Calypso Investment Partners — in Conversation with Al B. Reid
A transformational and visionary leader, Al Reid has worked to create long-term value for companies, shareholders, and communities via effective execution of corporate initiatives. He has worked globally with Fortune 50 companies and built deep experience in strategic, financial management, and operational matters. Al Reid is the co-founder of Calypso Investment Partners.
We are in conversation with Al Reid to discuss their vision, why they started the organization and their long-term plans.
Al, you are the co-founder of Calypso Investment Partners, an operating-investment firm focused on early and mid-stage company opportunities in healthcare and several other industries. Can you talk to us about the purpose of Calypso, why you created the firm, and what your long-term plans are?
“CIP’s investment strategy incorporates a comprehensive approach to risk management in our investment selection process. We focus on creating a collaborative culture within our investment team, believing that open communication and sharing of insights can significantly enhance our investment decisions. We also highly value honesty, integrity, humility, high performance, partnership, ethics, and trust.
“The genesis of Calypso Investment Partners came from my time as a long-time business development professional. Given my company's business needs, there were many opportunities we had to pass on due to a lack of strategic fit. Hence, I observed there were several MedTech innovations available that would extend patient lives and were simple to use to treat a variety of medical conditions. Since most of the true medical innovation typically comes from smaller companies, there is potential to harvest some of the best ideas by providing seed capital to entrepreneurial companies. At Calypso Investment Partners, our long-term plan is to help incubate innovative ideas while using the partners’ collective experience to nurture new businesses in Healthcare and Life Sciences. Our goal is to become the partner of choice for early-stage medical companies where our collaborative and insightful knowledge of healthcare will result in blockbuster products.”
How did you come up with the name Calypso Investment Partners?
“Why we chose this name is interesting. The name of Calypso originates in the style of Afro-Caribbean music that is characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals. Like the music, Calypso Investment Partners' growth equity plans will include a range of genres/types of deals used to accelerate growth, fund innovations, and offer liquidity among our portfolios. Our emphasis is to collaborate, innovate, and partner with the companies in which we invest as our investment strategy will focus on recognizing trends before they emerge to capture value. Calypso Investment Partners will invest in well-run, growing businesses with proven business models and solid management teams looking to continue driving their business. Although we will be targeting early-stage businesses with limited financials, we will also focus on backing companies in establishing markets with potential for proven economics. Some of our investments will be best suited for growth equity and exhibit potential for profitable revenue growth through repeatable and scalable operating performance. Since growth equity offers a modest level of risk, which can be mitigated by the value creation and team development tools Calypso Investment Partners will employ to support our portfolio companies. To date, Calypso has made growth investments in early-stage companies like Endolumik, Palo Santo, and New Lake Capital among others.”
Thanks for sharing, Al.
