Krescendi - Target Companies and Criteria

Entrepreneur's Corner - Target Companies and Criteria

Krescendi's Target Companies:

Sector: Technology-based or "low-tech" companies, excluding capital intensive tech companies

Stage: Seed or Startup

Geographic: primarily Ontario-based

Krescendi values prospective companies with the following key criteria.

Management Team and Leadership: Management and entrepreneurial skills are by far the most important aspect of our investment consideration. We are looking for the companies and projects with outstanding, energetic and preferably experienced management teams. The companies may not have a complete set of executives in place, but should have the key positions filled. At the end of the day we want the Target Companies to demonstrate the availability of leadership in a very high sense. It may be: 1) a successful executive with good educational and business background, who’s just left a "blue-chip" company in favor of a the new entrepreneurship challenge or 2) an impressive team of IT engineers and managers which combine technical and managerial skills. In any case the entrepreneurs must be creative, energetic and ready to sacrifice and strive to create value for themselves and all stakeholders.

Growth Potential: Target Companies should have the capability to scale up their businesses and achieve revenues in excess of $100 million in 4 to 6 years.

"Barriers-to-Entry": Target Companies should preferably have a unique or proprietary technology. Properly arranged Intellectual Property (IP) rights protection would be a significant plus. Alternatively TC should be able to demonstrate a "first mover" advantage. This means that in those cases where the company’s strategy is build not on proprietary technology, but rather on a very original business idea, the particular attention will be paid to the team’s ability to gain a significant market share ahead of their existing or potential competitors.

Customer Focus: Target Companies should be marketing-driven and customer-focused, with a clear understanding of the prospective customers' needs. The companies' products or services should provide clearly defined tangible benefits to its customers, and be backed up with superior support.