We become strategic partners to our management teams. We take the time to work with management to identify any underinvested areas that, with further investment, will immediately drive significant growth. This may come in many forms, including helping to recruit senior management, providing additional capital to fund internal growth initiatives or add-on acquisitions, serving as a sounding board on strategic planning, helping to upgrade existing technology, and investing in sales and marketing. We help our portfolio companies make insightful and forward-looking investments in operations and infrastructure to maximize the long-term growth and ultimately, the long-term value of the business. We believe an investment in a business is an investment in its management team.

We contribute proactively, but do not interfere in the day-to-day operations of the business. Our participation is typically through quarterly board meetings and active dialogue with management. While we are active investors, we know how to help in a manner that is supportive, not intrusive. By design, we only make between two and four investments a year so that we can selectively choose businesses where we feel we can have a significant impact and create tangible value.

We bring a rare combination of core operating and entrepreneurial expertise to early-stage technology-enabled and branded consumer businesses because we have built similar businesses ourselves. Stripes' investment professionals have a wide range of backgrounds as entrepreneurs, investors and operators - this is meaningful to our portfolio companies because we not only understand the challenges management teams face, but can also offer tried and tested solutions drawn from Stripes' collective experiences. We have had success creating significant equity value in businesses by building differentiated brand positioning, executing on sales & marketing opportunities, broadening distribution, recruiting, upgrading technology, streamlining operations and driving acquisitions.

We maintain an eye towards long-term growth as opposed to short-term profitability and are here to build the long-term value of our companies' intellectual property and operations, rather than keep our sights only on quarterly performance. We not only understand the importance of producing this long-term sustainable value, but devote resources to accelerate achieving it.

We are passionate about growth so we are excited to invest in areas that will drive it. We work with our management teams to identify the areas of investment that will have the biggest impact on the business. Whether that's investing behind operating enhancements, new management, creative talent, recruiting, sales & marketing, strategic acquisitions or something else altogether, our business is to fund growth opportunities that will have calculated returns.

We use our network to help our management teams identify, structure and drive add-on M&A opportunities as well as execute their strategic plan. Through introductions to the senior executives, board members, key strategic players or acquisition targets we have gotten to know over the years, our relationships become our management team's relationships. Our diverse network comes from the rich experience of our principals and operating partners.