Fort Capital

Fort Capital was founded in 2005 by Chris Powers while he was in college, buying rental properties. Since then, it’s grown to become a leading investor/operator of Class B industrial properties around the state of Texas. The firm raises capital on a deal-by-deal basis through syndication and has a track record of acquiring nearly six million square feet of assets worth more than half a billion dollars.

Before moving to Juniper Square, the Fort team used to email prospective deals to investors, and didn’t ever really know who received the information and who looked at it. And it only got more challenging from there.

“We’d have people telling us they had sent the sub-docs in the mail and they would be here in three days, or they would email or text somebody to say they were in for $100,000 – but it wouldn’t get recorded anywhere,” Chris said. “Then the person receiving all those inbounds would have to open up Excel and record the information every single time. It caused a lot of extra friction in our process.”

Fort Capital needed a solution that would provide their investors with an easy and elegant way to review and commit to a deal.

Capabilities such as being able to quickly and securely sign subscription documents via DocuSign were important in providing that experience. “When people fill out sub-docs, they give you a lot of sensitive information with a lot of legal ramifications if you mishandle it. So for an investment management company like us, security is not only important, it’s essential.”

In addition to streamlining the fundraising process, Fort Capital wanted its operations team to have more time to provide their investors with the personalized attention that set them apart. They needed a solution that would provide accurate quarterly reporting to investors. They needed to efficiently file, store, and distribute tax documents. And they wanted to make paying their investors as easy as hitting “send.”

All of this needed to be done in a way that provided investors an easy experience they would enjoy. It was a tall order but one that was vital to their future success.

After searching for a solution, Chris discovered Juniper Square. “I can remember the demo like it was yesterday, and instantly knew this would delight our investors and make our lives far more efficient. That’s why we chose Juniper Square,” he told us.

After onboarding with Juniper Square, Fort Capital quickly saw increased efficiency across their business, starting with the capital-raising process.

Investors now had the ability to log into a data room to quickly access key information on new offerings: the background story, performance metrics, and reasons why Fort Capital was making the investment. They could indicate their interest with the click of a button.

The data room and CRM provided the Fort Capital team with the ability to know when a deal was opened, who opened it, and how many times they viewed it. “If somebody has opened a deal two or three times and they haven’t committed yet, it would be very easy to follow up with them,” Chris said. “We told our investors, you can commit in Juniper Square, you can sign in Juniper Square, you get your executed documents in Juniper Square, you get your capital call on Juniper Square, it’s all in one place.”

Digitizing the investment process provided so many benefits it is now standard operating practice for the firm. “Every single investor we have – which range in age from those in their early 20s to their late 80s – uses Juniper Square because that’s the only way we operate.”

Fort Capital’s investors loved it. “It makes me feel like we’re competing against the greatest financial companies in the world as it relates to how we get information to people, the consistency of it, and what the investor can expect. And we didn’t have to spend a fortune to be able to do that,” Chris told us.

According to him, offering a modern investor experience has become table stakes in the industry. “The days are numbered for investment managers that aren’t willing to provide this.”

Juniper Square also helps Fort Capital maintain a level of security they lacked before. “Investors have to log into the data room to see our investment memos. All of these documents have secure watermarks on them. Because of this, if something gets shared it’s very easy to track where it might have come from.”

This technology-powered investment management solution enables syndicators like Fort Capital to quickly scale growth without the need to hire as quickly as they otherwise would have. In the words of Chris, “We could probably add another 300 or 400 investors and it wouldn’t require more people. The software does the work.”

Overall the return on investment in Juniper Square has been strong.

“It’s the biggest dollar-for-dollar value we get across any of our software platforms. On top of that, the data that it gives us is invaluable. We’re learning a lot more about who our investors are. We know what their priorities are. And we’re able to understand them a lot better and deliver a much better experience.”

Metrics as of 5/1/2022