Capital, and the discipline that comes with it.

1. 01

   Patience

   We measure progress in years. A business is given the time it needs to prove itself, and so is every decision we make about it.

   Why it matters

   Most young businesses that fail are not bad businesses. They are good ones that ran out of time before they could show it. Patient capital gives them that time.

   In practice

   We do not set exit dates, and we do not judge a business on its first difficult quarter.

2. 02

   Integrity

   What we say is what we write down, and what we write down is what we do. There is no second version of any agreement.

   Why it matters

   Trust is the most expensive thing to rebuild and the cheapest thing to keep. When everyone reads the same agreement, nobody has to wonder what was meant.

   In practice

   Every agreement the group enters is in writing, signed before money moves, and kept where every party to it can read it.

3. 03

   Discipline

   Capital is only as good as the rules around it. We keep ours when it would be easier not to.

   Why it matters

   Groups like ours rarely fail because an investment went wrong. They fail because the rules bent once, for a good reason, and then kept bending.

   In practice

   The rules on how money leaves the group apply to everyone inside it, including the people who founded it.

4. 04

   Stewardship

   We hold what we own as if we will still own it in twenty years, because we intend to.

   Why it matters

   An owner who plans to stay makes different decisions from one who plans to leave. We want every decision we make to be one we would still defend a decade from now.

   In practice

   We look after the businesses we back the way an owner would: their records, their standing and their people, not only their numbers.

5. 05

   Accountability

   Every decision has a name next to it, and every result is reported, including the ones that go wrong.

   Why it matters

   A mistake reported early is a lesson. A mistake hidden is a crisis waiting for a date. We would rather know, and fix it, than look good.

   In practice

   Results are reported every month and in full, and a bad month is reported the same way as a good one.

These are not words for a brochure. They are the standard everyone inside the group holds everyone else to, and the standard we expect to be held to by anyone we work with.