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Notes from the partnership desk

Short, practical write-ups on how we think about structure, growth, and working with founders. Not a polished investor newsletter, just what comes up in conversations.

Notes · Partnership

What we actually mean by “partnership”

The word gets used loosely in this industry, so it's worth being specific about what it means at Vivid. We're not a source of capital that shows up once a quarter for a board update. We're closer to a second set of hands: available for a call about a hiring decision, a lease negotiation, or a difficult customer, not just for the numbers.

That only works at our size because we're deliberately not spread across dozens of companies. Every founder we back can reach the same one or two people who did the diligence in the first place.

Notes · Deal Structure

Growth equity vs. private credit, in plain terms

Growth equity means Vivid takes a stake in the business and shares in the upside alongside the founder. It makes sense when a company needs capital to expand and the owner is comfortable giving up some ownership to grow faster.

Private credit means Vivid lends against the business instead of buying into it. It tends to fit owners who want capital for a specific purpose, like equipment, inventory, or an acquisition, without changing who owns the company. We're upfront early in a conversation about which structure actually fits, rather than defaulting to whichever one we'd prefer.

Notes · Founders

Why we look for founder-led businesses

A founder who's already proven a model has done the hardest part: figured out what customers actually want to pay for. Our job is narrower than that. We help them do more of what's already working, with fewer of the operational bottlenecks that come from growing without extra capital or a second opinion.

It also means the businesses we back tend to keep their culture and their customer relationships intact through the partnership, since the person who built those relationships is still running the business day to day.