mModel/Structure

 

The Inegrity program is run by its founder, John Pound, and draws on a network of venture partners for capital, targeted domain expertise, and involvement.  This has permitted aligning skills, expertise, and (often most important) personal values with the needs of each leader and business challenge.  It has drawn capital from partners on an as-needed basis rather than maintaining a captive investment pool, avoiding pressure to invest and focusing on making a small number of high potential commitments.  Integrity has maintained relationships with partners who are flexible, have long horizons, and have experience with and understand the unique dynamics of the sector.

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Integrity has, e.g., taken significant (>5%) public equity positions, with accompanying 13D filings; co-led PIPE fundings to support publc company turnarouds; partnered with leading private equity firms to scale involvements and to co-acquire companies; partnered with public equity investment firms to scale its commitment; co-led and structured early-stage rounds at emergeing brands; and worked with crowdfunding platforms in venture financings.

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Founder

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When Integrity's founder, John Pound, was 14, his father - an experimental physicist, and son of a mathemetician - said to him “I'd dreamed that you would  grow up to be a scientist, but I think you'll be happier as a buyer at Macy’s.”

 

Subsequent to this prediction, Pound earned a Ph.D in Finance from Yale; served as a senior economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission; and served on the Harvard faculty for a decade.  (Not science, strictly, but arguably, close enough).  

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He then, however, left academia, served in an executive capacity at a retail/consumer conglomerate, and founded Integrity, to lead a life focused on products, brands, and retail. 

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He would like to imagine that his father might see this as an interesting story - in a way, combining the best of all possible outcomes - but he knows in his heart that the reality is that, as a family friend said, observing the trajectory:  "the gene pool is detiorating." 

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More about Pound can be found here.