A balance sheet tells us whether a company works. It never tells us whether the person running it is worth backing — so we start with the owner, and we back a small number of them each year.
We look at a great many companies and back very few. Four things have to be true — and the first is not about the company at all.
Still running it, still deciding. We have never invested through a committee.
Profitable, and profitable for years. Nothing we do is a turnaround.
Independent. Not a franchise, and not a division of something larger.
The market you sit in is considerably larger than the share you hold.
Four steps. Nothing is asked of you but an answer to the question above.
Grow it, or sell it one day. A few minutes, and nothing more is asked.
Properly, and before we meet. A partner does this himself.
Either we ask you to a second meeting, or we write to you. You will not be chasing us.
There are two ways we take a position. Which one suits is decided in the room.
Most of the companies we look at are not ones we can back, and we say so plainly rather than leaving it hanging.
Either way you keep what we found. A partner reads the company the way a buyer would, and that read is yours whether or not we ever do business.
That is the whole question. Answer it in a line or two and a partner will read it himself.
A partner will read this and come back to you himself. There is nothing further you need to do.