Rory

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

I've always been frustrated by investment bankers.

Don't get me wrong, there's good ones, but especially the ones that cater to small companies—the kind Chris and I had to deal with for years—are almost all terrible.

Why?

They aren't founders. They are finance wonks and sales people who think and speak in spreadsheets.

EBITDA. CAGR. AUM. Alpha. Beta. Yield. Liquidity.

What???

These aren't words that founders of small companies use or even understand.

I certainly didn't, when I needed to raise debt and equity, or was interested in selling my first company.

I also just flat out didn't connect with most investment bankers.

They felt like lizard people to a founder like me.

They wore suits and spoke a different language.

They seemed to look at me as a walking fee, which would help them mint their Q2 bonus.

A few years ago, we met Louis Kammeyer. He was a young investment banker who—like so many investment bankers—hated his life.

He hated his life so much, in fact, that he was thinking about leaving banking to become a cattle rancher (he grew up on a ranch).

Chris and I sat him down and told him he should quit his job and just start his own investment bank.

That there was nothing inherently wrong with investment banking, it was just structured and incentivized the wrong way.

Like Tiny, where we had set out to become the buyer we wish we could have sold to, we felt there was an opportunity to do the same thing for investment banking.

To create an investment bank that catered to founders.

That spoke their language.

That was down to earth. Normal.

That could walk them through a menu of all their options to grow, recap, or sell in plain and simple language.

A bank that thought longterm. Building relationships with people for years. Investing in their businesses. Creating alignment.

With Tiny, we set out to become the buyer we wish we could have sold to.

Last year, we partnered with Louis to launch Tenzing (https://t.co/hLIEDIhm27), the investment bank we wish we could have worked with when we were a small, bootstrapped company.

Do you need to raise capital?

Buy out a co-founder or early employee?

Sell your company? Or maybe sell it to your employees?

Get bank debt?

You should talk to him: [email protected]

Tell him I sent you :-)

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@pslohmann Thanks for sharing - do you know of any based in Europe?

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@wes_kao @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@waitbutwhy @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@philosophy_life @readwiseio save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@reinpk @readwiseio save thread

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@heykahn @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@BStulberg @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@lennysan @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@reidhoffman @readwise save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@simonw @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@waitbutwhy @readwiseio save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@david_perell @readwiseio save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@theryanking @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@adam_keesling @readwiseio save thread

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@chrishlad @readwiseio save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@BStulberg @readwiseio save

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@davidmcw https://t.co/AZDqAmmqBt

Ban on exports unfortunately

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@Kaiwingchun @gmiller @APompliano https://t.co/00v2OBZisL sort of does this

[Rory @Mr_Rory_]

@ReformedBroker Does this apply to EU investors or is it very US based?