The cornerstone of our investment approach is to support outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams build businesses to which we can add value. We believe the essential element of a successful partnership is one in which both parties (management and investors) contribute to maximizing the success and value of the enterprise. We refer to this philosophy as 'partnership investing' - developing strong partnerships with the management teams of our portfolio companies and assuming equal responsibility for building value.

Our goal is to help build companies that have the promise to become market leaders. We seek companies that are demonstrating strong revenue growth and where technological or market acceptance risk has been significantly mitigated. We generally serve as the lead investor, assuming the primary responsibility for due diligence, deal negotiations, and board representation. We also prefer to be the first institutional investor in a company. Since we invest in later stage growth companies, this means that we often fund experienced entrepreneurs who have the personal resources and/or ability to boot strap companies past the early and developmental stages and into the expansion phase. Most of our investments involve taking meaningful minority (i.e. non-controlling) equity interests; except for management buyouts, in which case we may acquire a majority of the equity.

Our investment strategy, which has been refined over more than 18 years of private equity investing, is based on the following five fundamental principles:

• Seek and support outstanding management teams and entrepreneurs.
• Establish strong partnerships with our entrepreneurs, built on a shared commitment to success and excellence.
• Focus on companies that have the ability to become market leaders in rapidly growing or consolidating industries.
• Invest in proven business models, with companies experiencing positive business momentum.
• Target companies to which we can utilize our firm’s full resources and bring substantial value.