customer success
database administration
Datavail
demand generation
dmclean
entrepreneur
focus
growth enablers
Growth Equity
growth inhibitors
Hedgehog Concept
humility
influencer relationship management
investment focus
Lead Generation
leverage buyout
operational scaling
owner-operated
Purpose
respect for capital
SaaS
scaling
team development
Technology-Enabled Services
TES
Traackr
Unicorn
Unicorpse
value creation
Venture Capital
Workhorse
Workhorse Capital
Beyond the First 100 Days – Finding Your Cadence
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity /by Dave McLeanAs CEO, your most important job after taking growth financing is to help your team find its cadence. Only then will your team consistently deliver against their financial and operational goals.
The First 100 Days – The Map Room
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity /by Dave McLeanCongratulations! Your thriving, bootstrapped business just closed its first and possibly last round of growth equity financing. Although the process might have taken a little longer than you expected, it’s all about the outcome; you now have a fully-funded growth plan with a company-building partner to help you and the team achieve your long-term objectives. So […]
Workhorse Capital Invests in Traackr
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity, New Investments, Traackr /by Derek PillingDave and I are delighted to share that we’ve made an investment in Traackr, the leading provider of influencer relationship management (“IRM”) solutions for brand marketers. Our investment in Traackr highlights our emerging growth-equity investment focus. By all measures, the company is an already-successful SaaS business. The company serves well over 100 enterprise-class customers, having established […]
The Big 3: Demand Generation
/0 Comments/in Big 3 Scaling Imperatives /by Dave McLeanIn our last post, we touched on some of the operational scaling challenges associated with nearly every growth-stage tech-enabled services (TES) businesses. Today we turn our attention to the last and arguably the most ubiquitous growth imperative, demand generation. So what exactly do we mean by demand generation? Let’s start with what it’s not. If […]
Datavail Announces Acquisition of AdvancedEPM Consulting
/0 Comments/in Datavail, Portfolio News /by Derek PillingOn March 6th, 2017 Oracle Consultancy Deepens Expertise in Enterprise Performance Management BROOMFIELD, Colorado, and CLEVELAND, Ohio – March 6, 2017 – Datavail, a leading provider of managed services for database management, analytics, and application life cycle management, today announced the acquisition of AdvancedEPM Consulting, an Oracle Platinum Partner focused on Oracle Enterprise Performance Management […]
The Big 3: Operational Scaling in Your SaaS or Tech-Enabled Service Business
/0 Comments/in Big 3 Scaling Imperatives /by Dave McLeanIn a prior post on the the Big 3 challenges common to nearly every growth-stage tech-enabled services (TES) businesses, we explored the importance of building and developing your team. In this post, we’ll focus on a second growth imperative, operational scaling. Bending the growth curve to double, triple or quadruple revenues presents a new set of […]
Stage Expertise is as Important at Sector Expertise
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity /by Derek PillingThe Workhorse Capital team believes that successful investors differentiate themselves by contributing to the value creation process at each portfolio company. In order to do so, we keep close to our roots – focusing our investments in technology-enabled service businesses which leverage recurring revenue business models. We believe in sector expertise. Likewise, we believe in stage […]
The Big 3: Organizational Development and Team Building Best Practices
/0 Comments/in Big 3 Scaling Imperatives /by Dave McLeanBending the growth curve presents a new set of challenges for your expanding business. We recently touched on The Big 3 imperatives common to almost every growth-stage tech-enabled services (TES) business: Team: Building and developing your team from top to bottom Operational Scaling: Growing the operation and refactoring systems and processes to accommodate scale Demand Generation: Opening up […]
The Big 3: Company-Scaling Imperatives in SaaS and TES
/0 Comments/in Big 3 Scaling Imperatives /by Dave McLeanIf you’re the owner-operator of a SaaS or tech-enabled services (TES) business that’s growing at over 20% and approaching profitability…..savor the ride because you’re flying in rarefied air. It’s not every day an entrepreneur “bootstraps” their way from the risk and uncertainty of the “fuzzy front-end” to demonstrating a strong value prop and product-market fit on […]
Don’t Die Trying… Be a Workhorse.
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity /by Derek PillingFor those of you who have followed my personal blog, you know I don’t think the mythical Unicorn is a very good role-model for entrepreneurs. It isn’t that I’m anti-Unicorn. Quite the contrary, I’m a huge fan of building companies that are worth billions of dollars. My objection, rather, is to the tech-media inspired horn-envy that came along with the Unicorn phenomenon and the subsequent risk-taking craze that ensued. Left in the wake are Unicorn wannabes that died trying and some one-time Unicorns that ultimately fell from grace.
An alternative role-model to the Unicorn is the sturdy Workhorse. Think of the workhorse as a unicorn that has evolved. The unicorn is of mythical value. The horn was useless and the magic isn’t real. Workhorses are are evolved in that they are producers of fundamental value. They shed the horn, solve real problems and create fundamental value.
We believe so strongly in the Workhorse as a role model for entrepreneurs that when my new partner, Dave McLean, and I named our firm, we chose Workhorse Capital.
Workhorse Capital Invests in Datavail
/0 Comments/in Growth Equity, New Investments /by Derek PillingWorkhorse Capital is pleased to announce the completion of its first investment; a $7.2 million investment in Datavail Corporation. Datavail is the largest independent provider of remote database administration managed services in North America. Workhorse’s investment in Datavail is part of a $47.0 million growth recapitalization led by new investor, Catalyst Investors. New investor, Lumerity Capital […]
Introducing Workhorse Capital
/0 Comments/in Workorse Capital /by Derek PillingToday, we launch Workhorse Capital. We start modestly, with humility, but with big aspirations. We subscribe to Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept, based on Isaiah Berlin’s parable of the Hedgehog and the Fox. The story of the Hedgehog and the Fox comes from a quote fragment attributed to the Greek poet Archilochus: The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big […]