Sri Ganapathy

Are #VC exits in standstill and what does it mean for the #CPG companies? Just a handful of large VC-backed companies have gone public since Q1 2022, exiting at only $70bn cumulative worth. i) less than the value recorded in any quarter in the record-breaking 2021 ii) staggering 90.5% decline from 2021’s record highs of $750bn iii) and more importantly the first time the figure has dipped below $100bn since 2016 What does it mean for CPGs? 1. Strategic Acquisitions: As VC-backed companies struggle to justify their high valuations or demonstrate the necessary fundamentals for IPOs, they may get forced to sell at lower price point to a strategic acquirer, and #FMCG players are well-positioned to capitalize on this lack trend 2. Investment opportunities for CVCs: smaller rounds and less competition may enable CPG companies to get stake in the most promising start-ups that would otherwise be quickly scooped by Sequoias and Tigers of this world ;) 3. Less 'well-funded' competition for incumbents: less exits and lower valuations means the large upstarts challenging leading FMCGs will need to be more frugal with resources potentially stifling investments As the saying goes, “In every crisis lies an opportunity.” CPG leaders who will navigate the best this environment may end up winning disproportionally (as we were writing on the topic) FMCG CEOs: 2023 M&A Report – Seven Key Learnings & Seven Predictions For 2024 https://lnkd.in/dT5A-jGZ To receive the corresponding deck, pl. leave your name in comment To get all our insights, follow us/ subscribe to our CEOs newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eR8vDpvE #strategy #zerobasedgrowth #mergersandacquisitions Frederic Fernandez & Associates

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https://lnkd.in/gZeefZhX Private equity funds gathered $176.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024, a drop of roughly 10 percent from the $195.5 billion recorded in the same period last year, according to preliminary findings from PEI data. Interest rate uncertainty continues to weigh on buyout and exit activity, while record dry powder for the asset class remains stacked for 2024, the data found.

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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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I love this! Thank you to Rachel Brown from Beauty Independent to kick-off this exchange with Andrew Ross' provocative thesis and have us all react to it. I truly enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts on the topic of the shortening lifecycle of beauty brands. Here is a snippet of mine: "Because beauty brand lifespans are shortening, it is important that we are able to differentiate brands with staying power from brands that will end up being a flash in the pan. There are much more of the latter than the former in the market right now, and if a brand is not well-positioned, it will be challenging for that brand to survive over the long-term. That’s why we focus on understanding each brand’s differentiators and long-term relevance." See more here: https://lnkd.in/esVbwnu2 and you will discover what Kevin Murphy, Odile Roujol, Rich Gersten, Tina Henry Bou-Saba, Oliver Nordlinger, Claire Chang, Manica Blain, Sonya Brown, George Birman had to say. #beautyindustry #beautyinvesting Stride Consumer Partners

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Irrespective of your position on former President Donald J. Trump For President, Inc and his recent conviction this should send a very loud and clear signal to Office of Mayor-Elect Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul for Congress that the broader business community took note and it did not come out in Democratic National Committee's favor. No one can refute that #NewYork and #Manhattan have lost an incredible amount of #tax revenue. It would be a catastrophic blow if BlackRock and Citadel / Citadel Securities pulled this off. What do you think? #management #venturecapital #privateequity #capitalmarkets #RNC #RepublicanNationalCommittee

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BlackRock is coming at private markets from all angles. With their monumental acquisition of Preqin for $3.2B, they've now added one of the most comprehensive sets of private markets data and intelligence to their suite of products that includes Aladdin® and eFront and creates end-to-end coverage of private markets. Content, data, and education create an engaged community of GPs and LPs, which Preqin has impressively built since its founding over 20 years ago. Now combined with BlackRock's large $330B alternatives platform, content and data can create a distribution flywheel, equipping LPs with the information and knowledge to better understand private markets and the data and frameworks to include alternatives strategies in their portfolios. As more investors, particularly those in the wealth channel, enter private markets, they will need tools and products that make private markets accessible. This acquisition is a step in the right direction to create a convergence between public and private markets, make it easier for investors to bake private markets solutions into portfolios, and provide a comprehensive solution set to investors. End-to-end solutions providers will be the winners in private markets - and BlackRock, with the addition of Preqin, moves one step closer to fulfilling that vision and enabling the continued mainstreaming of alts. Congrats Christoph Knaack & Team Preqin on this milestone and BlackRock on the continued vision to push private markets forward. https://lnkd.in/e3rSQ3U3

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- With distributions harder to come by this year, more firms have been thinking about GP-led secondaries processes as an alternative path to exit. -Far from being a short-term fix, however, some believe these transactions could be seen as a “new normal” for exiting private equity assets. - A number of LPs are assuming that there will be little to no IPOs - Today you have more deals being done on the GP-led side than on the IPO side. - There could be €50 billion to €60 billion worth of GP-led transactions executed this year. - Supply is coming from GPs looking for alternative exit routes, demand is also coming from new LPs entering the sector.

