Demand we can verify
Retention and repeat use we can trace in the data, not a market size argument. We would rather see a small number of customers who cannot easily stop using something than a large number who have not yet decided.
Investments
Vanaheim Investments
Our investment interests, informed by experience founding and operating technology businesses.
Our perspective
An operator’s view of investing
Vanaheim Investments is the home for our investment interests. We look at private businesses through the lens of customers, economics, execution and the people who will do the work.
Through Vanaheim Partners, we also help founders and decision makers examine the commercial case behind an opportunity or transaction. That work is scoped separately from our own investments.
Approach
How we think about businesses
A promising product is only part of an investment case. We look for the assumptions that have to hold: why customers choose it, whether they stay, what it costs to serve them and how much cash the plan needs. We spend most of our time inside operating systems rather than reading about them, which changes what we notice and what we can help with after an investment.
Economics that survive contact
Cost to serve, cash requirements and the path to sustainable earnings, tested against the system that actually produces the numbers. We read the model and the code behind it, because the plan and the ledger often disagree.
Leverage we can supply
Where the business is constrained by work that software can now absorb. We build and run those systems in our own companies, so the estimate of what is achievable comes from having done it rather than from a vendor.
Accountable ownership
Clear responsibilities and decisions someone is answerable for. As more work is delegated to automated systems, that question gets harder and matters more, particularly in regulated markets.
Experience
Informed by operating experience
Our experience spans e-commerce, media, audience measurement and data businesses, with recent work around Australian fintech and proptech. The About page distinguishes those operating roles from Vanaheim’s current investment interests.
Explore our experienceLet’s talk
A business worth discussing?
If you have an opportunity where our operating experience is relevant, tell us about the business, your role and what you would like to explore.