Active investing, Part 1: why we get involved

Most investors say they add value. Far fewer can tell you what they actually did last quarter. Active investing, for us, is the difference between the two.

We are hands-on with the companies we back, by choice and by design. This is Part 1 of three: why an investor would choose to be involved at all. Part 2 looks at why founders want it. Part 3 is a case study.

So why take the harder, less scalable path?

You see the problems before they cost you

Being in the business, not just on the board, means real-time visibility. You catch the issues while they are still small and fixable. A passive cheque finds out at the quarterly update, often too late to do much about it.

You can actually move the outcome

Capital alone rarely changes a company's trajectory. Operating time does. A fractional CFO through a scale phase, a hand running the raise, someone building the commercial engine, that is the work that compounds into a better result and a more valuable company.

You build something that outlasts the deal

Working next to a founder for years builds a kind of trust a term sheet never will. That relationship is worth more than any single investment. It is how the best opportunities, and the best people, come back around.

None of this scales to fifty companies, and that is the point. We back a small number and stay close, with people on the ground in Australia, the UK and the US. It is the only kind of investing we think is worth doing with our own capital.