We’re excited to announce that we held another successful RevGen event last month. This year’s RevGen was engineered to recognize 25 of the most talented and successful growth stage CEOs; a group we called “the Mercato 25”. We carefully selected CEOs based on a mix of characteristics: revenue growth, talent, technology, stage, geography, and investment fit. Over two days, we forged bonds and built relationships and came to know new companies that would have been hard to meet otherwise. The Rancho Mirage Ritz-Carlton was a fantastic venue to kick off the event and the track day, handled by the BMW Performance Center on location at Thermal race track.

The keynotes highlighted Mercato’s Growth Stage focus with every speaker delivering impactful and relevant content.

Greg Warnock presented his perspective on visualization and the importance of memorizing and imagining success. He walked the CEOs through the many stages of entrepreneurship and made a compelling argument that the skills needed to run a startup are the very skills needed to make a car go fast around the track.

Brad Rencher, EVP and General Manager for Adobe’s Digital Experience Business Unit shared his compelling journey transforming Adobe’s digital business. It took incredible courage and insight to transform a $5 billion product operation into the 2nd largest SaaS business and growing revenue six-fold in ten years!

Jeff Kearl, Stance’s visionary CEO, dropped several deep insights about making your culture your brand. We all know about Stance’s meteoric rise under Jeff’s leadership. What is less known is Jeff’s ability to drive a car as fast as he drives revenue. His 2018 Pirelli cup title is a counterpoint to Stance’s recent $100M+ revenue milestone. He connected with the audience to share his vision for creating an incredible organization culture.

And finally, my mind was blown by our very own Tamara Wood, taking 4th place after just a total of 2 laps the whole day! Wow.

The event format provided an opportunity for Mercato to get to know some of the most talented and successful growth stage companies in the Western United States. We enjoyed one-on-one conversations with these growth stars and learned about the different challenges they face.

We wanted to create a unique networking experience for a group of growth-focused CEOs. High-level entrepreneurship can be lonely and we think the relationships forged by Mercato will be a source of inspiration, support, and shared knowledge well beyond the event.

Finally, I want to send a special thank you to Andrew Smith, Managing Director of the Savory Fund, and Davis Warnock, Managing Director of Prelude Venture Fund for their participation. Their relentless pursuit of the fastest lap at Thermal forged strong bonds of trust. It truly takes a team to source the best investments in today’s competitive environment, so thank you. The results of this year’s event will be measured by the number of quality investments that resulted from the event in the next 12 months.

Until next year,

Justin

Justin Edwards is VP of Sales at Mercato Partners

You can reach him at jedwards@mercatopartners.com