Growthink in the News

March, 2008 -

Growthink was featured in the March 31st, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Business Journal. The article, in full, appears below.

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Los Angeles business advisory firm Growthink this month announced new relationships with five emerging companies.

Growthink specializes in providing capital and advisory services to startups and middle market enterprises.

Highlighting the list of new clients is Brand Velocity, a technology consulting firm that works closely with enterprise software giant SAP AG. Growthink will work with the company to develop a business plan.

"The relationships with many of our clients initially focus on strategic planning to craft their business models and determine the use of proceeds when they go out and get capital," said Jay Turo, chief executive of Growthink.

Another new client, Rogue Entertainment, is seeking to raise capital to expand its operations. The company owns hotels in Lake Tahoe and Big Bear that cater to snowboarders, and it also produces a reality show that tracks life among the staff. New hotels are on the drawing board.

"Many of our clients have an ambition to grow toward a strategic or financial sale of the business, and we want to turbo-charge that growth," Turo said. "If the clients have businesses that are within the appetite of our investment network, we can act for them in an investment capacity as a broker dealer."

Growthink has growth plans of its own. The company has added 10 employees this year, boosting its staff to 50 team members, and plans to continue its hiring program. The company in January relocated from Venice to a larger 8,000 square-foot office in Los Angeles.

In September, Growthink teamed up with DCIP, a developer of theater-scale digital cinema technology, to provide investment advice for growth capital and to assist the company with market research.

Growthink was also recently named adviser of record for Jiangxi Copper Co., an emerging Chinese firm located in Yingtan City. Growthink will develop and launch Jiangxi's strategic planning, resource management and capital acquisition initiatives.

March, 2008 -

Growthink and Lee Muhl are featured in the March 3rd "Movers and Shakers" section of The Deal (http://www.thedeal.com), the premiere publication covering trends in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital.

Here is the text from the piece:

Hooray for Hollywood

Lee Muhl, the son of Universal Studios Inc. production chief Eddie Muhl, grew up on movie studio lots, where he walked around sets, ate at the commissary, and procured autographs from actors Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and family friend Sidney Poitier. Though he was in love with movies, watching them at screenings or at home, Muhl decided to go to UCLA School of Law to become a litigator.

"I went to law school because I disliked injustice and wanted to be in public-interest litigation," says Muhl, 51. But upon arriving at Pacht, Ross, Warner, Bernhard and Sears, Muhl quickly abandoned that path to join the firm's entertainment department on the advice of a colleague who told him "instead of saving the world, you should entertain the world."

Muhl may not be entertaining the world these days, but he is helping to advise those who do. Muhl has just been named a managing partner and head of the entertainment and new-media practice at Growthink Inc., a Los Angeles-based firm that provides advisory services to small and medium-sized companies. Muhl has spent the past two years as an adviser to Growthink's media and entertainment clients, helping them with business strategy, financial modeling, project valuation and distribution concepts.

He knows these areas well. After Pacht Ross, Muhl went on to advise Hollywood luminaries such as Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Rob Cohen and others, assisting on structuring deals for films like "Blade Runner," "48 Hrs." and "Midnight Express" while at law firm Pollock, Bloom and Dekom. In Hollywood, Muhl also worked at International Creative Management as a motion picture agent.

Muhl starting working with Growthink after a foray into Internet content delivery as the CEO of a now-defunct dot-com that combined entertainment and education for teenagers. So far, he says the interest entertainment companies have shown in Growthink's services have pleased him.

"I think they think we are kind of cool," Muhl says.

 

February, 2008 - Los Angeles, California—Growthink today unveiled a new corporate website and announced the relocation of the Firm’s global headquarters, effective January 4, 2008, from Venice, CA to the City National Bank Building, located at 6033 West Century Boulevard, in Los Angeles.

Growthink has organized its offices using an 8,537 square foot open concept plan on the first floor of the building, which is located adjacent to the entrance to Los Angeles International Airport.

“Our new website and new headquarters—located near LAX, the gateway to Asia—reflects the global impact of our Investment Banking and Business Development services, which are building successful companies from Santa Monica to Shanghai,” said Jay Turo, CEO and Managing Partner of Growthink. “The Company’s revenues have increased nine-fold in four years and that success is apparent in Growthink’s website, which showcases the full range and capacity of our advisory services, and in our expansive office space, which allows us to grow bigger, bolder and better able to service a worldwide client portfolio.”

January, 2008 -

Growthink co-founder David Lavinsky discusses his insights on strategic business plan development gleaned from nine years at Growthink, working with hundreds of entrepreneurs.

Read the full interview

January, 2008 -

Growthink's strategic advisory and financial advisor work for Jiangxi Copper Company, a copper resource company located in Yingtan City, China.

Read the full story

January, 2008 -

Growthink co-founder Jay Turo is profiled in the January editions of LA-based Westside Todayís publications, including The Santa Monica Sun, The Brentwood News and Beverly Hills, 90210. The article, titled "Growthink Bridges the Gap between Visionaries and Venture Capital, can be seen using the link below.

Read the full story

November, 2007 - Corey Lavinsky of Growthink Research was quoted in Network World in regards to the historically high number of venture-backed companies that are four years or older.

Read the full story

November, 2007 - Growthink's Director of Strategy and others discuss the outlook for media and entertainment deals and Private Equity investing for 2008.

Read the full story

October, 2007 -

Corey Lavinsky of Growthink Research was quoted in Pharmaceutical Executive in regards to the financing prospects of MAP Pharmaceuticals.

Read the full story

September, 2007 -

Ms. Emily Burg, the Co-Founding partner and principal of Linea
Capital, has joined Growthink as Director of Strategy. "Emily's experience as a
private equity innovator, advisor to emerging companies and astute observer of
imperative trends within business and capital markets make her a stellar
addition to our team, as we highlight our position as the leading strategic
advisory and investment banking firm to emerging and middle market enterprises,"
said Jay Turo, Growthink's Founder and CEO.

Read full story from American Venture Magazine

Read full story from San Diego Transcript