Navigating The Spinout Journey In Private Equity: A Comprehensive Guide to Investment Management Branding

As promised, we are exploring the investment management branding best practices for investment managers of three primary categories: spinouts (or spinoffs), middle market private equity, and mega managers. Below is a comprehensive guide to the spinout brand journey in private equity.

Starting a new firm, whether from scratch or a spinout, is most commonly initiated by a person or a group of individuals leaving their current employment to branch out independently. 

Drawing lessons from the history of private equity, many of today’s renowned firms were born from such departures from investment banks or industry giants like Blackstone. These firms, which began as ventures of ambitious individuals, have now grown to be among the world’s largest. 

Over the years, we have had the privilege of partnering with 20-30 such firms, playing a part in their journey of growth and evolution.

The Needs and Challenges of Spinout Investment Managers

Typically, the individuals striking out on their own face immediate needs and challenges. 

They often dive straight into their first fundraise, a considerable task whether or not they already have their anchor investors lined up. A first fundraise, with or without a demonstrable track record or financial backing, is a rigorous process. Many resort to bootstrapping, handling every expense out of their own pockets as they work from a blank slate. 

From framing their brand message to producing essential documents like fundraising and marketing materials, creating a website, and developing a visual brand identity, the tasks can be daunting and resources scarce.

Opportunity

Working with spinouts is both exciting and challenging. The smaller team structure often means decision-making is faster and there’s less need for consensus-building among various departments or stakeholders. 

Most of the time, the key executives, perhaps one to three individuals, are our primary contacts. They generally have a clear idea of what they want, often having settled on a name for the firm and a vision for the next 3-5 years. 

Our role? To help them: 

• Articulate their vision
• Establish messaging
• Develop a visual brand identity

Investment Management Marketing: Brand Expression for Spinouts

Spinouts may not have some options available to larger firms. For example, they may not have a portfolio or a large team to feature on their website. Their brand expression often takes on a more abstract direction, relying on custom-created visual assets or stock imagery to communicate the firm’s philosophy or purpose through a visual metaphor. 

This approach offers flexibility, allowing the brand identity to evolve as the firm grows and matures.

Our partnership brings to light numerous opportunities for spinouts. We offer comprehensive support in their foundational phase, addressing the critical needs for brand development, marketing strategy, and investor relations. 

We also provide bespoke services tailored to each company’s unique situation and objectives. Our expertise helps these firms navigate initial challenges, streamline processes, and position themselves strongly in the competitive landscape. 

When they leverage our resources and experience, these new ventures can focus more on their core business, thus accelerating their journey toward growth and success.

The Branding Process

Creating a brand identity is an essential part of the new firm journey. Branding starts with the logo design. This should give viewers an immediate sense of who the firm is and what it stands for. The logo should be versatile enough to accommodate various website layouts and other marketing materials, including brochures, business cards, and signage.

Brand identity should be consistent across all marketing materials. A style guide should be created to ensure colors, fonts, private equity logos, and other visual elements are used in the same way throughout the firm’s website and other collateral. This helps maintain a level of uniformity that will help establish trust with stakeholders.

At the same time, a brand should be given room to grow and evolve. As a firm advances and matures, its brand identity should also reflect the progress made. This could include new messaging or visual elements and changes to an existing logo design. Firms must think about how their branding can continue to develop over time and how it can be used to communicate their progress.

Finally, creating a brand identity is not just about making something aesthetically pleasing. In fact, it’s an exercise that impacts all aspects of a firm’s business. Branding provides direction on how to communicate information effectively, how to position a company in the market, and even how certain decisions are made.

The Website

Every new manager needs a website. However, it should be different from that of a long-tenured manager. For a new manager, the website usually doesn’t feature a comprehensive portfolio or a large team. The history and news sections are usually minimal. 

With that in mind, we often recommend a single-scroll website for newer managers. This approach is faster, less expensive, and takes less time to build than a full-fledged site with multiple internal pages.

A splash page can be a good alternative for managers needing an even quicker solution. This is a single pane of branded information featuring the firm’s name, logo, image, and contact information. It provides a valuable online presence, while the more comprehensive private equity website design can happen later.

Ultimately, helping new managers navigate their branding journey is an exciting and rewarding process. We take great pride in partnering with these innovative and highly convicted founders and teams in the development of their websites and the beginning of their journey as successful investment managers. 

Investor Presentations

Investor presentations are a critical component of the fundraising process for all funds, including spinouts. 

These presentations are the first formal introduction of the firm’s vision, strategy, and business model to potential investors. Therefore, these presentations must be crafted with careful consideration and an understanding of the firm’s unique selling propositions.

Spinouts often lack a comprehensive portfolio or a substantial track record in the early stages. Hence, these presentations must focus on illustrating the firm’s future potential and the team’s prowess and experience. They should explain how the firm plans to create value for investors.

The presentation should be visually appealing and easy to understand, avoiding excessive jargon and focusing on key messages. It should also exhibit credibility and professionalism, as this is the firm’s first opportunity to earn investors’ trust and confidence. A well-crafted presentation can significantly aid in securing crucial funding to propel the firm towards its strategic goals.

Conclusion: Investment Management Branding For Spinouts

Starting (and growing) a firm is an exciting, and sometimes challenging, journey. By understanding the unique needs of spinouts, we can help equip them with the right tools to succeed on their path.

Darien Group strives to help materialize and demonstrate our clients’ brand identity while bringing these new ventures one step closer to reaching their goals. Contact us today to discuss how we will help you achieve your investment management branding goals.