ABOUT US
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We serve as a catalyst to accelerate growth and wealth creation. To help businesses flourish on every level — from global capital access and business consulting to brand planning, design and innovation. We build holistic organizations from ideation to maturity, to create experiences for our clients that people crave and yearn to build relationships with.
Our expansive wisdom and passion for cultivating businesses grows out of our own experience as founders, inventors, and entrepreneurs of successful organizations. As angels, VCs, funds, operators, strategic planners, creatives, and innovators, we empower companies with high growth potential. We know how to identify limitations and solve challenges through creative business solutions and design thinking. This deep knowledge benefits our clients since we know how to help them become more agile and intelligent, expand their brand equity, enter powerful networks, and understand how to use capital as fuel. We are a bridge into many worlds and believe success is possible with wisdom, openness and the right people in place.
SERVICES
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We collaborate with our clients on a host of multi-disciplinary offerings to build businesses that people yearn to experience.
CAPITAL
Experience, knowledge, and effective team members are complemented by capital access to achieve a purpose. We believe capital is fuel. But, winning capital can be quite an odyssey. Having the right existing relationships and knowing where to look is more than half the battle.
BUSINESS CONSULTING
Powerful ideas are identified by their concise, expert communication and unquestionable need. We also know how to light the way by creating optimal growth and powerful opportunities through our broad network. Truly, great people make great business.
BRANDING
Great storytelling is successful when a solid strategic foundation is in place for all creative content to flourish. Weaving brand planning, writing and design together, we help our clients create consistent, powerful stories that bring brands to life for the long-term and guide them in the short-term.
FOUNDER
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R. Adam Smith is an experienced investor, advisor, and builder of tens of startup, venture and private equity-backed companies in the U.S., and abroad, since the mid-1990s. Adam is an expert in the branded space with a focus on all matters related to the consumer, including luxury, accessories, retail, apparel, beauty, art and design, digital & media, food & beverages, wellness, real estate and wealth management. Through private equity partnerships he has led and/or sponsored since 2002, Adam has invested in over a dozen privately-held companies (including seven acquisitions) with a combined $600 million in sales and over $250 million of contributed equity invested capital, while also forming and serving on the Board of Directors, or Advisory Boards, of each company.
In 2002, Adam founded Circle Peak Capital LLC, a private investment merchant banking partnership based in NYC he still manages today and which has served tens of limited partners with over $50 million of invested capital. Earlier in his career, Adam served as a principal at two leading private equity firms based in New York City, Caxton-Iseman Capital, an affiliate of Caxton Associates, one of the world’s legendary alternative investment organizations (founded 1993), and Castle Harlan, Inc. (founded 1987) each holding over $2 billion in aggregate managed equity capital. Adam was the first employee and instrumental in the success of a global emerging markets (half a billion) dollar hedge fund formed in 1996, Columbus Advisors LLC by the heads of Merrill Lynch emerging markets. Adam started his career on Wall Street in 1993, holding positions at top firms including Salomon Brothers Inc., J.P. Morgan, and Lehman Brothers Inc. After Salomon Brothers, Adam earned an MBA in 1998 with high honors (Beta Gamma Sigma) from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University (CBSGSB), and a BA cum laude in International Relations and Economics from Boston University.
Adam is an active alumnus of CBSGSB, a founding board member of the CBSGSB Private Equity Advisory Board, and a founder in 1996 of the school’s now legendary Investment Management Conference. In addition to his role as Founder and CEO of his three primary holdings, Circle Peak Capital LLC, Big Sky Partners LLC, and Family Office Private Advisors LLC, Adam is involved in several companies, including a special advisor to Rocket Dog Holdings LLC (since 2006), Stride Capital LLC (since 2010), and was recently appointed to the Advisory Board of the NY Tech Fashion Lab, a collaboration with the Partnership Fund for New York City and leading fashion organizations.
Adam is married with two boys, and is active in the arts, design, and is an avid collector. Adam has been a host, patron and / or sponsor of numerous arts related events including the International Fine Art and Antique Show, Weill Carnegie Recital Hall, The Avenue Show, and has been an amateur classical pianist since the age of 5. Adam is an active philanthropist, active in the Museum of Arts and Design, Tanenbaum Center, Leukemia Fighters at Weill Cornell College, and recently joined the Board of Directors of the Original Music Workshop (National Sawdust) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
EXPERT COUNCIL
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- Steven BaillieInternational Creative, Branding & Disruptive Retail
- Ken PilotRetail, E-Commerce & Business Development
- Christian LeoneLuxury Lifestyle, Global Designer Relations & Retail PR
- Bill SmithRetail, Apparel & Luxury
- Rob WallaceBrand & Packaging Strategy
- Susan ReratInternational Luxury, Media & Startups
- Chris Del GattoLuxury, Jewelry, & eCommerce
- Alan SiegelBrand Voice Pioneer, Global Branding & Professional Sports Branding
- Matt ShermanWellness, CPG, & Beauty
- Gary ShinnerTea, Health & Sustainability
- David GreensteinConsumer Products & Branding
PRESS
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Big Sky Partners Expands Unique Consulting Platform to Accelerate Brands, Empower Founders, and Provide Investments
“I founded Big Sky Partners in response to tremendous demand by emerging companies and their investors for creative, nimble solutions to bridge a divide between creativity and capital,” said Smith, chief executive officer of Big Sky Partners. “Fast-growing companies are facing a hyper-competitive environment for financial resources, market share and brand recognition, and Big Sky’s distinct platform provides a holistic solution with global reach.”
COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE
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CONTACT
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