Scott Cutler

Surprising to see two mega mergers getting past antitrust: - The $53B Chevron-Hess merger - The DirecTV-Dish merger where AT&T is selling its stake in DirecTV for $7.6B to TPG and DirecTV buying Dish for $1 and taking on its $10B in debt What does it mean for consumers? And what does it mean for the M&A market? These approvals may signal a shift in antitrust policy. Looks like they're prioritizing global competitiveness over strict market share considerations. This might invite additional scrutiny on how these mergers impact innovation in bigtech. These mega mergers usually tend to have a strong impact on consumer choice and pricing. The industry dynamics will be closely watched by regulators and investors.

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Building on the success of Rocket Studio with Simon Kirby and Pivotal with Dominic Joseph we decided to merge with Impact Counsel, led by the awesomely talented John D., Erim Jones and Robert Fok earlier this year. We’ve combined our significant and complimentary skills, experience and passion for growing amazing businesses to create a new breed of VC - Creative Capital Ventures Group (CCV). Fund 1 is focused on Sports, Media & Entertainment. Joining us on this exciting journey is media titan Tom Rogers (ex CEO Tivo & CNBC). We have also assembled a mighty team of Venture Partners bringing their expertise into our team, with the legendary Harvey Goldsmith leading our Immersive Entertainment category, and Cam Blackwood (Platinum award winning record producer) and his team at Rezonate heading up Music Rights acquisition. Creative Capital Ventures is designed to disrupt traditional VC models and accelerate the growth of innovative start-ups. We’ve already secured €18 million in commitments and are raising €35 million in total to fuel the next generation of game-changing businesses. What makes CCV different? •⁠ ⁠Founder-Led Expertise: Our team comprises serial entrepreneurs and operators who have built, scaled, and exited successful companies. We know what it takes to drive rapid growth. •⁠ ⁠Speed Scaler: Through our unique venture studio model, we’re not just funding companies—we’re actively accelerating their growth, shrinking the timeline from seed to exit. •⁠ ⁠Industry Focus: CCV focuses on high-growth sectors like Sports, Media, Entertainment, and Lifestyle, with a unique emphasis on IP acquisition to drive returns in stable asset classes. If you're interested in learning more about how CCV is reshaping the venture capital landscape, let’s connect!  More updates to follow! #VentureCapital #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Startups #ScalingFast #CreativeCapitalVentures https://lnkd.in/eiuWVtvT

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I always like to share positive news in the capital markets. Per PitchBook, "the value of US PE exits climbed in Q3 to reach an impressive $107.1 billion—the highest quarterly reading since Q1 2022, according to PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown. The exit count in Q3 rose 29% from the previous quarter to 394, exceeding pre-pandemic volumes for the first time in two years." This is an important, if still small, step in the right direction. The capital markets can be likened to an assembly line. The inputs on the front end are early-stage companies and startups. The middle of the assembly line consists of venture capital and private equity funds of all shapes and sizes. The 'finished product' on the back end is exits in the form of sales, mergers, or IPOs. If the exit mechanism on the assembly line is broken - which it has been for a few years now - it screws up the entire system all the way back down the line to startups. Any step in the right direction is good news. It would appear if the assembly line is beginning to restart. It will take some time and patience to clear the line, but hopefully this most recent market correction is in the rear view mirror. Endeavor Colorado Tegan Stanbach Zeb King Kathryn Dickson #privateequity #venturecapital #innovation #entrepreneurship #founders #startups #investing https://lnkd.in/gqdN4ZYy

