START-UPS 

Urban CAPITAL Private (UCP) is best described as a sceptical participant in the world of start-up investment.  That said, we do accept that every now and again one of these scruffy, work-averse, hoodie-wearing Mark Zuckerberg wannabe's, will create a billion dollar company from nothing more than an idea and a night on the cans.  We only allocate a very small portion of our capital to this segment of the investment universe because, to be brutally frank, these funds will often end up funding the drug / alcohol habit of the aforementioned Computer Science graduate desperately attempting to avoid / delay hard work under the guise of entrepreneurship.  

UCP has invested both directly and indirectly in early stage companies.  Thus far, some have been a disaster, some pay their way, but most remain a work-in-progress. UCP takes equity positions in early stage companies via the provision of capital ($$$) or support by way of "sweat equity" (hands on advisory).  Given 99.5% of bright ideas will never progress beyond the pub let alone turn a profit, we take the view that early stage investing is essentially Corporate Powerball...with a fraction more due diligence.  

What we're looking for...

It takes a "special" sort of person to start a company.  Despite their hilarious mantra of cutting red tape and looking after small business, governments rarely do anything of the sort - particularly those of socialist persuasions.  If you've ever had the privilege of employing an unskilled, untrained 17 year old straight out of school demanding they be paid $45 an hour to make coffee on weekends, you'll start to understand the sense of humour required of a business owner.  When that small business owner continues to lose money month after month, cant afford to draw a salary, spends every waking moment on paperwork and has spent thousands of dollars training that unskilled and demanding 17 year old who then leaves with 24 hours notice after 3 months, you gain a better understanding of the character required to embark on that journey.  

For a majority, starting a small business is an unmitigated nightmare...for a few, the rewards eventually come. UCP looks for an entrepreneur who understands that creating a successful business involves more than a beer bong, an idea and a line of code.  That's why we tends to punt on jockeys not horses.  We believe that a bad jockey can kill a good horse but a good jockey can occasionally turn a lame mule into a Group One winner.   And if we're lucky enough to find a good horse and a good jockey...well that's the proverbial unicorn.