Dell’Anima Investment
A few of my readers know that I recently invested in a new restaurant in the West Village called Dell’Anima. The restaurant opened in October 2007. It is an awesome little Italian spot on 8th Avenue and Jane Street and so far has been knocking the cover off of the ball. It has gotten great PR from many notable outlets including the front page of CitySearch (new and notable restaurants) for a while.
When people hear about it, they often ask “why did i invest in a restaurant”? Since that is a question I get a lot, I thought it would be useful if I laid out my rationale. I invested in Dell’Anima because although I know nothing about the restaurant business (or more correctly, I KNEW nothing about the restaurant business), I am an investor at heart. I jumped at the opportunity because I knew it would deepen my skills as an investor, both personally and professionally. More specifically, the rationale behind my decision to invest in Dell’Anima was based on:
1) The opportunity to play a role in helping a business scale and grow. I love seeing things go from an idea in a person’s head to a video hosting site with 23MM unique users (see here). This time, I wasn’t involved with a digital media business but rather I was able to play a role in a business going from the point of putting up walls and designing a bar to a few months later a crowded restaurant on Monday at 8PM. Seeing and being part of at Dell’Anima this has been amazing and inspiring.
2) Learning. People pointed out that “9 out of 10 restaurants fail” and “what do i know about investing in a restaurant” - both valid points. But investing in early stage businesses has many parallels, regardless of the industry. So if we are one of the 9, then so be it - but I want to understand why we did fail - was it not listening to customers, was it the poor product, or one of the other plethora of reasons of why a business fails? Conversely, if it is successful, why was it successful? How long did it take to scale / why did this happen? Being an investor in Dell’Anima has given me and will give me in the future a tremendous amount of learning that I can use as an investor throughout my career (both in personal and professional decisions).
3) Management team. This was what made the investment a no-brainer. My friend came to me with the idea for Dell’Anima. He is one of those special people who can lead - people want to get behind him and they want to work their hearts out for him. The chef - Gabe Thompson - came from one of the top restaurants in NYC and the manager Joe Campanale is one of the more talented and genuine people I know. This management team had a vision and I wanted to be a part of it.
So that was my thinking behind putting money into Dell’Anima. Hopefully it will continue to be as successful as it has thus far. I encourage those of you in NYC to go to Dell’Anima - when you do, please let me know your thoughts. When there, enjoy the wines, the bruschetta and the pastas (and the ambiance). Tell them Dan sent you!
