St. Thomas Aquinas Private Long-term Equity (“STAPLE”) acquires high quality Christian-owned businesses in order to compound wealth in the broadest possible sense. We compound investor dollars and expand Christian economic authority by owning great businesses with a very long run horizon. We do that through a combination of financial rigor, operational expertise, and deep experience.
We select management teams who excel operationally and share our Christian stewardship values. We believe that managerial quality is measurable, and utilize the research, methodology, and datasets developed by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom.
We select companies that consistently generate high returns on invested capital (“ROIC”), which in turn produces both free cash flow and growth. We utilize a proprietary methodology for measurement of ROIC, called the Value Vintages Method.
We select companies with economic characteristics that consistently drive strong financial performance. These include product or service attributes, firm-level factors, and industry dynamics, all of which are backed by both economic and management research and proven through experience.
I have never heard of a mission aligned fund in this space with LT ownership goals - it's awful to see great companies with great people get pulled apart - many of my friends won't sell to PE because of this.
Great to chat with you this week. I examined the STAPLE website and, frankly, I'm blown away. I've spoken with literally hundreds of potential investors and absolutely zero have made such a strong impression on me. STAPLE is doing something special and unique. Not only are you and your team doing the right thing but you're also doing something that likely has a competitive advantage over other investors (but I think you probably already know that!)
Thanks for the message – love what you are doing. In the last exit / succession conference it was glaringly obvious that faith-based PE is missing. Christian business owners have built a great business for a greater purpose only to discover there to be no buyers to continue their mission.
I went through several partners in PE that would come in and need 3 quarterly board meetings to finally understand what we did and then would hang in and do actual Board work for 3-6 quarters and then I would have to train another PE shop all over…
I don't respond to very many inquiries like this - but I have to say that the Christian (and Permanent) aspect of your private equity fund caught my attention. My wife and I started our company 32 years ago and how we exit has been a point of prayer for a few years. We believe God has called us to be salt and light for our clients, partners & employees and we don't want that to end with an exit to traditional PE.
