Topspin Media (or Topspin) is a technology company that provides direct-to-consumer retail and marketing software for musicians, filmmakers, artists, authors, and other content creators. The Topspin application includes integrated tools for e-commerce, fan relationship management, marketing, and fulfillment of both digital and physical goods. Similar to topspin shots, we perceive the bounce of of an underspin shot differently because of how they are used in tennis. Although the angle that an underspin shot leaves the ground with is greater than its angle of incidence, underspin shots are often thought of as having a low bounce.

• Topspin Trainer
• Topspin Tennis
• Topspin Partners

Topspin Consumer Partners focuses on partnership transactions with founder-owners, and attracting top quality management and industry executives to drive company growth. Owners and management teams often remain partners in our deals going forward, either on an equity rollover basis, as a senior executive, or both. Topspin has an established reputation for working productively with business owners, and a proven track record of success in generating attractive returns for our deal partners. A partnership with Topspin enables owners to execute their strategy and achieve calculated growth.

Our approach in the lower middle market is highly focused on growth, and utilizing a specific set of value levers and skills in partnership with talented management teams in achieving high performance targets.

• Long-Term Orientation with Operator’s Focus: We approach private equity investing with an operator’s mindset, and believe that the best results come through effective ground-level execution, not financial engineering or excessive leverage.
• Rewarding Outperformance: We believe all parties should have aligned interests and share in the success of our investments, so we provide our executives with attractive equity incentives and encourage existing owners and managers to rollover existing equity into our transactions.
• Outside Deal Partners: We actively seek out and work with seasoned industry executives, and minority deal partners.

We invest in fundamentally sound, growing companies that have high-quality management teams and operate in sectors where our investment team has extensive experience, and pursue an investment strategy we call “3-D Investing”, i.e. seeking businesses with Defensibility, Differentiation, and Drivers of Growth.

Defensibility

Topspin Trainer

• Significant competitive advantages and recession resistant
• Business model has been resilient in the face of market pressures
• Focus on sustainability of pricing and gross margins
• Brands are the most prevalent form of defensibility
• Avoid investing in commodity-oriented businesses

Differentiation

• New or unique way of addressing existing market needs
• Demonstrated customer demand for innovative offerings
• Puts the company in a strategic position to capture market share
• Company can generate meaningful revenue growth, yet “fly under the radar” because of its small size relative to competition

Drivers of Growth

• Clearly defined growth thesis to avoid value traps
• Organic growth drivers that can be realized in the near-term
• Strong secular tailwinds
• Opportunities for add-ons to platform

Topspin Tennis

“Topspin’s expertise and strategic guidance, together with the hard work of the JD Beauty employees and management team, laid the foundation for the rapid growth we are experiencing today.”

Topspin Partners

Jeff Davidson, CEO of JD Beauty (Wet Brush)