Interview with Pat LaPointe of MR Investment Fund Growth Calculus

About 2 weeks ago, Gregg Archibald posted on the GBB about the launch of a new type of investment fund — the Service Evolution Fund — for the MR industry. Gregg and I are working with that fund under our Gen2 Advisors consultancy to identify potential candidates for discussions because we’re very excited to finally have an option to help more service-based businesses grow.  Since I think this is a very positive development for our industry , I wanted to dive deeper so everyone could learn more. With that in mind, today I’m posting my interview with Pat LaPointe, Managing Partner of Growth Calculus, the growth capital investment and advisory firm.

Before we get into the interview, here is a bit from the website on the entrepreneur perspective and why the Growth Calculus play is different:

It’s frustrating when you have built a strong business that delivers great value to customers, but can’t find the capital to help you take it to the next level. It seems most investors are so focused on finding that next unicorn, they can’t see the potential for attractive returns you might offer.

At Growth Calculus, we are entrepreneurs. We have founded companies and generated substantial growth. We have built teams, developed new products, sold over a billion dollars in solutions, and created enduring customer loyalty along the way. And based on those foundations, we were able to deliver significant returns to our investors.

Today, we combine two of the things most growth companies need: capital to expand and explore new avenues, and experienced advisors to work with you, week-by-week, to help you make it happen. Together, we help you take your company to the next level and create exceptional value for you, your customers, and your stakeholders.

We also firmly believe in gender equality in access to capital. So we make every effort to ensure at least 50% of our invested dollars are going to women-owned businesses.

The Service Evolution Fund 1 is a highly targeted fund which invests behind a specific strategy of finding great marketing services companies and helping them unlock their “product” potential through better data asset development, application of technologies for front or back-room improvement, sales effectiveness, and marketing impact.

The Fund seeks to uniquely combine investment capital in the $1M to $3M range with expert (and active) consultative support in companies with a 5+- year track record of creating great value for blue-chip clients, stable annual revenue streams in the range of $5M to $25M, and great ideas for how they might take their knowledge and talents and evolve them into a more “productized” offering to create more value for clients and shareholders alike.

They are particularly interested in companies in areas like:

• Customer experience consulting and analytics
• Specialty research and data/reporting
• Marketing effectiveness consulting and analytics
• Forecasting and behavioral economics
• Social media data collection and analysis
• Mobile marketing data/analytics and app development
• Advertising production and talent cost management
• Media auditing
• Agency compensation management
• CRM and customer loyalty consulting and analysis
• Sales operations effectiveness and training

Here is my interview with Pat. I think you’ll find it interesting, engaging, and helpful.