We started with the ambition to build the firm where we would want to go work every day.
Smash Capital began as our startup. Our culture is extremely entrepreneurial. While our ambition is to build a generational firm and to grow our organization considerably, today we are enjoying the advantages inherent in a small team. We take advantage of our speed, real-time communication and flat organizational structure every day. We are hyper aware of the critical contribution of every member of our core team, and we encourage everyone here to think like an owner.
Our founding team includes builders and creators who didn’t love the venture capital “product” we were offered as founders. We approach founders with enormous respect and a bit of awe at the enormity of what they attempt to do - the overwhelming personal stakes, sacrifice, belief and commitment they demonstrate in their life’s work. When most choose touch football, founders choose tackle. We work very hard; the founders we work with work harder.
We believe in the power of creative constraints. When brainstorming a list of potential names for the firm, we limited ourselves to one syllable, spelled like it sounds, so a then 7-year-old could say where their parent worked. The inspiration for the name Smash came from the sound of a collision in a comic book: BOOM SMASH POW.
We value, respect, and partner daily with the biggest and best-known competitors in our industry. They and we know we are a little different.
We know that our most important core competency every day is finding and winning great deals. But we know that our lasting mark is in helping great people and great companies succeed over time. That’s how our investors grade our performance and how we grade ourselves.