Our Approach to Venture Capital Investment.
By combining seasoned investing expertise with world-class strategic and operational expertise, Lacuna seeks to accelerate the growth of our portfolio companies while mitigating investment risk. We collaboratively invest our unique skill sets and experiences in order to help build leading companies of tomorrow and create superior returns for our investing partners.
What we add to the equation.
Our model leverages many of the investing skills and knowledge sets traditionally associated with the best venture capital and hedge fund companies. But we supplement this core investment expertise with deep entrepreneurial, operational and strategic expertise that allows us to proactively manage our investments by adding significant value to our portfolio companies. Ultimately, Lacuna differentiates itself from other investment firms by providing more than just financial capital, extensive industry knowledge and contacts. We also work closely with management teams to develop tightly focused go-to-market strategies, to accelerate revenue growth, and to implement best-of-class operations that lead to exceptional successes.
Experienced investors who bring more than just investment experience.
The Principals at Lacuna have over 80 years of combined investment experience as both investors in small-cap companies and as operators of them. Two of the principals, Rawleigh Ralls and Rich O’Leary, have focused on small-cap investing with leading investment firms since the mid-1980s. Another two principals, JK Hullett and Wink Jones, have operated angel-backed and venture-backed companies as CEO, COO or CFO. And one principal, Sanford Keziah, has founded two successful entrepreneurial companies and recently guided one of America’s preeminent strategy consulting firms. This unique mix of investment experience and operational expertise differentiates Lacuna’s offerings to both small-cap company management teams, which often need more than just financial capital, and to investors who are seeking new ways to make their capital work harder.
“I have worked with a great many venture capital and private equity groups on early stage companies over the last 25 years, all of them claiming to be “added-value investors.” I can say without reservation that the Principals at Lacuna are the first such group to fulfill this lofty goal. They have made significant contributions at the strategic level, both through Board-level activities and more direct engagements with the management team. Equally important, they have leveraged their very diverse and well positioned network to assist the company’s business development efforts at the tactical level. We had multiple funding options on our Series A round, and chose the Lacuna Principals because we believed they would act as partners as well as investors. We made the right choice.”
Mark Dreher, CEO
Knowledge Factor*
* KnowledgeFactor is an investment made by individual principals of Lacuna, and is not a Lacuna portfolio company.