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Great NYT article about the US private secondary market highlighting an early mover I co-founded, Forge, and another I invested in and advised that's bringing things to the next level, Destiny (D/XYZ). A couple of my heroes and colleagues, Sohail Prasad and Kelly Rodriques, are quoted extensively. Written by Erin Griffith, a veteran journalist who has followed private markets for nearly two decades, the good insights outweigh a few things that beg for clarification. The public comments, by contrast, are mostly misunderstanding and misinformation. If you've ever worked for a long time at … well, anything… and then you read a news article about it, you probably know the feeling. Private markets are not "shadowy and often enigmatic." It's not that mysterious or complicated, people. It's just a fresh approach to an old business. * rant about Stripe * The article amplifies and conflates misleading claims by Stripe disparaging forward contracts as possibly worthless with others questioning secondary stock solicitations as likely scams. Stripe is twisting stock ownership legalities as if it doesn't want its employees to benefit from shares it's been awarding them for the last 14 years, not unless and until Stripe says they can. We used to run into that at Forge, companies granting equity awards then pulling them back with hidden strings, threats, and bluster to keep control over when, where, whether, and how employees could raise cash from the stock they fully earned as compensation for their loyalty and hard work. Say an employee wants to buy a home or car, pay for medical bills or their children's education. Or leave to start their own company. Sorry, those shares management paid you in lieu of cash, they didn't really mean it. The pinnacle was Airbnb's hired gun CFO calling us "bottom feeders" for facilitating employee stock sales without his permission. As if Airbnb wasn't doing the exact same thing, in their case illegally, monetizing tenants and their apartments. Happily awareness has grown. The Airbnb guy was soon out, and the general understanding came to acknowledge that once an employee earns their stock fair and square it's theirs. Market participants see this as a matter of fairness, but more to the point as a benefit to everyone involved including the company that issued the stock. So most companies encourage a secondary market. Rather than tensions rising, the long term trend is a growing acceptance of stock sales initiated by employees and early investors. Forge, for its part, has found it more effective to work with the companies and honor their wishes rather than butting heads with them as we sometimes did in the early days. I guess Stripe didn't get that memo. Or the people who post comments to New York Times articles.

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On Thursday, stocks dropped as strong economic data fueled worries about continued high interest rates. Despite the broader sell-off, Nvidia continued to soar on impressive earnings and a stock split announcement. Boeing, however, plunged on production woes. In world markets, gold is sharply down on new dollar strength propelled by the unexpectedly hawkish tone of the FOMC minutes. Crypto prices plunged, with BTC leading the decline by nearly 3% and touching 67K. The broader market mostly followed BTC, with the exception of ETH, which held above 3.7K. #crypto #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #exchange #assets #investing #cryptonews #market #trading #blockchain #ethereum #token #analytics #Markets #Finance #Economy #Business #Evernomics #Svetrating Read the full text: https://lnkd.in/gKWrnd6W

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Smartsheet has entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners for $8.4 billion in an all-cash deal. Smartsheet shareholders will receive $56.50 per share, representing a 41% premium over the 90-day average share price. The transaction is expected to close by the end of January 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and shareholder agreement. After the deal, Smartsheet will become privately held, continuing operations under its brand. There is a 45-day "go-shop" period allowing alternative proposals. Here are a few thoughts: Blackstone and Vista bring extensive experience in tech, positioning Smartsheet for accelerated global expansion. High valuation shows continued private equity interest in software companies, especially those with strong SaaS models. As a private company, Smartsheet may gain flexibility for product innovation and restructuring without quarterly public market pressures. The 45-day "go-shop" could lead to other high-profile bidders, signaling competitive interest in enterprise work management solutions. This acquisition could drive consolidation in the collaborative work software market, setting a trend for future acquisitions. #privateequity #deals #dealflow

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Series A or B wondering when to bring in a VP of Finance or CFO? It’s a crucial decision that can shape the future of your company. At this stage, financial leadership is not just about managing numbers but also scaling processes, securing funding, and driving strategic growth. My colleague Paul breaks down key signs that it’s time to hire and indicators for choosing between VP of Finance and a CFO #FinanceLeadership #CFO #StartupGrowth #SeriesA #SeriesB #NextGenLeadership

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Markets talk. We listen. We've from heard from capital allocators (#VC, #PrivateEquity, #FamilyOffices....even #VentureStudios, #Incubators and #Accelerators) that due diligence is a bottleneck to deal flow. It's time-consuming, expensive and often, subjective. We've launched #VentureIQ by the 9point8 Collective to directly address this problem. VentureIQ is an AI-enabled diligence solution that provides rapid scale diligence reports with exceptional fidelity and demonstrable cost efficiency - all within a single business day. We're in our soft launch, now. So, if you want to gain back valuable time and expose the long tail of deal flow diligence, shoot me a DM or visit VentureIQ.ai.

