August Portola
Aligned on what matters
About us
  • August Portola creates bespoke capital solutions in the form of investment partnerships for leveraged buyouts, publicly traded toeholds, growth equity, and debt.
  • We bring decades of investment and board experience to every partnership with CEOs, family offices, & private equity and private debt fund sponsors.
Governance Culture.

There is a shared and enduring commitment to the company’s mission by its employees at every level of the organization, as well as its key stakeholders.

Bespoke Capital Solutions.

We create bespoke partnerships with our portfolio companies that are unique to the needs and interests of its business, and that align with two key financial objectives:

  • Our investment is accretive to the portfolio company, ie. there is a positive spread between our cost of capital and the portfolio company's deployment of that capital.
  • For our investors, whether we’re creating equity, debt, or hybrid securities - preservation of capital is our first priority, and the secondary objective is to target returns on our capital that exceed the long-term performance of the U.S. public equity markets.
  • Our most common form of investment are hybrid structures with a current income component and equity upside participation.

Other Advantages of a Bespoke Partnership.

We are patient, longer-term investors without a forced 'sell-by' date or structural limitations on the size of any particular investment partnership.

  • Unlike traditional private equity and private debt 'blind-pool' funds, we are not bound by a fixed fund life 'sell-by' date that forces investments to be sold on a predetermined timetable.
  • Nor are we constrained by rigid limits on the size of any individual investment partnership.
  • This structural flexibility differentiates us from traditional blind-pool funds and enables us to continue providing capital as each portfolio company’s needs and growth opportunities evolve—without being forced to sell or curtail our support because of fund-level constraints.
  • With this structural flexibility, we can tailor the size, timing, and duration of our investment to each portfolio company’s circumstances.
  • We can increase our commitment as a company’s capital needs expand, provide follow-on funding when attractive opportunities arise, and remain invested for as long as continued ownership creates value—without being constrained by predetermined fund-level allocation limits or an artificial exit timetable.
4Investment strategies, all anchored with preservation of capital structuring
$2.5M—$1.6BPortfolio company revenue range
01Aligned standard for partnership
Portfolio approach

Flexible capital. Consistent principles.

We are industry agnostic and scale adaptable. What remains constant is how we evaluate partnership, governance, and the path to long-term value creation.

Our portfolio companies' revenues have ranged from $2.5 million to $1.6 billion.

We pursue opportunities where we can provide customized capital solutions, and our board participation can be helpful.

01Leveraged buyouts
02Publicly traded toeholds
03Growth equity
04Debt
Governance principles

The guts & glue of high-performance collaboration and coordination.

First principles act as guardrails for collaboration and coordination—from strategy, to tactics, to execution.

01

Like, trust & respect

The foundation for candid dialogue, durable relationships, and high-quality decisions.

02

Fun

The best partnerships bring fun energy to the work.

03

Hunger / mission driven

A shared commitment to the mission keeps teams moving and motivated.

04

Aligned economic incentives

Ownership and outcomes should reinforce the same long-term objective.

05

Humility

Be emotionally invested in winning—not in being right.

When first principles are established before differences surface, healthy and respectful discussion is a catalyst for better decisions.

Competing priorities can derail even the best-laid plans. When disagreements are viewed as bad faith or hidden agendas, companies may never fully recover—and the quality and volume of collaboration decline.

Trust, respect, and humility tame confirmation-bias impulses by making people much more receptive to stress testing their own assumptions.

Leadership focus

Relieved from micromanaging, leaders can focus on the macro levers that matter most.

  1. 01Allocating capital
  2. 02Recruiting & developing exceptional talent
  3. 03Strengthening competitive advantages
  4. 04Fixing bottlenecks
  5. 05Exercising strategic patience while urgently honing an agile flywheel
Jordy Spiegel · Founder & CEO

An investor’s discipline. A board leader’s perspective.

Jordy is CEO & Chairman of IKM Holdings, Executive Chairman of Meisei Tools, and Managing Member of Solugenix Lenders I LLC.

He serves on the board of The Laffer Center, a public-policy think tank, and has served on the boards of charitable and nonprofit organizations as well as private and public companies, including as chair of various committees.

Previously, Jordy was a founding partner of GESD Capital Partners, Executive Vice President of Laffer Associates, a securities analyst covering public special situations for Crowell, Weedon & Co., and a research staffer for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

BA, Cultural AnthropologyUSC
Master of Business AdministrationHarvard Business School
Selected experience

Prior investments and board seats include:

  • Solugenix Lenders I LLC01
  • Meisei Tools02
  • IKM Holdings03
  • Tribune Publishing13D04
  • PersonalCare Physicians05
  • Inspirato06
  • BankServ07
  • FortuNet08
  • Pic ’N’ Save13D09