Investment Criteria
Brook seeks to provide Expansion Stage funding, both debt and equity to companies based in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.
Companies must be generating revenue from multiple customers who can attest to the satisfactory relationship they have with the company. There is no minimum revenue, however we have found that $200,000/month is typically the lowest level at which customer validation can be achieved. We have funded companies with less revenue as well as companies with substantially more. The Company should be at or very near cash flow positive operations; pre-revenue companies will not be considered.
Our industry focus is within the following areas:
- Information Technology (CRM, Business Intelligence, Publishing, Electronic Payments and other data-rich business activities)
- Medical Technology (proprietary technologies which bring greater efficiencies to established markets)
Management is of primary concern in our evaluation. We believe that management is 90% responsible for the success of a company rather than technology or market. Therefore we spend time getting to know the management team with whom we will be entrusting our capital. Management’s experience scaling expansion-stage companies, building successful management teams, and their personal sales and business development skills are considered critical.
We are expansion stage investors, and rely heavily on the selling skills of the CEO, and look for sales experience as well as a sales personality in that individual. Customers often look to the CEO of a small company to sell the product or service while the company is young, later to be succeeded by a Sales VP. Even then, the CEO is likely to be a prime component of the ’sales team’.
The process begins when you submit an executive summary to one of the partners on our team. You may already have a full business plan and you are welcome to submit that as well. Following receipt of your executive summary we will respond promptly and may request additional information or suggest a meeting at our offices. We pride ourselves on responding in a timely manner as well as providing a meaningful answer if we cannot proceed with a funding of your business.