Alternative funds, technology solutions and fast-growth start-ups guides with Obediah Ayton? So as a startup, how do you find these alternative sources of funding that offer such collateral benefits? The first and best thing you can do is look to your board and the connective network you already have. The ability to access GCC family office networks is something to consider when building your board and team of advisors. If your existing network has been exhausted, there are events and other opportunities that can bring you closer together with angel investors and family offices. This significantly lessens the influence to artificially maintain high watermarks to receive incentive allocations. Family office decisions are based squarely on investment fundamentals, where long-term value creation replaces the 2/20 mentality. As a result, investments are more than fungible capital. It’s a commitment to align with the entrepreneur on a much deeper level. The deep, global networks of the ultra-wealthy families are used to create opportunities for the startups — from providing strategic advice, intelligence and subject matter expertise, to tangible benefits like identifying contract manufacturers to assist with the development of hardware products.
“In the past 12 months, we’ve successfully launched 10 companies within SPIC I, which is focused on changing the way we finance, invest and exchange value. This portfolio has been designed for revolutionary impact – to build a global financial infrastructure that embeds trust and payments at a protocol level. An infrastructure that provides the building blocks for the next economy by powering products, services and business models with financial services at the core”, further explains van der Heijden. In the long-term, the impact-focused venture builder is on a mission to create a Single Digital Capital Market and launch a secondary marketplace running on a global shared liquidity infrastructure, stimulating cross-border investments and lowering the threshold for retail investors. Director of Business Development at The Private Investment Group Obediah Ayton said “I am very happy to watch Venturerock showing the way venture capital funds are now being deployed post covid here in the UAE. The portfolio companies within Venturerock are some of the most professional and innovative we have seen and I have no doubt they will be a welcome asset to both the public and private sector in the Middle East.”
The climb of a family offices business leader : Obediah Ayton? Obediah Ayton is a trust manager at Ayton Family Office Trust and a consultant at Tennor Holding B.V., a specialist in family office business, AI driven accounting services, finance and accounting. Obediah Ayton on what happens when a Family Office takes the VC model: Strategies for the Search: Friends and Fellow Founders: Friends or founders in similar sectors who have previously raised from family offices are a great starter resource. This route also passes a few qualification checks around interest, size of deal, and sector preferences. Remember, there is no investment barrier or fund allocation requirement for family offices. Professional Intermediaries: Investment bankers and wealth managers who service family offices are oftentimes happy to make introductions in order to add value to their clients. Since these clients are the intermediaries crown jewels, their recommendations will first require diligence.
Many of these Family offices may prove to have much higher and longer-term vested interest in the businesses they invest in compared to an institutional investor. In many cases, based on the experience of the principals behind the family office, they will seek to take a more hands-on involvement in the businesses they fund, acting as mentors and not merely benefactors.
Obediah Ayton on how to raise money from family offices: Not to do: Don’t pitch them without understanding their goals and objectives. Don’t brag about your track record or accomplishments. Don’t interrupt them in the middle of a conversation. Don’t be aggressive. To Finish: Do exactly what you say you are going to do. Meet for coffee or at their office in order for you to understand their goals and objectives better. Respect their privacy and don’t share any information about them with anybody else. Feel free to reach out and speak soon.
Right now is a great time to build close relationships with Family Offices for future capital raises! A wave of capital raisings are coming but the pandemic-created crisis means a whole new set of rules for companies wanting to tap investors for cash. It is now critical to get in ahead of the wave a build relationships with private wealth. Family offices are notoriously discrete. So much so that one of the most common adages to describe the industry is “a submerged whale does not get harpooned.” With a tremendous amount of investable capital, these family offices are often looking for ways to diversify their investments.
Obediah Ayton about the new definition of a billionaire is not the net worth but in achieving change in a billion lives: Sustainable investing will remain a core trend in the foreseeable future thanks to 85% of all sustainable investments meeting or exceeding investor’s expectations in the past year. When considering these types of investments, family office executives need to ask themselves whether their office has established its purpose within the greater scope of impact and sustainable causes and set clear objectives accordingly.