We invest $2-20 million 

Founders maintain control

Growth capital or shareholder liquidity

A national network with a local approach

In addition to providing capital, we help our partner companies with strategy, business development, recruiting key personnel, and positioning the business for an eventual exit. We are based in Kansas City and find that many entrepreneurs prefer a partner with local accountability and a deep coastal network to help solve the growing pains common to companies in high-growth mode.

We also personally invest 5x more than the VC / private equity norm. Like the entrepreneurs we back, we have meaningful skin in the game. 

Investing in the Shift

New technologies have made starting and growing a business cheaper than ever. We believe this has shifted the balance of entrepreneurial power from those with deep technical knowledge to entrepreneurs with deep industry knowledge who can use technology to solve problems and even disrupt entire industries.

We believe a huge opportunity exists to use technology and the internet to improve efficiency and transparency, improving value propositions for customers, lowering infrastructure costs, and accelerating marketing in large, established industries that have been slow to adopt technology.

Why Five Elms?

You Keep Control

We back great teams who don't need capital, but see an opportunity to gain market share faster (usually by scaling sales and marketing efforts). We only take minority stakes and like management to own more of the business than we do.

Sales & Marketing Expertise

Our sales and marketing support team can increase your marketing funnel of new, qualified leads by over 150%.

Maintain Your Culture

A company's culture is crucial to its success. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs change their industries, not their company culture. We are not operators and don't force ourselves into daily operating decisions. 

Accountability

We live in the middle of the country. We find that most entrepreneurs prefer a partner who combines a "local" approach with a deep coastal network to accelerate business development, recruiting, and accessing the capital markets. We bring the best of both worlds, having worked at firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley prior to returning to Kansas City. 

Resources and Value Add

We don't just say we add value, we actually do the work. We have helped our partners by leading M&A efforts, building scalable sales and marketing organizations, recruiting key personnel, and serving as an interim CFO (to name a few).

53%

The average company in our portfolio has grown  revenues by 53% annually since Five Elms invested.

Select Prior Investments