The Challenger Brand for Challenger Brands
We’ve scaled some of America’s top challenger brands,
joining them long before many others saw their potential.
With scrappy teamwork and lots of hustle,
we made each of those brands bigger
and more successful than most people ever believed was possible.
Now we are investors - starting all over again -
and back in the challenger position we like so much.
We are small and new,
but we’ll put our team up against any of the others.
Equity & Expertise for
Early-Stage Consumer Brands
The four of us
have a combined 100 years of experience
working with early-stage consumer brands.
We have, quite literally, done all of the things.
We’ve stayed up all night making pitch decks,
developed new locations from the ground up,
tweaked logos,
pivoted promotional strategies,
developed and recruited baristas,
brand managers
and board members
- all while protecting company culture,
brand ethos and product quality.
We know how to help brands
develop their operations
and scale to be the company
that premier private equity funds
and strategic acquirers
will compete to own.
John Lowe served as CEO of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for 14 years, overseeing revenue growth of more than 100x. He remains on its board, and is the long-time board member of White Castle Co., the $1b family-owned and operated retail and restaurant brand. For more than a decade he was a board member of Watershed Distillery, until its sale to a European strategic in 2023. He has served as an advisor or consultant to Homage, Montucky Cold Snacks, Honey Mama’s, Portfolio Creative, Winan’s and Wardrobe Therapy, among others. John has appeared on MSNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business, and was honored by Specialty Food Association with its “Business Leadership Award” in 2016.
Rachelle has spent more than 20 years identifying winning brands, joining them and scaling them.
She has cultivated a vast network of trusted colleagues and connections at every level of the ecosystem. She understands the CPG landscape in ways many don't and is frequently sought after for her expertise in the space.
blue+linkedin CONNECT on Linkedin
Ryan Parish has 25 years of NYC investment banking and private equity experience, working with consumer brands like OxiClean, Bojangles, Garden of Life and Mattel. Ryan has an MBA from Columbia Business School at Columbia University, and serves as the Fund’s CFO, as well as a Finance Operating Partner helping portfolio companies.
Timmy McCarthy saw greatness in a chicken strip restaurant with 8 locations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He helped the owner fix the black and white logo, and then worked every job in the company so that he could become its first franchisee. Timmy opened the first Raising Cane’s in Ohio, and began to hone its operations and team while growing slowly. When the operations were nailed, he scaled to 44 Ohio locations, then sold them back to the parent company. His experience and expertise in picking sites, teaching GMs, building growth plans and scaling teams is prized by restaurant founders.
Thought-partners. Coaches. Occasionally, therapists.
We’ve been exactly where you are.
We’ve solved the very problems you are facing.
We have the operational expertise, experience and network
you are trying to glean from everyone you meet.
We’ve taken the test. We know the answers.
We came together as a team
because helping early-stage consumer brands overcome the odds
is what gets us out of bed in the morning,
and what keeps us up at night.
It is where the fun is.
And lucky for us, for reasons we can’t quite explain,
helping early-stage consumer brands
has become our lifes’ work.
Behind-The-Scenes Help
We invest minority growth capital
into early-stage CPG, Restaurant & Consumer Brands,
with investments between $500,000 and $5,000,000.
And then we bring behind-the-scenes expertise
as very involved board members.
