Shadi Bakour

Darden Restaurants recently reported its quarterly results, showcasing resilience amidst a challenging environment. While Olive Garden faced a decline in same-store sales for the second consecutive quarter, Darden's overall performance remained steady, with earnings per share surpassing expectations at $2.65 and revenue reaching $2.96 billion. Looking forward to fiscal 2025, Darden projects a promising outlook with expected earnings per share between $9.40 and $9.60 and anticipated net sales of $11.8 billion to $11.9 billion. The company's LongHorn Steakhouse segment notably reported a 4% increase in same-store sales, underscoring Darden's effective management and operational strength. With plans to invest $550 million to $600 million in capital expenditures, Darden is poised to enhance its offerings and maintain its competitive edge in the market. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eFgDC97p #hospitality #restaurants #technology #innovation Branded Hospitality Ventures Angelo Fama Jr. John Espy Dave George Daryl L. Cunningham Lisa McDowell Robert Anderson Ali Charri

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There's basically nothing proprietary about food delivery... Within the food delivery service industry, a few major players effectively form an oligopoly,(Uber DoorDash Grubhub )to name the big ones)- controlling the majority of the market and limiting competition. We see that here https://bit.ly/3W1IpeU , an interesting read about the future of food delivery services.🍟 🍔 Branded Hospitality Ventures Michael Schatzberg Jimmy Frischling Aron Hollander Zachary Kandel Purba Majumder Jordan Stack Josh Buchmann Tony Xu Ryan Parietti Howard Migdal Craig Whitmer #Restaurants #Hospitality #Technology #FoodDelivery

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Ag LLM benchmark update: 1. V2: added 300 new questions (thanks to Noah Freeman!). 2. Reran models on new benchmark. 3. Categorized results. Farmer's Business Network, Inc.'s Norm has come way up in the rankings! Looks like they quietly updated. Full V2 benchmark here: https://lnkd.in/er8KqXxf

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Boards of Directors – How Relevant To The Business Is The Board? In 2014, activist investor Starboard Value successfully replaced all 12 directors on the board of Darden Restaurants. The following shows the Darden incumbent board at the time of Starboard's proxy fight, Starboard’s value creation plan initiatives, the Starboard director nominees and the before and after performance (revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin and stock price). Note especially the direct relevance of each Starboard nominee to the industry or some aspect of the value creation plan. How often do you see this level of relevance on public company boards?

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How can we rethink the beverage supply chain to make it more sustainable? 🌱 I chatted with CEO and Founder Manuela Zoninsein on the Energy Superheroes Podcast. At her company Kadeya, she is helping crack down on single use plastics through innovative beverage vending stations. 🥤 Kadeya’s bottling plant, about the size of a vending machine, allows customers to choose beverages and dispense them in custom, patented stainless steel bottles. Each bottle dispensed by Kadeya cuts down the carbon footprint by 100 grams of CO2, marking a 77% improvement over single-use plastic bottles. 👍 Her solution can help decrease environmental impact, while also supporting frontline workers. 🌏 To learn more about Kadeya, check out the full episode at Energy.Media or Spotify. 🎤 What are your thoughts on this unique approach to plastics? Share in the comments below. 📝 Disclaimer: This post is made for entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this post constitutes investment advice. #sustainability #plastics #sustainabledevelopment #decarbonization

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I really enjoyed recording this episode of The Digital Industrial Podcast with Ty Findley. We talked about common misconceptions for deep tech, the "Why Now" for the category, and differences between investor diligence for deep tech and traditional tech. https://lnkd.in/eKtwjauu

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The state of venture capital is wild right now. We are witnessing a surge of innovation across the spectrum: - Funds merging - VC doing PE - PE doing VC - Secondary funds - Buyout funds - Spin-out funds - Debt funds - Continuation funds - Infrastructure funds - GP turnover - Hard Tech surging - Family Office uptick

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Heard some business wisdom today — The mark of a good founder? They're quick to prioritize and make tough, even unpopular decisions. Bad founders? They are careless about momentum, hesitate, and postpone decisions. I remember when we had to pivot our strategy at the last minute, even though we'd already invested so much. That move saved us. Happy Monday to all startup founders hustling out there! 💪 #startups #founderlife #enterpreneurship

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Speed of learning is one of the most important founder attributes — and sometimes that means getting support to move faster. I’ve seen folks like Carol do just this and unblock founders and their early growth. It’s powerful to ask for help!

