A real product or proposition
Something more substantial than an idea alone: a product, sourcing relationship, niche, brand or customer need that can be assessed.
The opportunity profile
What tends to get our attention.
A committed founder
Someone who has already invested time, effort or money and wants an active partner rather than somebody else to carry the entire business.
Commercial headroom
Margins, market size and channel opportunity that leave room to build a sustainable and ultimately profitable company.
Digital upside
A situation where better commerce, systems, marketplaces, automation, analytics or conversion can make a meaningful difference.
Manageable capital needs
The business should be capable of meaningful progress without requiring institutional-scale funding simply to remain alive.
Partnership mindset
Transparency, shared decision-making, realistic expectations and genuine willingness to align ownership with contribution and risk.
Businesses can be pre-revenue or already trading
Revenue is useful evidence, but it is not the only evidence. A founder may have already sourced a strong product, purchased stock and established supplier relationships, yet be struggling to build the e-commerce operation around it. Equally, an established business may have sales but be stuck because the website, operations or channels have not kept pace.
What generally makes us cautious
- Very low gross margins with no credible path to improvement.
- Large quantities of old stock being treated as if historical cost equals current business value.
- A founder who expects us to do all the work while they become passive.
- Material debt, tax, ownership or intellectual-property issues that are not disclosed clearly.
- A business dependent on repeated cash injections with no plausible route to self-sufficiency.
- Expectations around equity or valuation that do not reflect the work and risk ahead.