Our Approach
By James Tieng
We are a team of investors, operators and company builders who are eager to surpass the status quo. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of human capital and expanding the limits of human potential, globally.
Our investment parameters transcend revenue and growth rate, EBITDA and margin, market share and TAM. They go beyond product/market fit or any 2x2 matrix.
Even more fundamental to our investment framework are who we work with and what they dream of achieving. We are looking to build a team and portfolio of companies with people who share our values, align with our mission, embrace our partnership, and measure success as we do.
Values.
We believe in radical transparency through clear and constant communication. We believe in trust-based relationships because integrity transcends material gains. We believe in continuous improvement in all things — products, processes, people — and in constantly raising expectations. And we believe in the meaning of service. These are just some of the values that we strive to work by and to live by. We hope that these foundational principles will not only define our team and our firm going forward but our portfolio of world-class companies as well.
Mission.
To be the leading partner for companies that are transforming and defining the future of human capital, we need to identify entrepreneurs who see the future as one of opportunity and change — who truly want to improve the way we learn, teach, work and grow. We invest in companies that are challenging current assumptions of the limits of human productivity and testing the boundaries of existing technologies. We aspire to back teams who think creatively to answer what is possible, who refuse to accept mediocrity, and who battle complacency at every turn.
Partnership.
We are active and committed investors. We know it takes blood, sweat and tears to build a sustainable enterprise, and we know the path is rarely straight. We expect to roll up our sleeves alongside each of our companies, because we enjoy the journey of figuring it out together. In a world of capital abundance, we believe in differentiating ourselves by how we support and strengthen our partners: by the ways we help our management teams think through critical strategic and operational decisions, by the global network and resources we bring to our companies, and by our domain knowledge in the area of human capital. And of course, we plan to have fun along the way.
Success.
Every investment firm will be measured by the returns to its own investors. But we also measure our success by the quality of the teams we build, at our firm and across our companies, the outcomes we can generate and improve for all learners, and the technologies we seed to transform the human capital of tomorrow. We believe that investment returns will be directly correlated to the people we hire and mentor, sustained and compounded by positive learning outcomes that translate into meaningful careers, and amplified by innovative technologies that will create new possibilities in how we learn and work in the future.
Whether you’ve known us or worked with us before, we hope these principles and aspirations reflect your experience with us. If we have simply piqued your interest, and you believe what we believe, we’d love to meet you. Let’s create the new status quo together.