In today’s private equity market, there is more capital available than ever before. We believe that differentiation is critical to our long-term success. Greenmont is different than nearly every other investment group along the following dimensions:
Proprietary Deal Flow: Because of our Natural Product Industry advisors, we see opportunities that other firms will not. In each of the regions where our advisor’s live, they have built up a long standing reputation for being helpful to companies in the LOHAS category. Because these deals are often too small or don’t fit the focus of more traditional private equity firms, entrepreneurs seek out our advisors when they raise capital.
Focus and Size: A very small percentage of private equity is focused on small sub $5M consumer oriented deals in the Green, Sustainable or LOHAS market. We are the preferred provider of capital in nearly every opportunity we consider, and are almost always a good fit with larger co-investors.
Decision making: We rely heavily on the Natural Product Industry veterans on our Investment Committee. In addition to a proven track record in building successful companies, they bring an invaluable intuition to assessing the potential of opportunities we consider.
Knowledge of the LOHAS Customer: The LOHAS market traces its origin to the Natural Product Industry. Because of our background in natural food and beverage, Greenmont possesses an unequaled understanding of how to successfully market products and services to the LOHAS customer.
Humility and Compassion: Greenmont is a fund founded by mission-driven entrepreneurs. We have walked in the shoes of today’s entrepreneurs in the LOHAS market. We understand the importance of preserving a company’s mission, vision, values and beliefs. We seek to be a pleasure to work with and to jointly solve problems and challenges as they arise, rather than point blame on management.
Value-Added: Most private equity firms claim to be value-added investors. Nearly all entrepreneurs say they are looking for more than just money, which is often hard to accomplish. Because our industry partners participate at the Board level of our companies and we offer up the entire Greenmont network as a resource, we are able to firmly back up our claim of being valuable to the management of our companies.
Flexibility: If we are excited about an opportunity we will figure out a way to invest capital. For example, we will consider investments in LLCs (which in some cases are required to take advantage of Green tax incentives or other credits), PIPEs, Subordinated Debt or Special Situations.
Location: We are located in Colorado which is home to a significant percentage of today’s Green Businesses. We believe this region will one day be considered the Silicon Valley of the Green Business market.