Case Studies

Following are a few case studies of work for our clients:

Built platform for originating new investments based on industry best practices

Duane Street Capital, a newly-launched lower-mid-market private equity fund, wanted to ensure that it was using best practices for attracting high quality investment opportunities. The firm was particularly interested in using social media creatively to attract actionable opportunities. David Teten presented Duane Street with a menu of deal origination methods that the firm’s competitors were using, including but not limited to:

Database searches
Outreach to investment bankers
Expert networks
Cold calling
Market mapping
Blogs, Twitter, and other social media
Gated online executive communities

Together, Duane Street and Teten selected certain methods that we expected to have the highest return on time, and implemented changes to make those methods yield increased deal flow. In addition, Teten introduced the fund to a range of very senior executives interested in working with private equity funds such as Duane Street. Andrew Saltoun, Founder and Managing Partner, said, “David is well researched and eloquently presents frameworks and best practices for helping professionals embrace new media. His presentation makes it easy to adopt technology that we expect to improve our business. As well, David gives a unique perspective on sourcing investment opportunities and the pros/cons of different models (old and new). Our session with David was definitely time well spent.”

Structure, market, and recruit proprietary senior advisor network

A tier-1 private equity group wanted to build a proprietary network of retired and current C-level executives, board members, and consultants for its portfolio companies and for its own deal origination efforts. David Teten led a team which built and managed a client-specific network of required executives, who were used as interim executives, board members, and consultants. The team:

Tracked recent top executive movements within industry sectors of interest to the client
Sourced newly retired executives in the industries of interest
Screened the experts for fit, interest, and conflicts of interest
Identified the right partners for background checks
Managed ongoing deployment
Built custom web-based portal to track pool of candidates

We have posted a recent conference presentation on “Best Practices in Improving Portfolio Company Valuations by Working with Operating Executives

Deliver keynote speech at major private equity/investment banking industry conference

The Association for Corporate Growth InterGrowth is the world’s largest dealmakers conference. More than 2,000 middle market M&A professionals network, source deals and learn best practices at InterGrowth. At the 2009 conference, keynote speakers included Richard Gephardt, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives; Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; T. Boone Pickens, Founder and Chairman, BP Capital Management; Steve Young, Former NFL quarterback and Managing Director of Huntsman Gay Global Capital; Tom Donohue, President & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and David Teten. David gave a presentation based on his research study on best practices in deal origination.

Gary A. LaBranche, President & CEO, ACG, said, “We heard great reports from attendees about David’s keynote at ACG Intergrowth 2009. 56% of the audience rated his presentation as ‘Very valuable’ or ‘valuable’… David was an excellent addition for the event, based on his unique combination of expertise in investment banking, investment research, and Internet technologies.”

Advise medical transcription company on sale to a private equity fund

A medical transcription company with over 500 staff was contemplating selling itself to a private equity fund which had made an offer to buy the company. Teten:

Analyzed the valuations of comparable transactions
Provided counsel on negotiating strategy and deal structuring
Shared insight into strategic options for the company

Advise $60m+ logistics company on sale process to a private equity fund

A $60m+ logistics company had broken off dialogue with a private equity bidder who had made an offer, and wanted to prepare to re-enter the marketing process. Teten:

Analyzed and built a set of formal evaluation criteria for selecting an appropriate private equity fund
Analyzed and built a set of formal evaluation criteria for selecting an appropriate specialized sell-side investment banker suitable for this transaction
Provided counsel on negotiating strategy and deal structuring
Shared insight into strategic options for the company

Serve as Acting CEO for software as a service (“SaaS”) spinoff

VOX Solutions, founded in 1994, is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) development company with over 30 years of collective experience in application development. VOX specializes in the event planning, incentive, and travel industries. The company raised over $1m from a top 25 event planning company to build a best-in-class web-based event planning tool, under the name Attendees.com. David Teten served as Acting CEO, and in this capacity:

Led negotiations with strategic investors, including deal structure and valuation.
Built financial model and wrote business plan.
Analyzed competitors and identified market opportunities
Recruit core business launch team, including 6 MBAs from Columbia and the University of Chicago.
Helped prepare company for 2nd round of financing.
Introduced company to investors and clients.

Expedite an investment in an opaque market

A major private equity fund was pursuing an investment in Iceland and wanted a local Robert Rubin, a member of the local elites who could represent their interests in that opaque market, particularly as a board member of their investment. David Teten led a team which recruited, screened and introduced the former CEOs of a major telecom company, major airline, a major retailer, and individuals who held very senior government positions, who could represent our clients interests. The team also identified local private investigators who could due diligence the selected executives.

Train mutual fund managers on due diligence best practices

One of the world’s largest asset managers was holding an internal conference for portfolio managers and analyst globally. The firm invited David Teten to keynote to the audience on “Squeezing Blood from a Stone: How to Elicit Maximum Information in Minimum Time from Management and from Industry Sources.

Among the topics David covered:

Necessary technical and interviewing skills
How to position yourself
How to structure your questioning
Your source’s habits and needs
How to optimize the first minute of conversation
Provoking insight and debate
Types of questions: Probe, thought-provoking, restatement, negative, clearinghouse
How to close the conversation, and leave the door open to further inquiry

After the training, several attendees reported that they used some of the techniques presented and found that they yielded significantly more information than they had obtained without those techniques.

Lead social media strategy for niche publisher

Dancetime Publications is the only publishing house devoted to historical dance. The company is a leader in its very small niche industry. We worked closely with the company to prepare a social media outreach strategy to its community, including:

Completely rewrite and reorganize website, including search engine optimization
Launch and optimize a Youtube channel and presence in LinkedIn and Facebook
Build presence in the Internet Movie Database
Lead link swapping outreach

Recruit a chief information officer for a $8b institutional investor

Teten Advisors and Accolo jointly provided retained search services for one of the most prominent institutional investors in the US, with assets under management exceeding $8 billion. After initial conversations to define the desired skill sets and experience, on May 16, 2005, we launched a search for a Chief Information Officer. We identified the candidate initially on June 1, 2005. We sourced candidates via Teten’s referral network, Accolo’s proprietary referral network, major job boards, professional organizations, user groups, and other means. From the fees paid to Teten/Accolo, we offered a $18,750 referral award to any individual or agency that referred candidates via the Accolo system. 429 referrals were made via the Accolo system alone, and unknown numbers outside of the system.

781 executives applied for this position, all of which received follow up and closure, regardless of outcome.
254 met the minimum requirements, as determined by the initial screening questions
The 4-person recruiting team at Teten and Accolo reviewed the 216 applications
Over 100 of the applicants had experience as either a Fortune 1000 CIO or partner at a top-tier technology consulting firm. All top-tier technology consulting firms were represented
5 candidates were formally presented to the hiring team, one of which was hired. The winning candidate applied via a Monster ad, so we did not pay out a referral award.