“AS-IS” Ventures Limited, Special Situations

Business card number 000. “AS-IS” Ventures, Special Situations. Caveat EMPTOR, Senior Partner. Substance Over Form.
Reverse of the card. “AS-IS” Ventures Limited, Special Situations.

New card. What do you think?

Bone. Lettering: Silian Rail.

Business card number 001. “AS-IS” Ventures, Special Situations. Pari PASSU, Senior Partner. Substance Over Form.

Eggshell. The difference is material.

Lettering: Romalian. Names have been changed.

Card number 002. Special SITUATIONS. Asset, Constraint, Catalyst.

Why this asset. Why this situation. Why now.

Sound assets in awkward positions: a real franchise or cash flow, a temporary constraint or mispricing, and an event that removes it.

Pale Nimbus. Raised lettering.

Card number 003. Venture CAPITAL. The Same Questions, Earlier.

Substance ahead of form.

Early positions in companies that are better than they look. We ask the same three questions, only sooner.

Off-white. Tasteful thickness. It even has a watermark.

There is an idea of a company, some kind of abstraction.

We invest in the other thing.

We read the contract, then the cash flows. When they disagree, we believe the cash flows.

A fax from the partners of “AS-IS” Ventures, headed Morning routine.
We believe in taking care of the balance sheet, a sensible capital structure and a rigorous diligence routine. If the numbers look puffy in the morning, we apply a cold compress of audited accounts. Then a deep cleanse of the capital structure and an exfoliating review of related-party transactions. The term sheet stays on for ten minutes while we prepare the rest of the model. We use a valuation with little or no adjustment. Adjustments dry out the EBITDA and make you look older. Then a final protective covenant. Number crunches: we can do a thousand now.
Card number 004. Reservations, by INTRODUCTION.

Reservations by introduction.

We do not publish a telephone number. Ask someone who has eaten here.