We Won’t Tell You What You WANT To Hear
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
All eyes are on Kelly this morning but for the observant reader (this post will not go out in our DailyDOOH Update email) here’s a brief tirade aimed at the investment community and those generally with money to invest in our sector (high net worth individuals etc. please take note).
Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen
Those who know us well understand that we do a lot of work for the investment community. It’s easily the largest part of our annual income but perhaps (just ‘perhaps’) every so often you may have to bite the hand that feeds you!
In the last two weeks we have had three calls with investors about various new and existing businesses in our sector. Some simply for sale, others wanting new investment – some of these companies YOU will know, others are on the periphery of our sector and in one instance it’s a new startup.
On each occasion we have had the distinct impression that all they wanted to hear was what a great idea it was, weren’t they so clever in finding this business and how much money do you think we will make! Every single investor on those calls was AMAZED that we should tell them that what they were looking at was NOT a good business, nor a good idea, that it repeated mistakes made elsewhere (proven failures) and was not a good vehicle for their money.
We have no doubt that in at least two of these cases the investor will proceed and end up splashing out cash or at the very least knock on a few more ‘consultant’ doors until they get the answer that they want to hear – that is of course their prerogative but we are certain that it will end in tears.
In some ways it’s a good sign for the industry. We see lots of folks with money looking for opportunities but what amazes us is how when people get an idea fixed in their head that they will invest, seemingly nothing will stop them.
Like many in the investment world, the first thing we do when we look at a business is do a SWOT analysis and the most amazing thing is with every one of the calls we have had in the last 2 weeks we figured that the biggest likely threat to each of them was Amscreen.
Not because Amscreen are in that business at the moment but because with all of the strengths that Amscreen have and the inertia they have behind them they could easily ‘walk’ into that vertical in weeks (we think) if they so desired.
August 4th, 2010 at 13:25 @601
They might walk into that vertical but will they earn any money at it????
August 4th, 2010 at 16:11 @716
Some of Amscreen’s strengths others would view as weaknesses!
August 5th, 2010 at 03:49 @201
Interesting article! Thank you for posting! Good to hear that investors are interested in this industry … and that Amscreen is a company to “watch for” in the future!
As for the VC type investors: they count on 1 out of 10 investments in being a “home run” :)… so they are used to taking risks if the “pay off” promises to be big enough… which appears to be the case here.