The Real Deal: ADAP Deal Room @SOCAP18
ADAP is excited to once again host a deal room at the SOCAP Conference in San Francisco October 23-26, and we are seeking outstanding early-stage social enterprises to apply to participate.
Much as we take a different approach to poverty, we are taking a different approach to the deal room. The ADAP Deal Room aims to develop authentic connections between investors and entrepreneurs. Our deal room will be action-oriented, with the goal of agreeing to deals during SOCAP and announcing them from the SOCAP plenary stage durin the conference.
We hope to build on the great success of last year’s ADAP Deal Room @SOCAP, which was featured in Impact Alpha's roundup of SOCAP highlights. You can watch ADAP founder Andy Lower describe our deal room approach at last year’s SOCAP here.
The Four-Hour Due Diligence
Last year we showcased in person and in real time the ADAP Four-Hour Due Diligence approach. We believe that it is more effective to focus our time and energy on working with and supporting entrepreneurs post-investment rather than pre-investment. Last year, we intentionally did not do full due diligence on the Deal Room companies prior to SOCAP to see how it would be if we were to meet entrepreneurs on Tuesday at the beginning of SOCAP and agree to a deal and publicly announce on Friday at the close of SOCAP. We were pleased that it worked, and we were able to agree to fantastic deals with two great companies.
According to Carl Jensen of Good Nature Agro, one of these two companies, "ADAP's Deal Room investment helped generate momentum for a very successful seed fundraising round for Good Nature Agro, and their insights on other investors were on target. The Deal Room process was fast (as promised), and from the moment we closed I have never doubted that ADAP is firmly in our corner.”
ADAP Advisory
We are refining our approach this year and will perform more of our due diligence prior to SOCAP so that we can focus our time during the conference on:
getting to know the entrepreneurs better
assessing the advisory needs of the companies in the Deal Room
discussing deal terms with selected companies
We intend to thoroughly explore how ADAP Advisory can add value post-investment for the companies we agree to partner with. The consistent, structured support provided by ADAP Advisory is the key to ADAP’s model, and its value has been proven and validated by prior ADAP portfolio companies.
Sona Shah, CEO of Neopenda, from last year’s ADAP Deal Room, says "ADAP has been a really valuable partner for Neopenda. Andy and Dan provide strategic feedback during the ADAP Advisory structured monthly business reviews, but they also make themselves available to provide guidance and support as needed to help us lay the foundation for our business.”
Join us
In addition to our strong partnership with SOCAP to make the ADAP Deal Room a reality, we are once again partnering with Kyle Westaway, who has generously agreed to offer free legal support for one year to two companies participating in the deal room.
If you are an early-stage social entrepreneur that would like to be considered for the ADAP Deal Room @SOCAP18, please review the ADAP website to learn more about our philosophy and approach, and complete the short form on our contact page no later than September 25th. We believe strongly that due diligence is a two-way street; entrepreneurs should do their due diligence on ADAP while we do our due diligence on the entrepreneurs and their companies.
If you are an investor interested in reviewing companies and participating in the ADAP Deal Room @SOCAP18, please contact us.
We look forward to a fantastic ADAP Deal Room at SOCAP18 in October!
