Principal, George Birman, Reflects on His First Year at GroundForce Capital & Our Recent Investment in Bobbie

August 22, 2023

A year ago, I joined the team here at Ground­Force Cap­i­tal (for­mer­ly Pow­er­Plant Part­ners), drawn to the mis­sion of what we were doing and the excit­ing future we were plan­ning. Over the past year, we’ve been hard at work think­ing about how to take our team, firm, and strat­e­gy to the next lev­el while also look­ing for invest­ments that would fit per­fect­ly into an updat­ed frame­work. It’s been both a chal­lenge giv­en the mar­ket con­di­tions we’re in – and a ton of fun giv­en all the incred­i­ble peo­ple and brands I’ve had the for­tune to meet and work with.  The team, mis­sion, and sto­ry at Bob­bie stood out in par­tic­u­lar, and I’m incred­i­bly proud that we joined forces just as we announced our new name and iden­ti­ty as Ground­Force Cap­i­tal ear­li­er this month.

As an infant for­mu­la brand, Bob­bie has been set­ting new stan­dards not only for infant nutri­tion, but for the expe­ri­ence and sup­port mod­ern par­ents can get along the way while nav­i­gat­ing crit­i­cal deci­sions that impact the health and well-being of their kids from day one of life. As expe­ri­enced investors in the food and bev­er­age aisles, we know that today’s gen­er­a­tion of par­ents pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to what they them­selves con­sume and what the brands they choose to bring home stand for. Ear­ly on in their par­ent­ing jour­ney, Lau­ra and Sarah real­ized that wasn’t quite the case when it came to infant for­mu­la. The indus­try and many of its brands were decades behind when it came to not only sell­ing to and work­ing with a new gen­er­a­tion of par­ents, but also ensur­ing the sup­ply of such a crit­i­cal good in the first place. In sup­port­ing Bobbie’s recent acqui­si­tion of Nature’s One, along with its state-of-the-art man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty, we’re excit­ed to be back­ing the next chap­ter in this brand’s growth and in the category’s evo­lu­tion.

Our new name and iden­ti­ty as a firm reflect that while we remain ground­ed in real­i­ty – ready to help tack­le all of the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that a grow­ing busi­ness and brand will face –  we’re also con­fi­dent in our abil­i­ty to dri­ve growth, and that ulti­mate­ly invest­ing can serve as a force for good.