Write the plan before the money moves.
Team Kendell's strategic planning system is a flight plan: destination, route, fuel, alternates. Good companies become great ones by filing it, not by hoping.
03 · What I do
Kendell & Associates is a venture banking firm I founded in 1979. Most of what I do on a weekday is one of four things: creating new ideas, running an operating company, arranging capital for growth, or teaching what the last five decades have taught me.
Current positions
CEO and founding partner. An international venture banking firm providing investment capital, corporate finance and advisory services — principal investment, venture capital, strategic planning, turnarounds, mergers and acquisitions, technology and international development.
Mental health platform. A full continuum of care, services and risk-assessment technology that routes people to the right level of care. The firm's youngest-running operating position, and one very close to my heart.
A principle-based media and content production company, founded to bring light back to an ever darkening world. I am equally motivated by our purpose of being... I love what we create and produce.
Founders, boards, congregations and classrooms. Strategic planning as a flight plan, turnarounds that start with the truth, faith at work, and the four quadrants.
The log
Service, aviation, landscaping, Ai software, Cybersecurity, healthcare. The sectors change; the approach does not. Here are a few of past companies:
Service franchise. The first meaningful company, and the one that taught me that a good system beats a good day.
A very innovative pharmaceutical company. Developed an innovative natural occurring molecule which had non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and anti-viral modalities. The company was ultimately acquired by GlaxoSmithKline and the main product is "Abreva." I learned the criticality of a good crew.
Aviation. The position that put me in the cockpit for good.
Cloud software. Napkin to shelf, then to a buyer who could take it further than we could.
Security technology. A restructuring, a rebuild, and an exit on the firm's own terms.
Landscaping. A family position that predates the firm and outlasted several of its investments.
How I work
Team Kendell's strategic planning system is a flight plan: destination, route, fuel, alternates. Good companies become great ones by filing it, not by hoping.
In cloud the body lies. In a turnaround the founders' optimism does. I read the panel first, then the people, then I decide.
The captain flies the plane. I sit beside management with the checklist, the radio and the map — not across the table with a term sheet.
For founders
Business inquiries go to Kendell & Associates, LLC. Everything else — a question, a speaking invitation, a disagreement with something on this site — comes to me here.