Michael Albert
LinkedIn Copy
Hey Michael — we both ended up in PE from different directions. been thinking a lot about DTC origination lately and Bold caught my eye. would be good to connect.
Hey Michael, we both ended up in PE though I came through IB in London, not through building and scaling DTC brands like you. origination was always the same story for me — clear thesis, decent relationships, but no proprietary system of record tying anything together. every deal virtually sourced from scratch, nothing compounding over time. curious if that's still how most funds operate or if I'm behind the times? — Russ
Hey Michael, we both landed in PE though from pretty different angles — I came through banking at CS & Greenhill in London into growth equity, not through scaling DTC brands and running marketing like you. the pattern I keep seeing with most funds is weirdly consistent — strong thesis, solid network, but no proprietary system of record. the people, tools and ideas are never really connected. every deal virtually sourced from scratch, nothing compounds on itself. curious if that resonates or if you've built something different at Bold? — Russ
hey Michael — no worries if the timing's off. most funds I talk to have tried some version of building origination in-house — analyst pulling from Pitchbook or Grata, maybe using ChatGPT to help qualify, dumping it into a spreadsheet. each piece kind of works, but there's no system of record tying it together. the people, tools and ideas are all disconnected so everything ends up out of sync. been helping a few funds like Wingman work through that. curious if you've run into the same thing at Bold? — Russ
totally get it if origination infrastructure isn't top of mind right now — most funds have 10 things ahead of it on the priority list. the funds I've seen crack it early just tend to compound deal flow in a way that's hard to replicate later. if it ever moves up the list, I'm easy to find. — Russ
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Michael — Saw that you built Vision Ventures into a seven-figure e-commerce incubator and then launched Bold Capital to invest in and build DTC brands from scratch — that's a pretty unusual combination of operator and investor under one roof. I took a somewhat different route — grew up in Zimbabwe, did banking at Credit Suisse and Greenhill, then spent three years deploying €10-30M growth equity tickets in London. Loved the investing, hated how much time I burned trying to find the right companies. So I built SearchLoop to fix that. Now we build custom sourcing systems for investment firms. Backer Group in the UK is a good example — they acquire service and light manufacturing businesses, so we built them a system that finds targets matching their acquisition criteria, scores them on the fundamentals that matter, gets owner contacts → then runs personalized outreach and books meetings directly into their calendar. Everything plugs into their existing CRM and email — they can see exactly what's happening at every step. What caught my eye with Bold is the thesis around finding and building DTC brands. That's a sourcing-heavy model by nature — you're constantly looking for the next brand to acquire or partner with, and the founders behind them. Figured a system built specifically around your DTC criteria (category, growth trajectory, marketing efficiency, founder profile) could free you up to focus on the building side, which seems like where you do your best work. Worth a quick call to see if it fits? Russ searchloop.ai linkedin.com/in/russellt23
Prospect Research
## PROSPECT INFORMATION: Name: Michael Albert Title: Managing Director Fund: Bold Capital Background: Prospect: Michael Albert Current Focus: Michael is the Founder of BOLD (also referred to as Bold Growth/BoldFY), which he describes as an end-to-end DTC marketing department rather than just an agency. He focuses on building and investing in DTC retail brands to make them "unforgettable." He is a business growth leader specializing in influencer marketing, performance marketing, and brand architecture. Background: With over a decade of experience in e-commerce, Michael previously founded Vision Ventures, an incubator that scaled multiple stores to seven-figure revenues. He served as the Chief Marketing Officer at Karta Ventures, a private equity firm where he helped save four companies from bankruptcy and preserved over 200 jobs. His work in the e-commerce space has been associated with brands featured on Shark Tank, and he has been recognized in publications like the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. He also founded a nonprofit that operated in nine countries. Key Skills: DTC Marketing, E-commerce Scaling, Investor Relations, Brand Architecture, Customer Acquisition, Digital Marketing Strategy, and Private Equity Turnarounds. Notable Posts and Quotes: June 5, 2022: "BoldFY is here and ready to go, an end-to-end Influencer Marketing Agency :) ... If you know anyone wanting to grow their brand and dominate their market, this may be for them." June 1, 2022: "Your dream can never become a reality until you stop protecting it and allow it to get a little roughed up through failure and actually doing it. Failure is the mechanism that gets you one step closer to the end of the maze, if you learn to optimize from it." October 31, 2021: "Bold Capital Builds and Invests in DTC Retail Brands To Make Them Unforgettable." September 26, 2021: "When you feel pain you have the opportunity to get hard, #strong and #greater. If you miss the #opportunity the pain will just come back." June 6, 2021: "When direct response doesn’t work due to platform rising costs and funnel economics, one must do the following: A) Use placements, messaging, and landers that can collect more data at better price for remarketing... and B) Find new direct response marketing sources." June 2, 2021: "The 'Fittest #DTC Company' will be a #DNVB, and for that organism to be above average, it must go direct and deep inside the hearts of the buyers to understand all their hurts, wants, needs, and #dreams." May 30, 2021: "For a company to truly be #DTC, they must not merely seek the right buyer but also continually seek to become the precise company that buyer is attracted to and naturally fit into and say, 'This is my brand.'" January 22, 2020: "We are raising a seed round for our portfolio company Forever Floral ($5M run rate revenue within 8 months)." February 3, 2020: "If a company doesn't value impressions through delayed response, they’ll never be a brand; and equally true, if a so called ”brand” never masters direct response and a call to action, they will never be a company." Fund details: - Description: Bold Capital is a holding company as well as an investing and advisory firm. We specialize in DTC Ecommerce and SaaS. We are NOT a typical investment firm, we are also marketers. "I always wanted to be and was an investor. Comically, during my childhood, I didn't open many of my toys out of the box because of the hope that in the future they would have more value. For the past decade I've started and scaled my own stores and also been a part of some very special e-commerce companies through the portfolios and clients I managed. Many have been featured on Shark Tank ABC and other popular publications. After running my own successful e-commerce stores, I joined a fast-growing private equity firm. I was fortunate to be offered a role as the CMO. In our short existence, we saved four companies from bankruptcy and created or saved 200+ jobs in the United States alone. Along the way, prominent publications have recognized our work, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USA Today, inc.com, and more. All of these experiences have led me to form Bold Capital where I have brought together my passions of marketing, team-building, leadership, investing, e-commerce, retail and consumers brands, and consulting. Bold Capital Builds and Invests in DTC Retail Brands To Make Them Unforgettable. We are thrilled at the opportunity to serve you!" -Michael Albert Founder, Bold Capital - Website: https://www.boldcapital.io - Location: Columbus, Ohio, United States - Lead qualification: Research: - Query: =Bold Capital Michael Albert recent investments fund thesis - Answer: Bold Capital focuses on direct-to-consumer retail brands, investing and advising in e-commerce and SaaS. It's led by Michael Albert, who has a background in e-commerce and private equity. The firm aims to make retail brands unforgettable.