I’m often asked the question “why does Volition have a dedicated business development team? Isn’t business development typically part of everyone’s job at a private equity firm?”
The answer is an easy one. We truly believe having a dedicated BD team, or ‘biz dev’ as we call it, gives us a competitive advantage over other firms. We’re very proud of our network, which runs the gambit from C-level execs at Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs at seed stage start-ups. We like to think of it as our own ‘secret sauce’.
Here’s a bit of history as to how our BD team came about. As Fidelity Ventures we had many opportunities to get to know people across Fidelity. But as a traditional, returns-based VC, we also knew that Fidelity might not always be representative of the market and that financial services were only one of the targeted markets of our portfolio companies. So six years ago, we made a conscious decision to expand our network to outside firms. A year after I joined the company, Don Haile, Fidelity’s then retiring CIO, joined us as a Venture Partner. We were off and running.
So what do we do exactly? Everything we believe to be beneficial to our investors, our portfolio companies and our business partners. We participate in the entire investment life-cycle; sourcing of new deals, pre-deal due diligence and introductions for our portfolio companies to customers, channel partners and acquirers. All of these efforts are aimed at helping our portfolio companies maximize their value. And in doing so, we’re very mindful of giving back to the relationships we’ve developed over the years. Knowing how difficult it is to gain the mindshare of the people in our network, Don and I share the philosophy to always ‘give more than we get’.
How do we keep our network ‘current’? Several times a year we host forums to educate our audiences and broaden our relationships. In January we hosted a standing-room only CIO Roundtable in Boston, MA. The event ‘Are the Corporate Giants still buying’ was sponsored by the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA) and Invest Northern Ireland. Don Haile hosted (or better said, roasted) a panel of renown technologists, which included Chief Technology Officers and senior technology execs from State Street, IBM and JP Morgan Chase. Our guests, who included VCs across New England, as well as C-level executives of local firms and Volition’s local portfolio companies, were treated to an evening of the current thinking of several of the tech industry’s most influential senior execs.
From my point of view, it’s been a terrific six years. I’m personally very excited to continue to work with the Volition team and Don, and to have helped launch Volition Capital earlier this year. I hope this has piqued your curiosity about Volition Capital, our BD team and gives a bit of a lens into how Volition Capital tries to add value to its portfolio.