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Bloomberg recently spotlighted the risky practices that some PE firms are engaging in, like over-lending and NAV financing, which can mask underlying financial instabilities. You all know how I feel about this. At Tide Rock, we firmly believe that real value comes from operational excellence and sustainable growth, not financial engineering. Our strategy is rooted in investing to ensure that our portfolio companies achieve tangible results through disciplined and effective management.   It doesn’t make sense to me how many financial engineers and analysts PE firms hire who have never run a company. They spend their time on what they are comfortable with—financial manipulation—while we, as operators, dedicate our time to what we do best: growing businesses. This hands-on, operator-focused approach sets us apart and ensures that we deliver real, sustainable value to our investors. Our approach has consistently led to an average annual growth rate of 30+% across our portfolio companies.   If you're looking for a partner who prioritizes true operational excellence over financial gimmicks, reach out and find out more about how we work. #UnleveredBuyout

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Fun session with Silas Mähner 🔍🌎 Hopefully non controversial takes on how we think about adaptation and resilience Third Sphere. Also weighed in on thinking about engagement with Big Oil. Absolutely not possible to generalize here. TLDR on one end of the spectrum is Norway, generating substantial GDP from oil, but leading the way across multiple climate efforts, like EVs and heatpumps. On the other end are some state actors that have worked to undermine organizations like COP and sew broader chaos, very, very likely as a way to shift resources away from energy transition (likely very, very hard to spend on defense and green transition at the same time in the US and EU, for example).

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#orion #Sweetwater_Royalties Orion Resource Partners, a global investment firm specialising in metals and materials, has sold an 8% minority interest in Sweetwater Royalties, a private industrial minerals royalty company, to a Canadian pension fund for $100m. The transaction implies an approximately $1.9bn enterprise value for 100% of Sweetwater Royalties, with Orion retaining a 67% majority ownership share in the asset, having sold a 25% stake to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in March 2023 for approximately $220m. https://lnkd.in/gkKMP3Tr

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LP Tip #8 of #50: Your LP base should match your fund size. We are back with our regular programming. ➡️ Opinions are always my own and based on my experience.  ➡️ My focus for this post is on sub $200.0M funds. ➡️ The $ amounts I state below are guideposts never absolute rules.  ➡️ Some LPs want to have a certain % of the fund and size their investments in this way; others have set check sizes irrespective of fund size. I continue to be surprised at how much time new GPs waste with LPs that are unlikely to invest. I urge managers to better qualify LP leads and be extremely judicious with how they manage their time. In my experience there are 6 LP types that I consistently come across. See below. ▶️ Non- Institutional LPs:  1️⃣ High net worth individuals (HNWI) - There are different tiers of HNWI but assume that this is someone with at least $1.0M in net worth in liquid assets. In my experience they are the fastest to close and conduct limited diligence. I often see them investing $100K - $500K checks in funds. It is possible for a fund manager to close a $5.0M fund on entirely HNWIs. 2️⃣ Family Office - There are different types of family offices. For simplicity sake let us assume that this is a single-family office with an investment team and a set venture allocation. Keep in mind that family offices are hard to find because they do not want to be found. Typically, you find these via referrals from other GPs or your current LPs. I often see <=$50.0M funds composed of HNWI and family office LPs. I have seen a range of investment checks form family offices. 3️⃣ Corporate - I include banks in this category. Due to the market downturn these entities either halted or slowed pacing. In my experience I have seen corporates invest anywhere from $500K - $10.0M checks. This type of LP is often present in sub < $100M funds. ▶️ Institutional LPs:   4️⃣ Fund of Funds (FoFs) - Unlike the other LP types, FoFs need to raise from LPs. I have seen FoFs invest in fund sizes across the spectrum. Depending on the FoF they can invest in funds as small as $15.0M. 5️⃣ Foundations -  These are often investing to align with their mission. I would spend time understanding how you complement their programmatic work. I have seen foundations invest in $45.0M funds and above.  6️⃣ University Endowments - Endowments is where most new GPs waste time. It is important to ask if the university has an emerging manager program upfront. I have seen emerging manager programs invest in small funds ($25.0M - $65.0M). It also helps if the GP was an active alum of the university or had some unique relationship to the university.  If there is no emerging manager program I am often told that there should be a fund target on the low-end of anywhere b/w $150.0M - $200.0M to be considered.

