Operating Partners: how your board unlocks growth
We recruit executives from the Mount Rushmore of companies in your industry to assemble an all-star team with experience, connections, and ideas to help you start fast and scale effectively.
Board members invest, but not a significant amount. We are more interested in their experience and expertise. We believe it takes 1.5 years for a smart and hungry person to learn 90% of a new industry. The last 10% takes five years or 10,000 hours. We have the board members for that: the last ‘expertise-knowledge mile.’
John Hennegan
Partner, Shore Capital
A network of elite industry veterans
Boards should be more than a rubber-stamping formality or seats held by a single stakeholder. You can count on it that before we buy a business we'll recruit a high impact board of top-tier executives — people who have forgotten more than we’ll ever know about the industry, and have personal relationships that can transform a company. We count on this deep network to create a team of exceptional independent directors dedicated to helping you succeed.
Hear from our team
“We want to build a board like a basketball team. We don’t want five point guards. We want a point guard, a power forward, a center. In the business context, that means the board team needs the voice of the customer, the voice of the supply chain, one or two experts who have run a business in the sector before, and two adjacent experts.”
Brad Morehead
Partner
We hand-pick directors for their business-critical skills
Great boards unlock transformational value. When we build a board, our goal is to assemble a Super Team. And like any team, complimentary skill sets and strengths create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Each board is custom tailored for helping scale your unique business and exponentially expand your network and relationships.
Your Lead Independent Director helps you navigate to a better outcome
A Shore Lead Independent Director (LID) is a superstar individual who helps founders navigate life as a private equity company. Your LID will be chosen for their highly complementary skillset and network. They’ll meet with you regularly and help you tackle tough business problems. Inevitably, we won’t see eye to eye on every single issue. When we disagree, the LID helps us understand each other and negotiate the conversation so we can benefit from the best of both perspectives.
Most PE firms have a board with people employed by the PE firm. At Shore, the operating person is independent. I have a contract with the CEO of the Shore portfolio company, not Shore. I’m a riverboat guide. I’m like a pilot to help the team navigate channels, help the CEO think through problems. I help CEOs and management teams get to good thoughts.
Bill Clendenen
Lead Independent Director