Judging Your Cleantech I-Banker

So you’ve raised tens of millions of VC dollars and you’re starting to look around for what’s next. Will you work to raise more money from private equity shops and project financiers, look to nuzzle up to strategic acquirers or jump into the public market?

Traditionally, executives and venture capitalists have turned to investment bankers to help them think through these questions and offer advice. And there have been plenty of bankers willing to help out, many with serious experience in technology.

But how do you evaluate a cleantech investment banker? Do you look for someone with a long history of done deals in the cleantech space or do you rely totally on their pitch? Do you go with a big-name firm or a boutique? What matters more, experience with technology or experience with energy? How heavily do you weigh recommendations?

IBankers are today where venture capitalists were three years ago: desperately trying to brand themselves as competent, capable people fluent in an industry that they all too recently knew nothing about.

Picking the right partner in this type of environment is hard. What’s your metric?

Who have you worked with that really seemed to have a handle on this emerging market?

Leave a comment or drop me a line: Alex dot Haislip at ThomsonReuters dot com.