What I Did This Summer

I thought that I knew what it was like to work at a small company because at POST, I knew everyone’s spouses, kids, and dogs’ names. Now I know that working at a really small company means having your boss know how you like your coffee.

I started the summer trying to answer a few key questions: Is Beartooth legitimate on the conservation front? If their business model is successful, is this something that can be replicated on a larger and different geographic scale? And what should be the role of private capital in land conservation?

I learned many things this summer, among them that flawed real estate presents opportunities and that I’m a fan of the “Mission Revival” style of architecture that characterizes downtown Santa Barbara. I also made headway in addressing the questions I sought to answer earlier.

With respect to my first question, I found the answer on my third day on the job, when the state director of a non-profit land conservation partner of Beartooth told the group of investors gathered in Sun Valley, “these guys are the real deal.”

In answer to my second question, yes, I do think this model can be replicated on a larger and different geographic scale, with a caveat. I think that Beartooth’s approach is more likely to work in areas where the real estate market is inefficient – where properties are marketed by the ranch owner’s high school prom date rather than a qualified broker (not joking), where properties are advertised based on their potential rather than their historic use, where there are conservation partners and funding available, and where there are real opportunities to add financial and ecological value through habitat restoration.

The third question is harder to answer. My brief experience working with Beartooth this summer has taught me that there is indeed an important role to play for private capital on the land conservation front. It has also taught me, though, that private capital should augment rather than replace current efforts by non-profit land trusts and other conservation organizations. In the Venn diagram of land protection opportunities, there are some that are best suited to the traditional non-profit approach, some where private equity might be the only viable option, and others where a joint venture, a partnership between the two, would be most effective. My hope is that land trusts are receptive to the idea of working with private equity groups to allow them to accomplish more than they otherwise could – provided, of course, that those private equity groups are “the real deal.”

Overheard in Santa Barbara:

“Dude, I think I’m missing a final exam right now for a class I stopped going to like three months ago.” – one Santa Barbara Roasting Company barista to another

“But what kind of salmon do they serve here? Is it Chinook?” – 7-year-old boy at the table next to me at a restaurant