Q&A with Darius Laud, Origination Manager at Puma

You’ve joined Puma to lead on Origination, what does Origination mean to you?

In my mind, as an originator, I’m focused on two key themes. Ensuring that, as a business, we see all the best opportunities that fit into our investment criteria; and helping ensure that for these investments, we stand the best chance of being selected as their partner.

I help to do this in a few ways at Puma. Firstly, by reaching out directly to interesting companies we don’t know, introducing Puma and understanding what scope there might be to work together in the future. Secondly, I help coordinate and review our relationships with corporate finance advisors, other investors and intermediaries, to ensure we have a strong presence in the market.

What drew you to Puma and how are you changing how Origination works at Puma?

I think the first thing that drew me to Puma was the scale of the opportunity. In my previous role at Houlihan Lokey, I’d spent a lot of time refining and executing on Origination at scale. From my early conversations with the Puma team, it was clear that this data driven, process led approach to Origination could yield success, particularly as you see a greater volume of opportunities in this part of the market than you might see with later stage investors.

I’ve seen over the years that often Origination of new business can fall down the priority list, as teams become focused on portfolio or execution. As Puma looks to be more competitive, in an already competitive market, having our first dedicated Origination function will bring more rigour and consistency in that department. 

I was impressed with the existing Origination workflows that the team had in place, which were focused on managing our key relationships. I’ve started to build on this, pulling more of this data into our CRM which then helps to build insights via reporting. I think the key takeaway here is that team was already covering the market really well, but that cadence wasn’t being consistently maintained in busy periods. We can always challenge ourselves to ensure we are getting in front of the right people and companies at the right time.

One new channel I’ve developed is Direct Origination. Here we are looking to be more active with how we source potential investments. Making sure growth companies, in sub-sectors we like, are aware of the value we can bring and that we are top of mind when they do come to raise funds. The results thus far have been really encouraging. Our offer of deep and active support seems to really chime with the management teams I speak to.

Other than that, I’m helping to augment our processes to ensure that leads don’t slip through the net, and promoting group learning, efficiency and automation in everything we do.

How do you define a “great fit” when identifying businesses for Puma to potentially invest in?

When answering this I find it useful to split out the different areas we invest into, as “great fit” differs for each of these. At Puma we invest into three distinct types of companies: Brands, Technology and software, and scalable Business Services.

When thinking about Brands, what we are looking for are companies with the potential to be market leaders, and the ability to stretch their segment. We’re looking for brands that are operating in popular categories but have a unique element to them – which helps them move the dial with consumers (and ultimately at exit). Think Lucky Saint or LOVE CORN.

For Technology and software, we are looking for companies that address a deep specific need, amongst a clearly defined customer group. When exploring this we investigate a wide range of factors such as, are customers trying to solve this problem already, and does the company really understand what these customers need. Do they have a tight ideal customer profile? Think CameraMatics or Aveni.

Finally, we look to back scalable Business Services, in high growth markets, with customer delivery right at their core. Often these companies will have some tech-enabled efficiency, or ability to scale outside of just increasing headcount. Think Influencer or Connectr.

What themes are you particularly excited about right now from an Origination perspective? 

With the rise of so many different AI products, you are able to blend and query your 1st and 3rd party data better than ever before. This is, unsurprisingly, helpful for investors. You can review and search for companies in ways that were impossible a few years ago. You can automate scorecards for potential leads, search for perfect bolt-ons and ultimately, just make smarter decisions.

Another important part of this, and another exciting area is around new, innovative 3rd party data providers. I’ve seen so many new data providers recently, many with their spin or special sauce. For Origination, it really keeps you on your toes to stay alert of the best places to source relevant, exciting companies.

What’s one conversation or deal insight that’s resonated recently?

I had a recent catch-up with a few peers in Origination. We were discussing how we set up our Origination functions, and what really makes us successful. One key theme that came out of that conversation was the need to be ‘present’ in market or in people’s minds. While simple, it does create a challenge for investors, as there are so many different stakeholders to spend your time with (both companies and intermediaries), not even considering the time and effort spent on the existing investment portfolio.

Part of the Origination role is to understand who the right people and companies are to spend time with, and ensure that we actually spend time with them. My Dad, always fond of sharing a quote, often said to me “80% is showing up”, and while we look to add a lot more than that as an investor, you do need to be in the room first!