During the great pandemic of 2020, interest rates became extremely low. The cost of borrowing money was so cheap that folks venture capital were writing checks to anybody with an investment deck. A friend at the time called it “free money”.
In 2021, Chomp Brand grew almost 10x. Part of that is due to how much cash everyone had. Another reason for our success is I let our sales team sell to anyone who’d write a purchase order. I took the governor off.
Because of our growth, I found myself in a few meetings about taking on investment partners.
These meetings are fascinating. I’m just a designer, so the world of partnerships, equity and mergers is well above my knowledge.
One thing became obvious to me though, private equity folks intend to get their investment met, come hell or high water. For a small number of brands, investment is an energizer. But for many, investors are a poison pill. They call them sharks for a reason.
I was recently on the phone with a friend who bought back his company after private equity hollowed it out. That holding company laid off almost everyone, and stiffed many of their vendors on invoices.
Growth at the expense of your vision, employees and customers, is bad business. We intend to do good business.
But if I ever sell, there would be signs.