With $550 million under management, Ballast Point Ventures invests in established but rapidly growing, privately owned companies, with a particular emphasis on companies located in the Southeast and Texas. This region accounts for 22% of the national GDP and the region's favorable business climate and strong quality of life make an attractive home to thousands of talented entrepreneurs working to build great companies. The BPV partners have spent their careers building and investing in outstanding companies throughout the region – partnering with entrepreneurs who prefer to work with high quality partners "in their own backyard" who understand not only their businesses but also the local community. Our proximity to our portfolio companies and emphasis on long term relationships have allowed us to focus on adding value for our companies in ways that other firms investing across the country find difficult to match. We are "growth capital" investors and we work with companies that demonstrate proven business models and have strong management teams. We invest in a diversified group of industries that we believe have favorable growth and investment characteristics, and in which both the BPV Partners and our partners at Raymond James Financial have substantial knowledge and experience. These industries include health care, business services, communications, information technology, financial services and consumer/retail. Our experience shows that by partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs with experience, vision and integrity, we can invest across a broad range of industries and help our entrepreneur partners generate attractive investment returns for both themselves and their investors. We are financial and strategic partners rather than operators, and we prefer minority ownership stakes to control positions.