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Reporting live with your weekly VC update... In the second quarter of 2024, U.S. venture capital investment soared to $55.6 billion, marking a substantial increase from $35.4 billion the previous year. Despite a slight decrease in the number of deals, this period saw a significant uptick in average deal sizes, indicating a strong focus on supporting high-performing companies with promising growth trajectories. Sectors such as software and biotech experienced notable increases in investment activity, reflecting confidence in innovative technologies and healthcare advancements. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/e8mEJiYt Inc. Magazine Brian Contreras #business #VentureCapital #AI #startups Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Headline Newsletter Chuck Clarvit James Bernard Matthew Goldberg

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Campbell's Soup reported better-than-expected quarterly results and raised its annual sales growth forecast, attributing the improvement to increased demand for soups and frozen meals and the acquisition of Sovos Brands, known for Rao's Specialty Foods, Inc. sauce. After a period of decline, Campbell's sales volumes improved sequentially this year, aided by softer price increases and recovering consumer spending. CEO Mark Clouse highlighted gains in the cooking side of the portfolio. With the acquisition of Sovos, Campbell anticipates a 3-4% annual sales growth. Analysts view the acquisition positively for Campbell's growth prospects. Despite a rise in quarterly profit and sales, Campbell adjusted its annual organic sales and profit forecasts downward due to ongoing challenges in its snacks business. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/exuaeKVG Branded Hospitality Ventures #innovation #hospitality #technology #marketing #venturecapital Gerald Drummond Robert Furbee Charles Nevin Mike Pierson Dan Poland Carrie Anderson Chris Foley Stewart Lindsay Danielle Brown

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Hey Fundraising-Startups and Investors, VC on the rise again! Very exciting insights and takeaways about the VC/Startup-Fundraising-Market. Massive shoutout to Rohit Yadav for sharing and putting it together for free! 💰 MORE: 53% of VC Managers expect to allocate more capital and invest in more startups than last year, with only 6% expecting fewer. 📊 SEED SIZE: According to an analysis, the sweet spot at Seed stage seems to be USD 2-2.5 million for maximising chances of follow-on fundraising. 📉 MINIMUM TRESHOLD: Don't Go Below $1m: Companies securing less than $1m in seed funding were less than half as likely to reach Series-A. ⏱️ SPEED IS KEY! Act fast. Raising seed funding within a year of launching your startup doubles your chances of reaching Series-A compared to those waiting 3+ years. 🛠 TOOLS: More tools (getpantom, OpenVC, shipshape.vc, Signal from NFX) are coming up to support founders in their fundraising (also watch out for +Azava 🤘)...

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I sat down with Rebecca Lynn, Co-Founder of Canvas Ventures, an early-stage VC fund with almost $900 Million AUM. She's a 25-year fintech veteran and 5x Forbes Midas list honoree. In this Fintech Leaders episode, we discuss: - Data-driven marketing and go-to-market strategies - How startups should think about preparing for M&A opportunities   - What great entrepreneurs have in common - The areas of fintech where AI is making an actual difference   - Challenges of building a VC fund from scratch … and a lot more!

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The face you make when you realize that you have become pretty good at sourcing off-market opportunities and have private equity and family office investors ready to back you, but you don’t have enough talent to take advantage of those opportunities. With that said, if you know of anyone in the commercial bakery, dry cleaning, food distribution, or commercial laundry space who is looking for board and/or C-level opportunities, please let me know. #boardadvisor #clevel #executives #commercialbakery #commerciallaundry #drycleaning #fooddistribution #privateequity #investmentbanking

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"But I think consumer is actually a great place to be building and investing. Whenever something is out of favor, that’s a sign it’s probably a good place to spend time: this is an industry built on being contrarian, not built on following the herd. We’re entering a compelling few years for consumer entrepreneurship. Big consumer wins compare favorably to big enterprise wins—relative to Snowflake’s market cap, Uber is ~3x in size, Airbnb is ~2x in size, and DoorDash is roughly equal. (Snowflake is the biggest enterprise IPO of the last decade.) The last few years produced a windfall of consumer outcomes, yet investors today almost write off the category." https://lnkd.in/gNR-Wwcn

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As a VC, there are times when you have to choose between prioritizing returns and supporting the founders you work with. It’s not easy because we have a fiduciary duty to our LPs, which, in our case, are primarily non-profits, to maximize returns. At Eniac, we play the long game: if we do what’s best for our founders, it will ultimately benefit our brand, reputation, and relationships, which will be best for our LPs in the long run.

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Advice for consumer brands raising later stage rounds: Valuation may be more about your investor’s target return and view of exit value than revenue / ebitda multiples Remember that in CPG there are few exits over $500m Knowing this, most private investors want to underwrite $200-500m exits and don’t want to earn less than 2x That means raising at $150m pre-money in most categories will be very hard Set your expectations right before you go out to raise, you don’t want a busted process Often the solution is insiders who want to increase ownership / exposure if even if means <2x on last money in

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The Activity level of #VentureCapital in the Southeast Find it EVERY Friday here on Hypepotamus #Entrepreneur #Startup #Investor

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