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Very thrilled to be featured on Sasha Orloff podcast and share some wisdom as part of my journey through a few successful companies. I made a lot of mistakes and learned a few good lessons, I hope you listen and learn something from me. A few topics I cover on Turpentine Finance episode: - Key lessons from scaling Square and Robinhood - Transitioning from CPA to CFO - Strategies for supporting ambitious founders - Building robust financial processes for IPO readiness. #ipo #ipoready #finance

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It’s okay to feel like an imposter 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠…🤹‍♂️🤹‍♀️ Do you feel like an imposter? Imposter syndrome has been widely discussed with tips to overcome it. But when I look back at my life, I’ve felt like an imposter at various points. When I started in New York Credit Suisse in the M&A team, I was not local / asian / no prior experience. Entrepreneurship is tough. The complexity of starting a regional business. I felt like an imposter. And that’s normal! Life is random (well, unless you are born with a trust fund… that's a different story). In Nassim Taleb's book 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑚𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, it talks about how randomness, chance, and luck influence our lives and our work more than we realize. 🤔 Having an imposter mentality and understanding the randomness of life help in several ways: ✅ Humility: helps you stay hungry, growth mindset. Appreciate there are things you don’t know and plug the gaps. ✅ Leadership: be a better leader, trust and delegate. There are others better suited than you. ✅ Serve: uplift others, help those who hasn’t benefited from the randomness of life. So, it's ok to feel like an imposter 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠... 괜찮아요 🤗 More important, learn how to manage it. Frame it positively. Use it to fuel the positive traits and behavior 💪👊 What do you think? Comments welcomed 😎 #impostersyndrome #leadership #singapore #fooledbyrandomness #random #entrepreneurship #investmentbanking #nassimtaleb #mentalhealth

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Updated overview of a few of our active searches @ Coastal Recruiting All opportunities are full-time with Seed, Series A, or Series B VC backed companies - looking for those that want to build and scale. NY Ops: - Head of ML - Seed (Raising Series A) - Massive growth $2m arr -> $10m arr this year - 1st ML hire - ton of autonomy - Gen AI - $250k(flex) + strong equity - 3x full-stack - Series A (a16z) - HealthTech - $1m arr -> $4m arr this year - $180k - $220k + strong equity - Incredible founders - meaningful work - BE (Data + MLops) - Seed - "Deploying AI to eliminate the trillion dollar waste in healthcare admin work" - $200k - $250k + strong equity - Early engineer - bootstrapped Prop trading firm - $10m profit year 1 - $400k+ TC - Early Engineer - Seed (OpenAI backed) - $200k + strong equity - AI Infra SF Ops: - AI Eng/ Infra/ Platform / BE / Fullstack - Hiring across the board - Series A (Sequoia) - $200k - $300k + equity - AI for Eng - Incredible team and founders - Sr. FS - Series A - Web3 - $200k + equity - Team/Founders w/ previous exits - Product Lead - Series B ($60m) - Gen AI - $220k+ Strong equity LA Ops: - Sr. FS - Seed (raising series A) - AI - Core team of startup veterans - $200k+ equity - Beautiful office in Venice Beach Remote: - Principal Eng - Series A - AI Security - $250k - $300k + equity - AI BE - Seed/Series A (Open AI backed) - AI Productivity - $200k+ equity If interested in learning more - shoot me a message here or feel free to reach out to anyone you are connected with at Coastal. 🌊

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How can investors, policymakers, and Fed watchers best interpret a data dependent FOMC in an era where the market continues to operate under unconventional policies which have rendered many historically tried and true indicators ineffective? Read the latest issue of our CIO Monthly Perspective – The Rashomon Effect - to learn how Rockefeller Global Family Office Chief Investment Officer Jimmy Chang is analyzing the intersection of these major economic factors.

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🔝🗽Dow slides 500 points🔻, S&P 500 retreats from record even after Nvidia’s blockbuster report🦾🔺‼️ 🔻Stocks fell Thursday, with the #Dow Jones Industrial Average losing more than 500 points, as a post-earnings #rally in #Nvidia failed to lift the broader market. The 30-stock Dow was last down 523 points, or 1.3%, putting it on track for its biggest one-day loss since April 30. Boeing was the biggest laggard in the Dow, falling 6.7%. The S&P 500 and #Nasdaq Composite slid 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, after reaching record highs earlier in the day. #Chipmaker and #artificialintelligence darling Nvidia surged more than 11%, sending shares above $1,000, after posting stronger-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results and announcing a 10-for-1 stock split. Fiscal second-quarter revenue guidance of about $28 billion also beat an LSEG consensus forecast of $26.61 billion — a sign the company doesn’t see its momentum slowing. For the bottom line, analysts expect a profit of $5.95 per share. Nvidia’s results have been a focal point for #WallStreet, as traders hoped for signs that the excitement around #AI is not waning. With its $2.3 trillion market cap, Nvidia also has considerable sway over the broad S&P 500. However, the majority of the stocks in the broad market index fell negative Thursday, indicating a lack of market breadth. More than 400 names in the S&P 500 were lower, and information #technology was the only positive sector for the day. The market has “some loose footing,” Piper Sandler chief market technician Craig Johnson wrote in a Thursday note. “This market’s strange mix of leadership, combined with breakdowns in transportation stocks and mediocre breadth readings, makes us not so confident that a new leg higher will be sustained from current levels.”

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NY Climate Tech Founders! 1) YES PLEASE save the date to join us at #techweek (6/3!), and 2) YES PLEASE share your top NY resources to complete our NY INSIDER GUIDE, in collab with NYCEDC!

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Consumers are pulling back. After falling flat in April, U.S. #retail and food services sales advanced 0.1% in May. Retail sales were up 2.3% y/y, down from 2.7% y/y in April. In May, retail sales minus autos were 2.5% higher than a year ago, down from 3% in April. When compared to a year ago, retail sales - adjusted for #inflation - are lower for the second consecutive month. The yield on the 10-yr Treasury fell on weaker than expected retail sales ...

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