Synergist Senior Sound Bites - March 2020:
Blythe Jack

Background
Blythe is a Managing Director at TSG, where she is responsible for originating new investment opportunities, diligencing new business opportunities, structuring transactions and working with partner companies. She is also a member of the Investment Committee. Blythe joined TSG with extensive private equity and branded consumer experience, having spent over 10 years at Rosewood Capital and having served as CEO of a high-growth consumer products company. While a partner at Rosewood Capital, Blythe sourced and structured investments across the consumer & retail sector, including investments in Under Armour, Clarisonic, Sneaker Villa, Cobalt Boats, among others. Blythe received a BA, with honors, in Communication Studies from Vanderbilt University.
 
What originally inspired you to make the jump into investing?
I’ll start off by saying that you can’t underestimate the role of luck in career trajectory. That said, I also think that to be lucky, you have to be good, and you have to be open to the opportunities that present themselves. My transition into investing was natural in some ways but wasn’t a calculated move. I had left banking to pursue an opportunity at an internet startup which ultimately folded as part of the broader bust in the sector. I was thinking about next steps and attending social events as part of an effort to continue broadening my network. I ended up meeting one of the partners at Rosewood Capital at one of those functions, and we stayed in touch. They were looking to hire early-career professionals, and he asked me if I knew anyone who would be good for the firm. I actually shared all of my friends’ resumes first, before realizing that this might be a job I would be good fit for. Turns out I was, and I started on as a consumer investor. 

Reflecting on those first years with Rosewood, what were some of your key takeaways from the experience, and what were some of important factors of your success?
I joined the firm at an interesting time for the investment community in general. Everyone was burnt out from the internet bubble and taking time to reassess their strategy and their priorities. This meant I had a unique opportunity to define what my contribution as a junior investor would look like. I was free and willing to travel, and consumer was an overlooked space at the time. I found I was able to source a number of deals, which became a defining aspect of my experience in PE; proprietary deal flow is critical to success. Another important lesson I drew from that time in my career was appreciation for the benefits of an opportunistic approach. I identified that there was an air pocket available in the consumer landscape, where there weren’t as many people focused on proprietary sourcing at the time. I doubled down on that advantage by focusing on geographies where there were less people deploying capital, but where I had networks in, like the Southeast. All of this enabled me to develop a track record very quickly.

At some point in our careers, we all must evaluate when and if it’s the right time to transition to a new opportunity: I understand you took on a role as CEO of a CPG company after you left Rosewood. Can you tell us a bit more about that experience?
As I continued to join more boards and think about ways I could further my career as an investor, I decided I wanted to have a stronger point of view on the challenges these companies were facing. When an opportunity came up to scale an emerging consumer product concept, I jumped on it. This was the right opportunity for me since it was a developed product in market, with good distribution, and a market of tween girls I was familiar with as a demographic. As CEO, I didn’t just have the opportunity, but had the obligation, to learn very quickly about every aspect and challenge of the business. I figured out how to get through vendor compliance, how to execute at a trade show, the dynamics of licensing deals, I went on QVC…I had an immensely rich experience as an operating entrepreneur. This was the best and hardest thing I’ve ever done.

I can imagine that experience adds real depth to your value as a board member, and to your relationship with CEOs. Were there any other skills you developed during your time as an operator that you find yourself leaning on today?
There were so many experiences from that time that continue to serve me well. What was most important, I think, is the humility and the empathy I developed for founders and CEOs. I had to develop an entirely new perspective when I stepped into my role as an operator from the one I’d held as an investor. As the leader of an emerging company, I found myself begging the junior assistant retail buyer to even look at a sample of our products, let alone buy them. As you can imagine, this was an extremely different dynamic than having the world come to me, as it does in many ways for a private equity investor. I also developed the ability to problem solve within the context of a regulated industry and associated compliance constraints, as well as the ability to rapidly identify small problems before they become big ones. As an entrepreneur, you develop a deep appreciation for how quickly things can escalate, so my radar has become especially attuned to that. You develop really great instincts when you’re in an operating environment as to when things are going well and when they’re not going well, and that’s a skill that’s tremendously valuable to me today.

It’s always interesting to hear about the ways the skills we develop in one environment can generalize to continue adding value later on in a career. With both operating and investing experience under your belt, what ultimately drew you back to investing?  
As I mentioned, I am so glad I had the opportunity to try my hand at operating, but I was also glad when that time came to an end -- I really saw my primary skillset as that of an investor.  That said, at some point you do need a new ignition to spark your development, which was what led me to look for something that would look and feel different from my time Rosewood. I had amazing sourcing experience, so I was looking for a way to start working closer to the economics. When it came to TSG, I had competed with them at Rosewood, so I knew we had a compatible strategy. Additionally, I saw that at TSG, I would have an opportunity to grow alongside the firm. The deals we did in 2011 are smaller than the ones we do today, so I’ve really been able to grow with the fund and explore the different skillsets that necessarily come with that.  

Ensuring you have room to grow with a platform is definitely something to keep in mind when evaluating a new opportunity. Given the tremendous success you’ve had to date, can you give us some insight as to what gets you excited about a company?
For me it’s really about clicking with the company vision. When a product or service comes from a personal need state and identifies a larger market that needs the same thing, that’s exciting. I really look to click with a brand and understand the legacy it’s looking to make. I have to feel an authentic passion for what the team is building and see what they see. Once I get to that place, then everything else fills in -- I can quickly identify the resources we would need, see how the product needs to evolve in a certain way, how the channels will need to evolve in response…once I’ve had that “a-ha” moment, it’s just a matter of feathering in all of the resources & strategies I’ve seen successfully deployed before.

Thank you so much for your time today Blythe. As a closing thought, is there any advice you’d give to women pursuing a career in finance?
As women, we have unique opportunities to cultivate relationships in a different way than our male counterparts. This enables us to build a unique network, and uniqueness is something that has really worked well for me at every point of my career. Something I think is a mistake is to try to be more like the men in our industry. When I was coming through the system, most senior women had that mentality, but that’s not a path I see as leading to success. I’d advise women today to lean into your unique traits & unique way of bonding, your unique eye, whatever it is that makes you unique from your male counterparts. You don’t need to be like men to be successful. A different approach to the business, one that comes naturally to you, will afford you an authentic advantage. It really is a matter of being yourself.

Thank you for your time, Blythe! To learn more about TSG, click here.