Prioritizing Pricing Power Over Visionaries
Ani Banerjee, co-founder of Andromeda Group, on secondary diligence and companies staying private
The key signal is that Andromeda is not hunting for miracle founders or category creation from scratch, it is hunting for pricing power in markets it already understands. In practice that means starting with sectors like fintech and gaming, finding the few companies that are already pulling away, then using secondary deals and network access to buy scarce stock in businesses with enough data to judge retention, margins, customer acquisition cost, and market structure.
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This is a public markets style approach applied to private software. The filter is less, who is the most visionary founder, and more, which later stage company already shows recurring revenue, low churn, strong gross margins, and founder leadership, with enough operating history to underwrite the business instead of the story.
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The scarcity piece matters because late stage private winners often have very limited float. Employees, angels, and early funds may want liquidity, but access is controlled by founders, ROFR waivers, and relationship driven block trades. That makes ownership itself part of the edge, not just picking the company correctly.
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This also explains why the firm emphasizes helping founders think through unit economics rather than promising introductions. In sectors it knows well, it can speak concretely about margin trends, retention, pricing, and competitive response. That is a more useful pitch to a mature private company than generic venture brand value.
As private companies stay private longer, this style of investing should become more important. More capital will chase proven category leaders in narrow sectors, and the advantage will go to investors who can price messy secondary deals, read capital structures, and win founder trust before a company ever needs to go public.