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LP Tip #5 of #50: Spend time to anticipate what off-book references may say about you. ➡️ GPs should assume that professional LPs will reach out to their own network to learn more about them.  ➡️ High net-worth (HNW) individuals and operators are not likely to spend as much time on references than professional LPs. In fact, I know many cases where HNWs and operators didn’t even reference the manager. ➡️ Each LP has its own approach to conducting references. ➡️ Opinions are my own.    ❓ If LPs are back channeling you, what do you expect people will say about you as an investor and person? Fund managers control on-book references because they select who an LP speaks with. And, these references typically give an LP a positive perspective of a fund manager. In contrast GPs do not know who comprises an LPs trusted network. They also cannot control what the back channel reference will or will not say. Below are two things you can control which can impact the back channel. 1️⃣ Control possible negative flags -  If you anticipate something negative to come up during references that may be  perceived as a potential flag by an LP it is best that you bring it up first rather than having the LP bring it up. I would bring up the things that you envision could derail your funding and that you expect the LP to discover.  2️⃣ Control how you show up  - Unfortunately, some managers do a great job of undermining their own professional reputation which impacts how well they will back channel. For example, I was having a follow-up meeting with a talented manager and they started to trash talk another investor to me in a way that was unsettling. I believe in giving people grace as sometimes people have off days. But I was struck that the fund manager was emboldened to share with me because I was a relatively new connection. I then began to wonder if they acted like this with other LPs. Other LPs verified that they had a similar experience and felt it showed a lack of  judgment. If this new manager lacks judgment on professionalism then I start to question if they lack judgment on many other aspects of running a fund. 

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We are excited to back EnFi, Inc in their first round of financing. They just came out of stealth and announced a $7.5 million raise from our good friends at Unusual Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Argon Ventures and us at Impellent Ventures. Scott Weller spoke with me about his new idea around revolutionizing credit risk analysis through AI, begrudgingly bemoaning getting pulled back into yet another startup :) He and Josh knew there had to be a better way to get risk analyzed fast at the level of the enterprise after the great SVB failing occurred and left thousands of founders scrambling away from their multi-covenant loans. They needed to move their money but couldn't because other financial institutions still relied on a clunky, long process of assessing loan-worthiness. Enter Enfi. I asked him to invest. Scott was another one of those entrepreneurs we'd back no matter what they were doing. It took a while to get him and the indomitable Joshua Summers to make room for us. But they finally relented, because I'm annoying. Very, very annoying. Like a chihuahua with a kazoo, except worse. Ask anyone... EnFi’s platform is revolutionizing credit risk analysis, underwriting and portfolio management through advanced AI and real-time monitoring for complex credit instruments. Their innovative approach to Continual Risk Analysis provides institutional and private lenders with deeper insights and automation, enhancing decision-making and risk management. Congratulations to co-founders Joshua Summers and Scott Weller, and the entire EnFi team. We are proud to be part of your journey and look forward to your continued success! #Fintech #AI #Lending #CreditRiskManagement #Innovation

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Exciting to see infinitas capital and Opportuna featured in Bloomberg as part of the growing conversation around family offices and the secondary market. With liquidity tightening and investor demand building, Opportuna is seizing the potential of venture secondaries, offering an avenue to unlock liquidity and realize solid gains within a shorter timeframe. To learn more about @Opportuna and our strategy, reach out to Alban C. or Christopher L.R. Chuffart

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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ANNOUNCEMENT- I’m delighted to share that Asset Class has partnered with Palantir Technologies to bring AI to the Alternatives and Private Capital Markets. At Asset Class we will integrate the AIP platform and Foundry capabilities of Palantir with our Fund Operating System (Fund OS). We will work with the AIP Platform and Palantir's Foundry Ontology to support highly complex tasks / co-pilot features that will allow us to leverage the FULL dataset that comes with the Asset Class Platform. By linking EVERY step of the Investor and Fund journey on a SINGLE platform, we have a uniquely complete dataset that can inform our AI actions. Over time we will integrate this as part of our Asset Class Network. This will continue to ensure Asset Class is a far more powerful system than any other in the market. We are a platform - not just an app. In the near future, we will be an AI Enabled, Networked Platform I cannot wait to bring the power of AI to our platform to enable our clients to super-charge their investment in our platform. See announcement here: https://lnkd.in/eCSy5Tnu

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