Thank you for applying. Please read the following.
Some key points to keep in mind before our call:
How you act during the initial process will determine if we decide to do a deal with you.
Even if we decide not to make you one of our portfolio companies, I'll still give you a checklist of what we'd do if we were to grow your business with you.
Please be early for our call. We're both businessmen doing big things.
Because of the reputation we've built, we get a large number of applications (I appreciate you all more than you know). And because of this, after we have our call, please give us time to make our decision. And decide if we want to progress your application forward.
We like to build a strong relationship prior to doing a deal. This means complete transparency about how we operate, our process of growing your business, all the way to our internal culture. We expect the same from you.
If we say no, it's not because your business is terrible, or you're a bad person. Us deciding not to move forward with the deal, will be for one of two reasons; 1) We're simply at capacity. If you're applying, you know the philosophy we operate at by Strongholds.com; "Bigger swings, fewer times." This means we do significantly fewer deals than we could, but triple down on our existing portfolio companies, and the deals we decide to do. 2) We're not a perfect fit for you. We only do deals where we can already see the 10x. Long-term, it wouldn't be the best move to take on a company that we don't have the perfect skill set to match their individual business.
If you want to increase the likelihood of us selecting you to become a portfolio company, respond fast, and be proactive. This is probably a flaw on our part, but because we're so focused on growing our existing businesses, some deals will slip through the cracks. So reach out to us. Show that you're keen. This will increase the likelihood that we do the deal. We wouldn't want a business that's a perfect fit to miss out. So please, be proactive, and be persistent.
Finally, how you act during the deal process is a big predictor of how successful we'll be if we work together. So respond fast, and make yourself available. Again, this will increase the likelihood of us moving forward with you.
I look forward to speaking with you, and taking your business into the stratosphere - Lukas, & the rest of the team at Strongholds.com