As mentioned last week, our expert investment advisors have been hard at work doing due diligence for potential members of the next cohorts at our two partner startup accelerators – Long Beach Accelerator and Lair East Labs. We’re still not quite ready to release the list, but I will guarantee one thing. It will be a very diverse list.
Why? Because diversity is key to safety and security when it comes to investment, particularly with early-stage investment.
You have heard the old proverb “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” right? Diversification is the same principle. If all your eggs are in one basket and that basket is lost, what’s left? That’s right. Nothing.
Safety, Security, Reliability
Here at Sunstone, our vision is to enrich the community and the life community members lead. That can be done through investment, but any investment entails risk. That’s why safety, security and reliability are key to The Sunstone Way.
Maintaining a diverse portfolio of companies is one way to increase the safety and security of investments. That can be done by finding startups working in a number of different fields. While startups in general are pretty technology-heavy, it is still possible to participate in multiple fields.
Let me be blunt here. In the cyclical nature of the business environment, business sectors – and businesses – rise and fall. When one sector is going up, another is going down; sometimes all the way up to superstar status, sometimes all the way down to closing the doors. The aim is to stay balanced.
Spread It Around
How does diversity work in the real world? Let’s look at a current portfolio.
There are businesses in seven different sectors – information technology, healthcare, consumer products and services, business products and services, financial services, energy and a catchall undefined sector. The differentiation is deliberate, but the selection of actual companies still requires due diligence to maintain quality and security. In other words, it’s great to be diverse, but it’s also great to be good. Very good.
That’s The Sunstone Way.
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More About Sunstone Management
Sunstone Management is a diversified private capital sponsor firm located in Southern California that invests in diverse early-stage technology entrepreneurs who seek to build great companies. We believe in the aspirational power of the American economy to attract and inspire investors and entrepreneurs from throughout the world. We deliver new and exciting opportunities for economic growth through the creation of innovative public-private partnerships, and our unique experience across government, education, and private sectors. Identified by Financial Times as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row.