A New Firm and a New Blog

Horizon Partners is a new firm. Like most startups, we will take a different—and, we think, better—approach to execution than our competitors. We will strive to differentiate ourselves based on three factors.

First, we will be extremely focused on a few related industries: digital media, interactive marketing, and software. Even within those industries, we will be selective. We will only engage clients when we are highly confident that we will create significant value based on our industry expertise. This means that we will walk away from what other firms might consider good business. It also means that we will continue to build our expertise with every client that we engage.

Second, we will bring a high degree of transparency to our business. As financial service providers, we are in an industry that is often opaque. We think that honesty and trust go hand in hand with value creation. We believe that we can have the greatest positive impact for our clients only when they trust that we are dedicated to their lasting success, even when that comes before our own short term interests. We will demonstrate this dedication by being consistently candid and taking a long term approach to creating value for our clients.

Third, as a startup, we are going to work harder than our competition. Many in our industry have had success providing M&A and capital raising advice over the years. But we do not know of anyone else that combines our level of experience and expertise with the motivation of a startup. This might be because, given the economic backdrop of the past few years, few in our industry are leaving the nest to start something new. We think this brings us closer to our clients. As Internet and technology companies, each of our clients began as startups and dealt with smart people questioning their career judgment. Like our clients, we are not afraid to defy conventional wisdom. We feel compelled to successfully show that our different approach is a better one. So we will work tirelessly to prove it.

We will use this blog to illustrate our differentiation. We will regularly delve into obscure topics that might only be relevant to the narrow audience that shares our industry and transactional focus. We will try to shed light on topics that we are often asked about but that are rarely discussed in open forums. While we will always be primarily focused on providing exceptional service to our clients, we will also remain committed to regularly producing interesting and informative blog posts. We look forward to your thoughts and are excited to affect what we think will be positive change in the industry.