We thought we would use this opportunity to properly introduce ourselves. Put as simply as possible; we are the partner of choice for ambitious founders growing global brand legends that make people’s lives healthier, happier, easier, more fulfilling, while helping them minimise their impact on the environment. This is our purpose.
Starting as founders ourselves, we have lived and breathed entrepreneurial brands for over 35 years. Over that time, we have helped brands grow digital sales by over £500m and opening more than 250 stores, restaurants and bars across 70 countries, from Dubai to Dallas. We have learnt about the challenges of growing brands the hard way.
Having been founded by brand people, we are still to this day a mix of founders, brand strategists, investors and operators. This mix ensures that we don’t all think alike, helping us make the right investment decisions and in ensuring we have an holistic approach to brand-building.
We are still a close-knit team of just 19 brand-builders working out of Notting Hill, whom some would call brand geeks. Our in-house team of experts in brand, digital and people add value well above other investors and help our partner brands stay ahead of the competition by creating loyal tribes, innovative digital footprints and ambitious team cultures. Our support helps entrepreneurs focus on what they do best – growing their business.
For us, the real value lies in a brand’s strength, not just its balance sheet. Our obsession with putting the customer at the heart of all decision-making, means we strive to create ‘sticky’ brands loved by both customers and teams. By doing so, we build businesses that thrive well beyond our partnership. We love the excitement of a brand mission, seeing the vision through the eyes of the founders and hearing their story echoed through customers’ words.
Having invested in 50 brands, we are mindful that growing brands is very different to growing other types of businesses. They need to be nurtured, grown sustainably and at the right pace. We have identified that a brand has natural growth inflection points, which we call 7, 17, and 70. Depending on the business, this can relate to either turnover, number of sites or size of team and is when we believe a business needs to evolve its vision, team and processes. We help brands drive change ahead of these inflection points.
We also strongly believe in growing brands that have sustainability at their core and in empowering leaders to put their team and the environment at the heart of their growth. In our experience, this creates future-proofed brands that flourish way beyond our investment. This is why we are on the journey in becoming a B Corp ourselves, joining an increasing number of our brands who are already B Corps.
As a team, we believe we learn most from meeting founders of challenger brands, whose smaller budgets make them innovative and nimble. To share these experiences, we host more than 500 entrepreneurs annually in our invite-only quarterly skills-sharing Founders’ Collectives and through our digital and eCommerce focused roundtables we call Geekmeets, hearing from the most innovative founders, brand-builders, digital disrupters and culture experts.
We also learn from founders (many of the ones we have backed) who have grown their own brands legends and who are investors in our fund, staying part of the Piper family long after they have sold their businesses.
Anyway, enough about us. We look forward to keeping in touch. The door is always open if you want to share war stories or get a quick bit of advice. Feel free to send us an email.
All the best,
The Piper Team
They really want to learn about everything rather than just direct. They seem to really want to add value to the business, rather than just have an opinion round the board table
I can call them at any time of night and day and they are always happy to talk, they really are part of the business, rather than people who dip in and out and just want to see results
They really wanted to understand the business as quickly as they could. It’s not surprising that they have been successful. They are so diligent, they really think about things
I thought they were brilliant. It’s the first time I have worked in a PE funded business. Their attitude and contribution was pretty much the antithesis to what one fears a PE relationship could be like