The facts
- Date
- March 9, 2016
- Where
- Carey Business School, Baltimore
- Speaker
- David Warnock, Co-Founder and Senior Partner, Camden Partners
- Format
- Joint event with ACG Maryland; sold out, more than 60 guests
- Firm focus
- Education, business services and healthcare
- Deal
- Towne Park: invested 2007, exited 2014 to TA Associates
How it unfolded
1. A focused firm
Camden Partners concentrated its investments in three verticals: education, business services and healthcare.
2. The deal
In 2007 the firm invested in Maryland-based Towne Park and built it into what the recap describes as the largest provider of contracted hospitality services and parking systems nationwide.
3. The exit
Camden Partners exited the investment in 2014 with a sale to TA Associates, about seven years after investing.
4. What Baltimore lacked
Asked how entrepreneurship, venture capital and private equity fit into Baltimore, the speaker named two gaps: seed-stage capital and talent. He pointed to a seed-stage fund the firm had started for early-stage companies in the region, and to the importance of the city’s image and energy in attracting talent.
What to take from it
- A narrow set of verticals lets a firm build depth and repeat what works.
- A private equity investment is a timeline: an entry year, years of building, and an exit to a buyer, here another investor.
- Ecosystem gaps can be a source of new funds: the seed-stage gap led to a seed-stage fund.
Try it yourself
Write the deal as a timeline of three dates, then say what a buyer such as TA Associates might have valued in the company in 2014.
Source and terms
Built from the Club’s recap: Private Equity Deal Making by David Warnock, Camden Partners. Figures and descriptions are as given in the recap; they were not checked against other sources.
Terms used: Private equity · Exit · Seed stage