Strategic Development Group (SDG)

We live to get involved. Our Strategic Development Group supports the Financial Planning & Analysis and Capital Markets of every investment. 

Specifically, we engage in:

  • Planning and analysis to ensure proper management of the portfolio company, optimization of cash flow and budgeting for growth.
  • Building and maintaining short-term operational and multi-year financial models.

  • Developing the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) in concert with the management team.

  • Identifying areas across the business that can be better leveraged for continuous operational improvement. 

  • Generating weekly dashboard reports for management and board members to follow the growth of the portfolio companies.

Corporate Development

We work to build increased value for our portfolio companies through both organic growth and acquisition opportunities. Our dedicated Corporate Development Team works with founders and CEOs to create paths for sustainable growth by:

  • Building and maintaining a proprietary database of several hundred acquisition targets for each portfolio company, and personally calling and managing these relationships over time.

  • Sourcing, financing and closing 100% of our companies’ bolt-on acquisitions – allowing management to stay focused on growing their business. Typically, we complete at least one add-on acquisition during our holding period. 

  • Enabling the partners at 424 Capital to remain up to date with key developments and acquisition opportunities within our industries.

  • Communicating constantly with our industry network, which generates competitive intelligence on product enhancement opportunities and tangential markets that can be leveraged through product development or acquisitions.

Sales & Marketing

We invest in businesses with the ability to scale for organic growth, providing in-depth analysis and consulting to assist CEOs and founders in:

  • Defining sales cycles and sales stages to increase the overall efficiency of the sales process.

  • Creating budgets and benchmarks by marketing or sales channel – increasing the amount of funding available for these activities while tracking the underlying performance data to deploy dollars in areas with the highest ROI.

  • Expanding and accelerating marketing campaigns to multiply sales lead volume through digital channels, inside sales teams, referral, and VAR networks.

  • Implementing CRM systems and creating efficiencies to track lead generation and sales success data.

424 Capital also establishes and chairs a Sales and Marketing Committee for each business in which we invest.

Governance

We’re driven to build exemplary company boards designed to help get our portfolio companies to their desired destination. That’s why we choose directors with the highest level of market-specific experience and creativity. We view chairing and managing board activities with the utmost importance, making sure that proper corporate governance takes place across all companies. The result: The development of a culture at board-level that leverages the experience and skillsets of a truly unique network. 

To ensure that sound corporate governance practices are fostered across the portfolio, we commit to the following best practices: 

  • The lead Partner becomes Chairman of the Board.

  • The 424 Capital team recruits key knowledgeable industry executives to serve on the board of directors, ensuring the board is fairly balanced between investors, management and independents.

  • In addition to the Sales and Marketing committee, at least one 424 Capital representative sits on the Audit and Compensation committees for our portfolio.