Building With The End In Mind

Mario Toneguzzi

Wilson Acton is a serial entrepreneur and four-time tech start-up founder with an extensive background in M&A, capital markets, venture building and multi-generational experience in agriculture.
 
In this interview, the Managing Partner of Tall Grass Ventures, a leading agriculture and food investment firm based in Calgary, discusses:

  • Key things he’s looking for when investing;
  • The importance of building with the end in mind;
  • Why technology is important

Enjoy,
Mark

Wilson Acton is a serial entrepreneur and four-time tech start-up founder with an extensive background in M&A, capital markets, venture building and multi-generational experience in agriculture.

Today, as Managing Partner of Tall Grass Ventures, a leading agriculture and food investment firm based in Calgary, he focuses on investing in the technologies that are redefining the way our world is producing its food, fuels and fibers.

“Our current focus is Canada. We have investments from coast to coast,  however, we’re not exclusive to Canada. We will also look at opportunities internationally,” he said.

“We have a couple of views, we call them biases, as to where the world is going and what it needs to be able to continue to feed itself.  We believe that technology can fill what we think are critical gaps that are on the horizon. It’s the teams building those technologies that we look to support.

“So, when we look to invest, of course we want to see things like a strong management team that deeply understand the problem they’re trying to solve. We’re also evaluating what the market appetite and potential is for economically solving this problem.  All the things that we joke are table stakes in venture investing.”

What sets Tall Grass Ventures apart, he explained, is that when they’re evaluating an investment, they are looking through the lens of how their team can come in and help the management team. The Tall Grass team is constantly looking to leverage their connections, expertise, and experience to give the teams in their portfolio what they call “an unfair advantage”.

“We’re really looking for a partnership with the teams in our portfolio, more so than a simple investment relationship.  So, it’s really important that we spend time learning how a team wants to work with us and us with them.”

Recently, Acton was one of the featured panelists during the Business Transitions Forum in Calgary discussing how businesspeople can structure their company well in advance of a potential sale or recapitalization.

The next Business Transitions Forum is the 7th Annual one in Toronto on May 9

As a lawyer, Acton has led or assisted a wide range of businesses with a host of matters from capital raises across various stages to strategic acquisitions, including complex M&A and corporate finance transactions totaling more than $160 billion. 

As a tech co-founder, he has built corporate development teams, sales and marketing teams, advisory boards, transaction teams and helped take companies from back-of-the-napkin ideas through to successful exits.

Working closely with the other members of the team, Acton drives the strategic direction of the firm and works closely with investors, the management teams with which the firm invests and other members of the ecosystem.

“We’re looking for a management team that’s solving what we call a globally applicable problem. We want big markets that they’re addressing. We’re looking for the secret sauce in the technology that is enabling their customers to solve a problem,” he said. “We’re looking for capital efficient businesses. Businesses that are highly scalable, typically defined also by high gross margins of what it is they’re selling.

“Prior to being an entrepreneur, I was a partner with a national law firm as a mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance lawyer. I helped dozens of management teams structure and build their businesses before eventually selling them. I also helped other management teams buy businesses and help them through those transitions.

“Now we are investing in businesses and working with management teams to build their businesses to ultimately sell. We are building with the end in mind. Where people tend to get in trouble is they’re working away doing their thing and not thinking how some of the decisions link together and how those decisions may play out in sequence down the road. When you ultimately get to an opportunity to sell your business it can be a real problem if there’s a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be sorted out that built up over the years.  This can make transacting much more difficult and at times can make it such that the potential buyer isn’t interested in transacting because the opportunity falls into the ‘too-hard bucket’.”



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