新锐时尚品牌掌门人谈如何挑选优质投资者

    没有接受过正规的时尚教育，没有MBA学历，凭着个人出资100万美元，托里•伯奇从2004年开始销售”买得起的奢侈品”，如今这家公司价值已达几十亿美元。

    但这位时尚界的幸运儿近来经历了一场”创业者的噩梦”——上周，我在斯坦福大学（Stanford University）对托里•伯奇进行独家采访时谈到了她公司共同创始人的离开，当时我用的就是这个词。自从伯奇了结与前共同创始人克里斯•伯奇的法律纠纷以来，这是她首次接受采访。曾经的共同创始人如今已变身咄咄逼人的竞争对手，而这位竞争对手的另外两个身份则是她的前夫和她三个儿子的父亲。克里斯•伯奇用C. Wonder的名字创立了一家连锁店，类似于Tory Burch、Kate Spade和J. Crew品牌的低端版，出售与Tory Burch相似但价格更低的商品，包括把Tory Burch带到国际品牌高度的的双T标识芭蕾舞平底鞋。

    根据去年12月底达成的法律和解，克里斯•伯奇调整了零售理念，退出Tory Burch董事会，还把在Tory Burch持有的28.3%股份卖出了一半。

    任何一方都不准公开谈论此项法律诉讼或和解情况。但几个月前就答应我、要在斯坦福大学与我坐下来谈谈的托里•伯奇还是就引入投资者给出了她的建议：“我总是看到有很多创业者过早地让出公司太多股份。”

    现年46岁的托里•伯奇早年在拉夫•劳伦（Ralph Lauren）和其他时尚大品牌的工作经历为她奠定了创业基础，但直到最近历尽波折，她才认识到投资人的重要性。收购克里斯•伯奇股份的两位新投资人分别是康涅狄格州投资公司General Atlantic和芝加哥投资公司BDT Capital Partners。

    “不是一见钟情，”托里•伯奇告诉斯坦福大学的师生和校友们说。她花了约一年时间来了解General Atlantic的CEO比尔•福德和BDT的布莱恩•特罗特，评估他们的期望、衡量他们的可信度，心中一直在权衡一个关键的问题：“（它们的投资）会对公司未来五年或十年产生什么影响？”

    福德和特罗特说服伯奇，他们是有耐心的投资者，和她一样关注长期成长。特罗特是前高盛（Goldman Sachs）银行家，曾经颇受当时的客户沃伦•巴菲特的赞赏，2009年之后离开高盛，设立了自己的公司。除了新购入Tory Burch的股份，特罗特的BDT Capital还持有Peet's Coffee and Tea、Caribou Coffee和Weber烧烤用品制造商的股份。General Atlantic的投资组合则包括Facebook、Gilt Groupe、中国互联网巨头阿里巴巴（Alibaba）和一些中国消费品公司。这家公司的投资持有期通常为5-7年，长于很多竞争对手。

    当然，两家投资者都不愿冒险，直到托里•伯奇了结了与前夫的法律纠纷才开始投资。随着克里斯•伯奇（和托里•伯奇一样，九年前也投资了100万美元）卖出一半的持股，托里•伯奇已是这家同名公司的大股东，持股28.3%。她的新投资人对公司的估值是25亿多美元。按照这个数字计算，她的持股价值已超过7亿美元。

    Tory Burch公司拥有83家独立门店，同时也在1,000家百货商店和专卖店中出售色彩亮丽的运动服饰和配件，年营收约8亿美元。现在，特罗特和福特有望成为公司重要的顾问，帮助这位设计师兼CEO加快公司的全球性增长。

    Tory Burch公司会上市吗？或许，但托里•伯奇表示，近期没有IPO计划。事实上，她认为与增长同样重要的一件事是克制。她说：“我们是一个非常有耐心的品牌。”（财富中文网）

    译者：早稻米

    With no formal education in fashion, no MBA and just $1 million of her own capital, Tory Burch started selling "affordable luxury" in 2004 and built a business now worth billions.

    But the golden girl of the fashion industry recently experienced "every entrepreneur's nightmare"--as I called her company's partnership gone awry, in an exclusive Q&A with Burch at Stanford University last week. Our on-stage session was Burch's first interview since she resolved a legal battle with her co-founder who became a fierce competitor. In her case, the competitor is her ex-husband and the father of her three sons. Using the name C. Wonder, Chris Burch opened a chain of stores that seem like a downmarket mix of Tory Burch and Kate Spade and J. Crew, with Tory-like but cheaper merchandise, including the signature logoed ballet flats that helped make Tory Burch a global brand.

    The legal settlement, finalized in late December, has Chris Burch revamping his retail concept, leaving the Tory Burch board, and selling about half of his 28.3% stake in her company.

    Neither party is permitted to speak about the legal battle or the settlement. But Tory Burch, who committed months ago to sit down with me at Stanford, offered this advice about bringing on investors: "One thing I see all the time with entrepreneurs is that they give too much of their company away way too soon."

    Burch, 46, earned her entrepreneurial chops while working early in her career for Ralph Lauren (RL) and other fashion icons, but lately learned about partnerships the hard way. Her new partners, who acquired her ex-husband shares, are Connecticut-based investment firm General Atlantic and Chicago-based BDT Capital Partners.

    "It was not a just-met situation," Burch told the audience of Stanford students, faculty and alumni. She spent a year or so getting to know General Atlantic CEO Bill Ford and BDT's Byron Trott, assessing their visions, gauging their integrity, and keeping in mind a key question: "How is [their investment] going to affect the company five, ten years from now?"

    Ford and Trott convinced Burch that they're patient investors, as focused on long-term growth as she is. Trott is a former Goldman Sachs (GS) banker who earned the favor of his client Warren Buffett (BRKA) and left Goldman in 2009 to open his own firm. Trott's BDT Capital has, in addition to its new position in Tory Burch, stakes in Peet's Coffee and Tea, Caribou Coffee, and the maker of Weber grills. General Atlantic's portfolio includes Facebook (FB), Gilt Groupe, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, and a collection of Chinese-based consumer companies. The firm typically holds on to its investments for five to seven years, longer than many of its rivals.

    Of course, neither investor was game to bet on Tory Burch until she settled with her ex. Now that Chris (who like Tory, invested $1 million nine years ago) has unloaded half his holdings, Tory is her namesake company's largest shareholder, with 28.3% of the stock. Her new investors valued her business at more than $2.5 billion--making her stake worth more than $700 million.

    With 83 freestanding stores and her colorful sportswear and accessories in 1,000 department and specialty stores, Tory Burch brings in some $800 million in annual revenue. Now Trott and Ford are expected to be key advisers and help the designer-CEO accelerate her company's global growth.

    Will Tory Burch go public? Probably, but Burch says that an IPO is not in her plan soon. One thing she values practically as much as growth: restraint. "We're a very patient brand," she says.