Boston, October 31, 2023 – Inc. today announced its fifth annual Founder-Friendly Investors list, honoring the private equity, venture capital, and debt firms with the best track records of success backing entrepreneurs.
The final list recognizes 218 firms that remain actively involved with the businesses they invest in, and that have earned the trust of the entrepreneurs they support to help drive growth. To compile the list, Inc. went straight to the source: entrepreneurs who have sold to private equity and venture capital firms. Founders filled out a questionnaire about their experiences partnering with private equity, venture capital, and debt firms and shared data on how their portfolio companies have grown during these partnerships.
“Now more than ever, founder-led companies need financing partners that offer guidance, expertise, and understanding—not just capital. These are the private equity, venture capital, and debt firms that have founders’ backs when it comes to accelerating growth,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Business Media.
Yellow Wood is proud to highlight that over the past 10 years, approximately 50% of our investments have been in founder-owned and operated businesses. This demonstrates our deep understanding of their unique needs and our commitment to preserving their legacy while driving long-term growth. Our investments in Parfums De Coeur, Dr. Teal’s, Cantu, Bodycology, Eylure, Elegant Touch, Me! Bath, Future Beauty Labs, and Beacon Wellness Brands have all been acquired from founders.
Our firm understands the value of strong partnerships. We believe in the power of collaboration and actively foster relationships with founders, recognizing that their vision and leadership are integral to success. We spend a significant amount of time with founders before we make an investment to make sure that it is a good fit and align on shared growth objectives. This alignment allows us to work side by side with founders, combining their background and knowledge with our operational and strategic guidance to drive results. Yellow Wood is also dedicated to enabling entrepreneurs to retain significant ownership stakes in their company or the platform post investment. We recognize the importance of this ownership, which aligns everyone's interests for long-term success.
Yellow Wood Partners takes a hands-on approach to working with our portfolio companies. Our operational know-how, consumer industry expertise, and vast network of executives and advisors empower founders to accelerate their growth trajectories. This has allowed for our successful track record with founder-owned businesses, and we are honored to have these opportunities.
To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors/2023
Introduced in 2019, the Founder-Friendly Investors list quickly established itself as one of Inc.’s most resourceful franchises. It has become a go-to guide for entrepreneurs who want to grow their companies while retaining an ownership stake.
The November 2023 issue of Inc. magazine is available online now at https://www.inc.com/magazine and will be on newsstands beginning October 31.
About Inc.
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community they need to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
About Yellow Wood Partners
Yellow Wood Partners is a Boston-based private investment firm that invests exclusively in the consumer industry in the middle market. The firm seeks to acquire branded consumer products that sell into a variety of consumer channels, including mass, drug, food, specialty, value, club and e-commerce. Yellow Wood's Consumer Operating DNA investment and operating strategy is based on utilizing the firm's functional operating resources to help maximize brand performance by driving organic growth and increasing operating efficiencies while acquiring additional brands into a limited number of platform companies in its concentrated investment portfolio. For more information, please visit www.yellowwoodpartners.com.