01
An operator we'd work for
The single most important input. We need to believe in the person running the business, because we're going to spend years alongside them.
Our approach
How we invest
We are a family office. That means our own capital, no fund clock, and no obligation to sell a company we still believe in.
We invest in people
Ask most investors what they look for and you'll get a sector, a stage, and a check size. We think that gets the order wrong.
We're industry agnostic, genuinely, not as a hedge. Our positions include a behavioral health services organization, a healthcare software platform, and a business funding marketplace. Nothing about those industries connects them. What connects them is the people running them.
That's not a soft criterion. Operators can be evaluated: how they handle information that contradicts their plan, whether they hire people better than themselves, what they do in the month a major customer leaves. We've watched enough companies through enough cycles to know what those signals look like, and we weight them above market size.
The corollary matters too. Because we're backing people rather than a category, we don't need a sector to be in favor. We can invest in an unfashionable business with an exceptional operator, and we can pass on a hot market with a team we don't believe in.
Criteria
Four things
02
A path to real cash flow
Not a path to the next round. We underwrite to the day the business funds itself, and we need to be able to see that day from where we're standing.
03
A place where we're actually useful
If our leadership experience doesn't change the trajectory, we're just money, and there's cheaper money than ours. We want situations where our involvement is the difference.
04
A partnership we want
We take active roles. That only works if both sides want it. The best outcomes in our portfolio came from founders who wanted a partner in the room, not a quarterly update to send.
We take the seat
"Value add" usually means a slack channel and an introduction. We mean something more specific and more demanding.
Depending on what a company needs, our involvement has looked like stepping into operating leadership, rebuilding a management team, restructuring a capital stack, sitting in on pricing and payer negotiations, and being the person management calls on a Sunday when something has broken.
We don't do this to every company we back, and we don't do it forever. The goal is always to build an organization that no longer needs us in that role. But when a business needs hands rather than advice, we're able to provide them, and we'd rather be honest that this is how we work than surprise a founder later.
Cash on cash
We hold ourselves to two numbers: return on the capital we deploy, and cash on cash returned to us over the life of the investment.
We deliberately don't measure ourselves on paper marks. A valuation is an opinion until someone pays it. Cash distributed is a fact.
This discipline shapes how we behave as partners. It means we push companies toward economics that work rather than growth that requires perpetual refinancing. It means we'd rather own a durable business generating real cash than a larger one that needs a favorable market to survive. And because we have no fund life forcing an exit, we can hold a good business for as long as it stays a good business.
We're not the right partner for everyone
We'd rather say this up front than discover it in month six.
If you want passive capital, we're a poor fit. We take active roles, and we'll have opinions about how the business is run.
If the plan depends on a step change in valuation rather than a path to cash flow, we're not the investor for that. Others do it well; we don't.
If the business is already working and doesn't need what we bring, you should take money that's cheaper and quieter than ours.
If you're not looking for a long relationship, our structure is built for the opposite.
We'd rather have a short conversation and a clear answer than a long one and a bad partnership.