By ShotGun Funds
If you love your business you don’t always love your business partner. The Shotgun Fund, a private equity firm, is going to the streets of Toronto to point out the funny and not-so-funny sides of a business marriage gone wrong. The I Hate My Partner campaign highlights the real challenges of a frustrated business partnership and how actions can be taken to remedy the situation where a shotgun clause is already in place.
A shotgun clause is a simple contract that allows one partner to buy out another at a fair price in a limited time frame. The Shotgun Fund specializes in giving private business owners quick access to private equity and the experience they need to effectively manage a shotgun clause situation.
“Today’s prudent business owners recognize that in personal or business relationships nothing lasts forever,” said Jim Ambrose, Partner of the Shotgun Fund. “The I Hate My Partner campaign is a fun way to draw attention to this challenge and how The Shotgun Fund levels the playing field when partners are fighting. When the smoke clears, and the bad guy is gone, The Shotgun Fund helps you to focus on the business and move on.”
The Shotgun Fund’s I Hate My Partner campaign will combine innovative street marketing, newspaper ads, media outreach and viral web elements that will poke fun at the business marriage gone bad, but also lead business people to the more serious consideration of how to deal with it effectively.
Finding yourself in the middle of a shotgun clause dissolution of a partnership can be difficult, leaving you with only weeks to find new capital investment if you want to remain in control of your business. The Shotgun Fund reviews the business situation and offers a fast decision on investment, and a plan to move the business forward into sustained growth after the partner dissolution.
David Bork of the Aspen Family Business Group, advisor to The Shotgun Fund, and internationally recognized family business expert, commented that “signs of a bad business relationship that can lead to trouble include:
a lack of respect,
an inability to share power,
a lack of shared values, and
conditional or no offering of assistance.”
“Money is not the most important thing to find in a shotgun execution. It is finding smart money that you can trust,” said Mr. Bork, “Otherwise you may just go from the frying pan and into the fire with a new set of problems you didn’t anticipate.”
The Shotgun Fund works with operating partners to realize shared growth and success for the business. On average The Shotgun Fund is invested in business partnerships for a minimum of 5 years. The Fund’s approach is to treat operating partners fairly to and align their shared interests to realize the interim and longer term success of the business.
“I partnered with them because of their professionalism, but after only a short time, I realized that Argosy’s principals were better and more trustworthy business partners than I first had in the business,” said Billy Shawn, Founder, The Canadian Drugstore. “That made a big difference to me and for helping our business realize its full potential.”
The Shotgun Fund is a targeted fund managed by Argosy Partners. Argosy Partners is a private investment partnership established in 1995 to provide merchant banking to small and medium-sized companies. As general partner of The Shotgun Fund, Argosy combines its own capital with that of a small number of institutions and entrepreneurs to make investments in private companies that are experiencing shareholder conflict.
For more information: visit www.shotgunfund.com, www.ihatemypartner.com, or contact Richard Reid or Jim Ambrose: 416.367.3617, info@shotgunfund.com
