The Werth Of An Investment Banker

When I think of the term investment banker, I harken back to the wild and wooly 1980s. That was a golden era of sorts.

Moguls attacking Moguls in hostile takeover bids, advised by investment bankers.

The so-called Junk Bond King, Michael Milken, raking in a cool $50 million or more in a year. One year it was closer to $500 million!

The books "Den of Thieves" and "The Predator's Ball" recounted tales of Mogul greed and deception on Wall Street.

The movie "Wall Street" made takeover Mogul Gordon Gekko a household name.

The 1990s

The ‘90s decade wasn't too bad either. Apparently more junk bonds were used to finance emerging growth businesses in the 90s than in the go-go 80s.

Investment bankers partied!

And how many of us budding Moguls hadn't heard of some dopes writing a biz plan on a napkin, usually with a dot com in the name, and getting millions from investors and doing an IPO?

Not many I think.

Then there was Frank Quattrone. Frankie focused on helping tech firms complete their initial public offerings (IPOs). He and his investment banking team made a mint.

For years that's all I really knew about investment bankers. They help with mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, raising capital and some other things. And every so often one of them gets into big trouble for insider trading or other nonsense.

The average Emerging Growth Mogul doesn't come in contact with investment bankers on a daily basis. That's because the average emerging growth mogul isn't trying to do an IPO or merger.

But there might very well come a day when you, average emerging growth mogul, need the services of an investment banker.

Let Me Introduce You

So let me introduce you to Kurt Werth.

Kurt is a partner in the boutique investment banking firm Donaldson Werth, based in Virginia Beach, VA.

When he's not tanning at Va Beach, Kurt provides strategic consulting, mergers and acquisitions advice, and capital raising expertise to mature mid-market and emerging growth Moguls.

Take note of this though. Unlike the average investment banker working for, say, Morgan Stanley, who took the MBA route to Wall Street, Kurt was actually a pretty successful biz Mogul in corporate America.

Then he decided to put his corporate expertise to work on Main Street, for the average Biz Mogul.

I interviewed Kurt for The Looney Executive Mid-Atlantic Emerging Growth Series. This podcast series provides emerging growth Moguls with great information nuggets to facilitate their success.

Kurt shares his insights and experiences about raising capital.

One great nugget he shares:

When trying to raise venture capital, an A management team with an average product will be more successful than a B management team with a great product!

What??

Yep. Heard it from Kurt himself.

He offered a few more good nuggets too.

But you'll have to Listen To The Interview to find out!