, Greybull Stewardship, is that there… Continue reading
Angel Investing Not As Prevalent nor Effective As You May Think
Angel investing has reached a new level of interest by the general public because start-ups are doing well and there are new ways to be an angel (AngelList, crowdfunding, etc.). The New York Times recently published an article about the pros and cons of angel… Continue reading
Greybull Stewardship Makes Growth Investment in Onsource
My investment fund, Greybull Stewardship, has announced a growth investment in a unique platform that connects insurance companies with third-party vehicle and property photo inspections via smart phone apps. The company, Onsource (www.onsourceonline.com), has a network of over 14,000 independent photo inspectors. I am very excited to… Continue reading
Portfolio Churn — Enemy of Investment Returns
Churn destroys investment return. Strangely, traditional private equity builds itself to churn. Churn reduces investment returns for several reasons such as transaction costs, business disruption, and the difference in tax rates between ordinary income and capital gains. This last difference is the easiest to quantify as… Continue reading
The Mirage and False Hope of an “Exit Strategy”
At best, an exit strategy becomes overrated and a waste of breath. At worst, an exit strategy becomes a destructive mirage of certainty and false hope. I realize that it is conventional wisdom for every entrepreneur to specify their exit strategy. I have even heard… Continue reading
Private Equity Trending Toward Longer Term Models Like Greybull Stewardship
Momentum is growing toward private equity structures with longer term time horizons and movement toward more “permanent capital” — structures that are more similar to Berkshire Hathaway and Greybull Stewardship (my private equity fund focused on companies with $1-3 million in profit). Blackstone private equity… Continue reading
Disparate Data Points: Entrepreneurship Exploding or Dying?
An explosion of young companies that are bootstrapped, or financed outside of traditional venture capital (i.e., Silicon Valley) or traditional bank financing, is what I see every day. I see many companies finding their way to a point of lift-off, stability, and medium-sized revenue and profit… Continue reading
Three More Lessons from Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway
Two recent items helped me draw lessons for how I want to manage my investment firm, Greybull Stewardship. The first is Warren Buffet’s memo that he sent last month to the managers of the 80 businesses of Berkshire, and the other is in the book,… Continue reading
Companies and Founders Deserve Better Financing Options
Business financing and capital raising are full of contradictions. The world is awash in capital, but the availability of capital to businesses is often binary. For some, too much capital is stalking them. For others, the switch to turn on capital flow remains hidden. Size… Continue reading
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