JD Gardner

Summary

Monarch Partners is an investment firm that aligns with passionate and visionary entrepreneurs to build high-impact businesses. The goal is to invest in and help build successful companies as an investor, active board member/advisor and as needed operating executive. Monarch seeks deals with reasonable capital requirements that either provide good medium-term cash flow prospects or significant capital appreciation over a 4-8 year time horizon. Monarch isn't a traditional LP/GP VC fund, which has its advantages as well as imposes some constraints. Successful Monarch investments so far include Omniture (IPO then purchased by Adobe for $1.8B), Ancestry.com (purchased by Spectrum Capital in 2007 & later IPO), Logoworks (purchased by HP), Costa Vida (90+ unit fast-casual restaurant chain serving 1+ mm customers monthly), SkullCandy (IPO) and Coupa Software (IPO). Other exits haven't been as lucrative financially but still worked out great for the entrepreneurs, and I've unfortunately written-off a few investments entirely. I previously made and supported 15 VC investments, mostly internet and enterprise software businesses, at vSpring Capital (now Signal Peak). One of the more notable deals I helped lead was the spin-out and purchase of LanDesk Software from Intel; it ended up being a home run for our fund. Generally speaking, I'm looking to connect with other entrepreneurially-minded folks to work with in a variety of ways to create value. I enjoy collaboration and that feeling you get when things actually start to kick-in, whether based on an inspired master plan or just catching a few lucky breaks.