Third Security is a venture capital firm formed in 1999 to manage investments in public and private companies. Third Security evaluates opportunities in a wide range of industries, but principally focuses on emerging through late-stage investments in life-sciences and information technology.

Our approach to unlocking value comes from a patient investment program, an effective management team and operational acumen combined with solid research. We make relatively few investments, and give each a great deal of attention and effort from every level of our organization. That is our competitive edge that has delivered superior returns over the past years.

Unique Investment Process
Third Security has a unique approach to venture capital investment. While we measure our performance using the same metric as many other firms – absolute return on investment – our methodology for achieving those returns is far more hands-on and involved than is standard for our industry. We look for opportunities where we can add more value than simply providing necessary capital. Toward this end, Third Security provides a wide variety of support to our portfolio companies, depending on the individual needs of each company. This support can come in the form of legal, accounting, HR, research, M&A and due diligence support, strategic relationship and business development, as well as strategic direction and management. This is our approach whether the investment in question is in a multi-billion dollar public company or a start-up where we’ve provided seed capital.

Unique Business Opportunities
We are interested in companies that have, or have the ability to, carve out a space for themselves. Whether that strength comes in the form of protectable intellectual property, a significant lead time on competition, market presence and strong relationships with customers, or a unique approach, location, or positioning. One of our first questions in evaluating an opportunity is, “What makes this yours?”.

Entrepreneurial Execution
It takes much more than a great idea to be a successful company. It takes an execution-oriented entrepreneur and management team to capitalize on the advantages that exist and minimize the flaws. Proven ability to execute on a plan (regardless of the relative merits of the plan) figures very highly in our evaluation.

Market Leadership
There are a lot of good opportunities out there. We believe that with a good concept and a good team, a company should be able to be #1 or #2 in its market, and we approach each investment with this in mind. It is imperative that your business plan outlines a roadmap for getting there.

Involvement
We believe that personalized attention and extensive involvement between our team and each of our portfolio companies is essential. Our team is made up of seasoned professionals with strong backgrounds and proven track records working with many different companies. In addition, we offer our entrepreneurs hands-on assistance with some of their most pressing challenges like recruiting, research, legal, and accounting, allowing them to focus purely on business execution.

Getting Started
We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The topics that we are most interested in are: Company's business, a description of the problem you solve, your market and the segment the company plans to attack, an overview of the company's initial product and planned products, a description of distribution channels, a summary of the backgrounds of the management team, a five year summary of financial projections, and a capitalization table.

The financials should include Historic and projected P&L Projected cash flow, Current balance sheet, Projected head count by functional area (R&D, sales, marketing, G&A), capitalization schedule, amount raised, valuation asked and the use of proceeds.

If you are the principal or the authorized representative of such a business or its principal ownership, please send a summary of the opportunity to us by e-mail at investments@thirdsecurity.com or by fax at 540.633-7979. Please indicate the investment needed in your summary.

Or, contact, Rob Patzig, Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at
540-633-7900.