BE THE ENTREPRENEUR LET EXPERTS HANDLE THE REST.

• Author: Peterson, Eric

As a founder, you need to be the CEO, accountant marketer, and developer, all at the same time, That can make it hard to know when to stop juggling and get help. Local family office Clarke Capital Partners may be able to help,

The hit ABC show Shark Tank has captured phenomenon that many see as synonymous with entrepreneurship. For some, its appeal is seeing everyday folks pitching cat cafes, bacon alarm clocks, or whatever other idea they want to turn into a business. Others like the schadenfreude factor of watching the celebrity investor "sharks" go into a feeding frenzy tearing apart would-be innovators and their pitches.

But the team at Clarke Capital doesn't care for the show. They don't like to see people being pilloried for not knowing all the ins and outs of patents, fundraising, cash-flow management, or reading a balance sheet. "There are quite a lot of people who can read a balance sheet, but there just aren't that many people that are brave and determined enough to carve out their own world and go and create something truly innovative," says James Harrison of Clarke Capital.

Mr. Harrison says a founder shouldn't be unduly criticized for things they can learn on the way to making their dream a reality--they should be applauded for pursuing it. And if a founder has exhausted their talents and resources building a successful business, that's exactly when Clarke Capital can step in and help navigate the troubled waters of scaling a business: by providing growth capital, establishing truly robust intellectual property (IP), expanding retail channels, creating thoughtful long-term strategy, and ensuring business fundamentals are strong.

THREE ENTREPRENEURS IN ONE SHOP

The leaders of Clarke Capital--James Clarke, James Harrison, and James Thayer--have charted these shark-infested waters before and want to help others know what's ahead of them. Mr. Clarke founded local success story Clearlink more than 15 years ago in his fiancee's basement. He led the technology-based marketing and sales company for nearly 10 years until he sold it to Pamlico Capital in 2011.

Mr. Harrison founded SafeOnline--a company that would partner with eBay and Verisign to develop digital certificates--before selling car insurance online, where he developed software that allowed customers to compare insurance quotes from a variety of companies, an adept move that "revolutionized the industry" at the time.

More recently, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Harrison recruited yet...