OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our philosophy is predicated on a number of key elements:Our sole focus is investing in technology businesses. We understand technology businesses. Unlike generalist funds, we bring experience and an informed perspective with regards to technology trends, industry structure and competitive trends relevant to a growing technology company. Likewise, our focus manifests itself in a broad network of relationships that are uniquely valuable to helping technology businesses grow and establish true market leadership.
We are committed to partnering with management teams. Our strong preference is to back existing management teams. We seek to work with teams that have a plan for the future in which our capital base, strategic and operational assistance and relationships can be helpful in executing.
Growth is a key value driver for all our portfolio companies. We are an investment firm that relies on growth, not structure or leverage, as a key value driver. We pursue investments in businesses with a sustainable competitive advantage in end-markets that are growing at attractive rates. Our approach allows us to maintain a consistent strategy for both new investments and in working with portfolio companies regardless of the ups and downs in the economic cycles, credit markets or broader equity markets. We will seek the optimal capital structure for any business, but—unlike many firms—if we are attracted to a team, business model and end-market opportunity, we are not dependent on debt to complete an investment.
We bring a fundamental value discipline to technology investing. We are focused on the management team quality, fundamental business economics and long-term growth opportunity in every investment. These are far more important to us than the latest trend, or as is often the case in the technology industry, the hot new technology fad. We find our orientation brings a different discipline—in terms of transaction execution, valuation assessment, structuring and financing and post-investment value creation—to mid-market technology investment opportunities than is typically evident in technology investment firms or leveraged buyout firms. Our approach is grounded by the philosophy that value is created by focusing on business fundamentals not necessarily unique to the technology industry. These include a focus on high quality management, operational excellence, optimal capital structures and a disciplined long-term growth strategy.
Our view is toward long-term value creation. We take a long-term view of a company's performance and focus our efforts on consistently increasing underlying business value, without regard to capital market movements or relative valuation metrics at any given point in time. We believe applying these fundamental principles with a highly specialized focus on technology businesses and end-markets represents an approach differentiated from other sources of private equity capital for the technology industry.
