Tag Archives: Private Equity
Competitive Advantage Leads to Persistently Good Performance — Like Top Tier VC Firms
It is good to be the incumbent. Usually. They have often built competitive advantages over time. Except maybe in the ever-changing world of technology, it is usually an advantage for a business to have been around a long time and to have established customers, suppliers,… Continue reading
New Twist on Venture Capital with Better Risk-Adjusted Investment Returns
A higher return investment can have a broad distribution of potential outcomes, as conveyed by this graph from Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management (the graph is from his book The Most Important Things Illuminated). This graph is a more helpful way to understand risk… Continue reading
Built to Last or Built to Flip?
Is your business built to last or built to flip? No question influences your business strategy more than this one. There is no right answer — either strategy is fine. However, making sure that you have alignment throughout your organization on this question is very… Continue reading
Like Warren Buffett, Best Investment Philosophy Balances Discipline with Flexibility
Warren Buffett is famous for his discipline in his early investing success. Now, I think he is demonstrating his flexibility (some are critical of his recent flexibility) in investment philosophy. Both are important skills for business owners and managers to master and to know when… Continue reading
Unique Businesses Are A Force For Good
The best businesses are not just about making money. It is necessary to make money to stay in business, but it is not sufficient for the business to be worth your time. That is why the strongest businesses, in my opinion, are the ones that… Continue reading
Investment Strategy & Structure Is the #1 Thing Founders and CEO’s Should Watch In Raising Capital
To be better, one must first be different. Thus, good strategy focuses on understanding differences and creating differences. This also applies to investment firms — differences in structure often drives the strategy. Any entrepreneur or business owner considering raising capital needs to understand the structure… Continue reading
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
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
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