LBS Sloan Masters: Together in business

by Davide Vallero, LBS Sloan Masters 2017 alumnus

The LBS Sloan experience is about learning and reframing your leadership skills. But the class itself may be one of the most valuable assets you get from this phenomenal year.

They say you will learn from your peers during the lectures. What we realised is that you get much more than learning, if you start to systematically shape your future together with your classmates.

That’s what happened to the six of us, who ended up going into business together and founding Clarence Bridge Capital, an innovative Private Equity platform aimed at bringing the management, entrepreneurial and the investment perspectives together, in the effort of making the lower mid-market an attractive and profitable segment for PE capitals.

While on the programme, I started to reflect on the expertise and value of the people around me – each of them holding decades of validated experience in their specific sector. I wondered what a potential we might have undisclosed, if some of us were able to join forces and create something together.

I had a dream, when I came to LBS: turning my profile from a corporate executive into one of an entrepreneur and changing the course of the second half of my professional life. But besides some specific new knowledge, which the programme did provide, I needed inspiring business partners to share the journey with.

I started with some vague ideas and the alumni network proved effective for collecting information and meeting a few chaps who had done something similar before. But the game changer was turning my attention into the LBS Sloan cohort and realising that some of my classmates might become the key pieces to the puzzle.

Ansat, Ayesha, Carlos, Marc and Paul decided to join me in this adventure and Clarence Bridge Capital was born, named after that small bridge which we used to cross often, when entering Regent’s Park to discuss some business matter. We developed and tuned our model together and recognised the value we would be able to source from the future LBS Sloan cohorts, in terms of talent, investment capacity and management skills. As a results, we continue to work in close contact with the School, by hiring interns from the junior programmes and keeping a strong link with faculty, alumni and staff.

Clarence Bridge is currently working at its first acquisition, with the ambition to soon create a success history and become serial in additional investments, while extending its investors’ cohort. Not being a fund, Clarence Bridge operates as an investors’ syndicate on a deal by deal basis. We are focused on growth and turnaround companies in the range of £10-30 million revenue.

The Clarence Bridge Capital team, LBS Sloan Masters alumni