Investment and partnership
This page is written for two different readers: someone looking for a partner for their own business, and someone thinking about becoming a partner in mine. I say the same thing to both — numbers first, words after.
It runs both ways
On the investment side I don't work in one direction only. I take stakes in businesses that already work, and I look for partners for my own. Which direction we are talking in becomes clear in the first meeting, and neither of us has to pretend otherwise until then.
What I look at
Food and retail
The area I know best. A concept with one branch that works and can be repeated is what interests me.
Vehicle services
Businesses close to the operating model I built at PpfxTR.
Software and technology
Products that solve a real operating problem and already have users. I don't come in at the idea stage.
Service businesses
Businesses that would turn a profit if the process and the record keeping were put right.
Money is the least valuable part
Capital on its own is the smallest contribution. This is what comes with it.
Setting up the operation
Kitchen, staff, shifts, supply and cost control.
Structure
Record keeping, stock, reporting, written process.
Software
We write the system the business needs with my own team; there is no outside software cost and no waiting in a queue.
IT
ArfYzd Bilişim takes on the server, data and network side.
How I come in as a partner
I am not a silent partner, but I don't take over the running of the business either. The person who built it stays at the head of it; I stand on the setup, the systems and the follow-up. In most cases we run on a weekly review and a monthly session on the numbers.
Where I am looking for a partner
I look for partners for my own businesses too. There are two things I am open on, and I am open about both of them.
Open to a partner
An investing partner to open new branches of a concept that already works. The operation stays with me and the capital side is shared. The investor can be involved in the business, or simply follow the numbers.
All four layers of the ordering platform are written and live. From here on the work is growth: signing restaurants, opening new areas, and marketing. On this side I am open both to a capital partner and to a strategic partner who knows the sector.
What a partner gets from me
Figures and records in writing. You don't build a partnership on a verbal claim about turnover; I open my books.
A contract that says who does what — including what happens if we disagree.
Regular reporting. A partner shouldn't have to come and ask me for the numbers.
What I look for, whichever direction we are going
Are there records?
If the numbers can't be put on paper, I can't evaluate the business.
Who is at the head of it?
If the owner isn't running it, I don't go into the partnership.
Can it be repeated?
A business that works in one place with one person and can't be copied isn't for me.
Is the legal side clean?
Licences, contracts and tax have to be in order; where something is missing, that gets fixed first.
What happens in a dispute?
If the exit terms aren't written down at the start, I don't enter the partnership. Working as a mediator, I know exactly why that clause matters.
The process
The form
Pick “Investment” as the subject and write it briefly: which business, what stage, what you are looking for.
First conversation
Half an hour clears up most of it.
Sharing the numbers
We look at the records under a mutual confidentiality agreement.
A visit on site
If there is a business running, I come and see it.
A proposed structure
The split, who does what, how decisions are made and the exit terms, all in writing.
Contract
Signed, with everything above in it.
Limits
I don't invest to pay off debt. Investment is for growing a business.
I don't come in at the idea stage. I need to see something that already works.
I don't take over the management. The owner stays at the head of the business.
I don't go on with a side that won't share numbers. I apply the same rule to myself: I open my own records to a prospective partner.