Steadfeather Capital

**MEET THE FUTURE OF FINANCE & BEYOND** 🚀 Toigo Top 35 Rising Leaders 🚀 As we commemorate 35 years of fostering inclusion and leadership in finance, The Toigo Foundation is thrilled to honor 35 Toigo Rising Leaders, among hundreds, joining the ranks of our trailblazing Toigo leaders shaping the world of finance and its intersections. Jessica Liang | Founder & Managing Partner, Steadfeather Capital – While at Michigan Ross, Jessica co-founded the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Club to educate and motivate MBA students to pursue a career in search funds. Inspired by a family legacy of public service, Jessica founded Steadfeather Capital with the mission to make a lasting impact by preserving businesses and ensuring their continued successes. Fernando Carranza | Venture Investor, Cleveland Avenue – Fernando is fueled by a mission to level the playing field for diverse entrepreneurs. As a venture capital investor, he supports tech-driven businesses led by founders from under-resourced communities, focusing on the future of work and human enablement sectors. Currently an investor with Cleveland Avenue’s CAST US Fund, Fernando believes that equitable access to capital can transform communities and catalyze systemic change. Ashley M. Allen, CFA, CFP® | Executive Director, J.P. Morgan – Ashley is a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV’s The Close with over a decade of asset management and investment management experience focused on fixed income investment strategy, developing market credit research and idea generation across a range of sectors and industries. She was nominated to Toigo’s 2024 Groundbreakers RISE program, our women in leadership initiative focused on rising leaders at the mid-career level. Valentina Osorio | MBA Candidate, MIT Sloan – Valentina’s career journey spans a non-target university to investment banking analyst to a private equity senior associate, exemplifying a critical hallmark of leadership in her readiness to forge a path where one didn’t previously exist to achieve her goals. She continuously leads by example, already reaching her hand down the ladder to help pull up others looking to pivot into finance and private equity through mentorship and support. Brentt Baltimore | Principal, Greycroft – Since joining Greycroft in 2017, Brentt focuses on investment opportunities in software, data and machine learning and leads the firm’s data science strategy as it applies to new investments. As a dedicated Toigo alum, Brentt actively participates as a speaker on Toigo panels, sharing valuable insights with current Fellows and fostering ongoing education within the venture capital community. 📢 FOR THE FULL TOP 35 LIST VISIT: https://lnkd.in/gUGKpCgj Share your congratulations in the comments below! ⬇ #ToigoTop35 #ToigoFoundation #InclusiveLeadership

Search Funds and Venture Capital: Two High Returning Entrepreneurial Alternative Asset Classes – An HBS/Ivy+ Event Venture Capital is a well-established asset class with potential for very high returns. Search funds were conceived in 1984 and are now a robust and growing community, but they remain a relatively unknown asset class. However, one comparison shows that Search Funds and US Venture Capital are the highest returning asset classes within private equity, in that order.   To generate new insights and increase awareness of the pros and cons of search funds as well as venture capital, the HBS Association of Northern California (HBSANC) is putting on the following event: Panelists: Funded Searcher: Jessica Liang, Founder and Managing Director, Steadfeather Capital  Search Fund Investor: Jeff Stevens, Managing Director, Anacapa Partners  VC Fund of Funds Investor: Chris Douvos, Founder, Ahoy Capital, who has over two decades of experience in venture capital. Lara Banks, Co-Head PE, Makena Capital: an outsourced CIO firm with $20 billion in AUM serving endowments, foundations, family offices, pensions, and sovereign wealth funds. Moderator: Daniel Beck, CFA, Financial Professional, Equitable Advisors  Join us on June 18 to learn more about search funds and venture capital from an exceptional panel.   Date: Tuesday June 18, 2024 Time: 6:30-8:30pm PT Venue: Perkins Coie LLP, 3150 Porter Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304 Register: https://lnkd.in/ef259b-B #harvard #harvarduniversity #hbsanc #siliconvalley #venturecapital #venturecapitalist #angelinvestor #angelinvesting #angelinvestment #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #entrepreneuriat #vcfund #funds

📌 Episode 8 of the Leopard Spots Podcast presented by Fraxtional and featuring Jessica Liang, Founder at Steadfeather Capital, is now streaming on all platforms! It was great to catch-up with Jessica and hear about her journey from the Bay Area to founding her own business and everything in between! Stream now and be sure to LIKE & SUBSCRIBE! 📺 📻 🎧 YouTube- https://lnkd.in/e3rHFHj4 Spotify- https://lnkd.in/eX2yQpiG Apple- https://lnkd.in/euKKtNbP #podcast #entrepreneurship #founder #

Do you know an owner of a business looking to sell? Well, good news! My good friend Jessica Liang, of Steadfeather Capital, www.steadfeather.com, is looking to buy! In 2023, Jessica started a “search fund,” after graduating with her MBA and MPP from the University of Michigan. A search fund is a vehicle where the searcher raises money from investors to fund a two year search for a business to buy. Once the searcher finds the business, they then go back to the original investors for the rest of the capital to purchase and run the business. From a financial perspective, Jessica is looking for: • Demonstrated profitability and growth • B2B Services Business Annual EBITDA of $2M - $10 Annual revenues of $5M - $50M • SaaS Business Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $3-5M • Recurring and contractual revenue streams • Low capex requirements From an industry perspective, she is looking for: • Low seasonal/business cyclicality • High organic growth • Large, fragmented market • Non-commoditized service • High competitive barriers And, more specifically, from a company perspective she is looking for: • Owner is willing to sell and desires to transition out of a leadership role • Loyal customer base with low customer concentration • Strong middle management • High operating leverage • Geography can be anywhere in the US, with a preference for the SF Bay Area But why sell to Jessica over selling to PE or a strategic buyer? For one, PE firms can often have a shorter term focus, since they need to return capital to investors within the life of their fund. A strategic will most likely completely absorb the company, whereas Jessica’s goal is to manage the company for the long term while keeping it intact. Second, the ownership transition is flexible and can be worked out with Jessica, whereas with both PE or a strategic the owner will be forced to stay or leave. Finally, when it comes to value creation, Jessica’s goal is to create long term sustainable growth. Many PE firms create only short term performance through financial engineering and strategics often through cost cutting. Are you or someone you know interested in speaking with Jessica about transitioning a business to her? Feel free to reach out to me at daniel.beck@equitable.com and I’d be happy to introduce her!