Category: Business Financing & Funding
Investment Returns of Venture Capital vs Greybull Stewardship
Investment returns in venture capital as an asset class have not been good for a long time. To me, that result is somewhat predictable. Great investment returns are not going to come from anything where you have to swing for the fences with every investment… Continue reading
BCG Study: Superior Investment Returns From Family Business
Deep wisdom exists in how family businesses are managed for the long-term. In fact, the financial returns for closely held businesses outperform their peer groups across business cycles according to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group and Sophie Mignon of Ecole Polytechnique. While… Continue reading
Financial Audit Helpful for Financing, Funding, and Selling Your Business
My first financial audit was intimidating. My company, Student Advantage, was preparing for its IPO in 1999 and the audit firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, needed to audit all of the material entities that had merged with Student Advantage during the prior few years. My little start-up company,… Continue reading
Founder & VC Misalignment More Often Than Thought
The misalignment between vc’s and founders is painfully obvious from the quotes below from the IPO S-1 filing of Applied Medical Corp. (Dan Primack of Fortune did the reporting and should get the credit). First is the company stating why they are going public (bold emphasis mine). … Continue reading
Kissing a Lot of Frogs: Smaller Companies Must Work to Find Investment Financing
Competitive advantages can both increase and decrease as a business gets larger. One thing that gets easier for larger companies is attracting business investment and financing. The chart below from John Paglia at the Pepperdine Business School demonstrates the shortage in capital and investment sources… Continue reading
You Are What You Eat (or Where You Get Your Investment)
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” said French lawyer and epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Similarly, tell me where you got the investment for your business and I will tell you what is in store for your business. Each… Continue reading
Optimal Owner for a School — Not Private Equity or Wall Street
The School Business Finding a perfect match between a business and an owner is not easy. This hit home to me last week at a gathering for private post-secondary schools in California where I heard an owner of a private, post-secondary school describe an epiphany… Continue reading
Honey, I Shrunk the Definition of “Long-Term Investing”
Defining Long Term Investing Three years is “long-term investing” according to a discussion I attended last week. The discussion was among a handful of family office investors who help manage money for Haim Saban (participated in sale of Fox Family to Walt Disney), Eric Schmidt… Continue reading
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