Our Philosophy
Early-stage venture investing requires intensive support and counsel of newly formed and developing entrepreneurial teams.
Our own prior experiences as entrepreneurs and operating managers enable us to have a deep appreciation for the challenges facing young companies and their leaders. We maintain a significantly higher ratio of senior personnel with deep operational and strategic skills in order to share this experience with entrepreneurs. This active. hands-on support, coupled with corporate governance and staged funding structure, help focus management's attention on the most critical success milestones and result in companies that significantly out perform their peers.
Investments are made according to milestone achievement-based goals, triggering incremental capital releases. Too often companies are constantly focused on incremental raising of capital, rather than on core development and commercialization activities. Alternatively, certain young companies can be grossly over-funded, burning through capital without regard for its value, or achieving necessary objectives. Milestone funding provides entrepreneurs and management teams with a clear road map for continued funding, sharpening management's focus on critical elements of success achievement.
We insist upon strong corporate governance and sound financial and operational business practices. This is often initially challenging for some entrepreneurs and young companies, but we find that these sound practices are ultimately highly appreciated by the managers of the business, as well as by fellow investors and owners.
We believe that trust and integrity are fundamental to successful, long-term relationships and we insist upon the highest standards for ourselves and our partners. We highly value the contributions of others and we believe that sharing the rewards of our success has always been, and will continue to be, essential to our culture.
We seek entrepreneurs and managers who are trulyopen to our counsel and who value our support. This is a critical element of our investment decision-making process. There are numerous exciting technologies and emerging business niches, all with the potential to achieve outstanding investment returns, but we have found a strong correlation to actual achieved ROI with the quality of the relationship between management and Nobska Ventures.