FHS Capital Partners is an investment group led by partners with deep backgrounds in the corporate and marketing communications fields. We invest in early-stage companies and consultancies that leverage technology, insights and expertise to help clients transform their marketing and communications approach.
FHS invests in early-stage companies and consultancies that leverage technology, insights and expertise to help clients transform their marketing and communications approach.
The FHS Value Proposition
We founded FHS with the simple and powerful insight that there are highly talented professionals with unique offerings who should establish and grow their own companies, but who may lack the capital, the courage or the experience to bring their solutions to market.
The value proposition behind our investments is straightforward:
We bring an unparalleled network of relationships with C-Level marketing and communications executives to help our partner firms build their new business pipelines and opportunities.
We provide counsel on how to build a successful firm that can grow at scale while delivering the highest quality work; attract superior talent that is the single greatest differentiator of any professional services business; and develop the right infrastructure, operations and financial hygiene to create a winning business model that maximizes its potential and earns an attractive valuation if and when the time comes to sell.
We invest alongside our partners to ensure that the business is adequately capitalized, and that we’re fully aligned.
We provide strategic guidance on client and business issues throughout our partnership as advisors to firm principals.
“When you're running a successful company, capital is widely available, but not all capital is created equal and there's very little capital that truly understands the communications world. Bill, Bob, Don, and Dave are legends in our industry and their combination of wisdom, kindness, and their deep network has been an asset to Applecart far in excess of the face value of the capital they invested in our business. If you're building a company whose product caters to C-suites, you'd be lucky to partner with FHS.”
— Matt Kalmans, Co-Founder, Co-CEO, Applecart
Portfolio Companies
Morning Consult is a global data intelligence company established in 2014. It was named one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte in both 2018 and 2019. Morning Consult’s proprietary data intelligence technology has revolutionized market research and financial data with its unprecedented scale and speed. With access to more than 100 million people globally, the company’s survey research platform collects more than 15,000 daily interviews nationally representative of populations in 15 countries. FHS was an early investor.
DrivePath Advisors is the leading communications advisory firm specializing in all sectors of the energy industry. The firm is known for its deep corporate affairs and financial communications expertise with senior executives who have deep client-side experience. DrivePath excels in supporting transformational opportunities, managing pivotal reputational moments and navigating complex situations to achieve the right business outcomes.
Applecart was founded in recognition of a challenge: the most influential individuals—executives, investors, policymakers—are the most difficult to access. Historically, organizations have often spent hundreds of millions of dollars to reach a handful of these key people.
Applecart’s technology is designed to level the playing field.
Originally developed to reach the most elite stakeholders in government, Applecart now empowers clients to reach their most important and hard-to-reach decision makers effectively, at scale, and across categories.
The Next Practices Group is a founder-driven collective of firms, deep in technology and with expertise in marketing and communications, that creates perpetual competitive advantage for their clients. NPG was founded by Bob Pearson, a former colleague of Bob’s and a leader in the field. FHS’ investment was made in April 2021.
Alethea protects clients from the threat of disinformation that targets brands, reputations, employee safety or financial bottom lines. The firm uses its own proprietary advanced technology as well as industry-leading investigation and remediation services. Alethea Group, headquartered in Washington, DC, is women and disability-owned and operated.
The earned media industry is highly fragmented and inefficient, relying heavily on PR firms. Platform aggregation has delivered network effects while creating transformative value across many industries, but not yet communications. Earned media is heavily reliant on outdated tech such as email, phone calls, and spreadsheets. The industry is ripe to be disrupted by technology and aggregation tools.
Qwoted brings network benefits to the earned media market. Through tech enablement and platform aggregation, Qwoted enables all constituents to interact seamlessly, with or without PR intermediaries.
Kyne was an award-winning healthcare communications agency founded by David Kyne that FHS supported ultimately leading to a successful exit; the firm today is part of Inizio, a global healthcare and life sciences consultancy. David Kyne is now an FHS partner, as well as co-founder of the Kyne Foundation, a non-profit with a focus on health and education in Africa and Europe.
Integral is an employee activation agency that focuses on business transformation. Particular attention is paid to the complexities of managing corporate culture in support of strategic busines priorities, especially in an emerging post-Covid workplace. The firm is led by Ethan McCarty, a highly regarded executive in the field who previously led employee engagement work at IBM and Bloomberg.
"As Morning Consult has enjoyed substantial growth over the years, FHS has been very helpful in introducing us to many senior corporate communications leaders thanks to their considerable network across industries. FHS is a valuable partner to our firm.”
— Kyle Dropp, Co-Founder & President, Morning Consult
Investment Thesis
FHS Capital is unique in its focus, its capabilities and its philosophy:
FHS Capital is not a venture fund. Our investments are far less risky, and focused on helping our portfolio companies deliver significant, annual incremental growth and profitability.
FHS Capital works closely with portfolio companies to ensure growth, profitability and optimal valuation.
FHS seeks to invest in emerging companies that are driving digital innovation in marketing and communications. We have identified a number of high growth categories for investment that are currently under served, including:
AI powered marketing and communications solutions
Data Analytics
Employee Activation
Deep Category and Industry Expertise
Healthcare Advocacy
C-Level Counsel
What We’ve Learned After Eight Years of Investing in Communications Consultancies
We started FHS Capital with a simple premise – to find smart, talented and entrepreneurial firms whom we could invest alongside of and help grow. In our conversations with Chief Communications and Corporate Affairs Officers, we consistently heard of the need for high quality advisors and boutiques, with a strong niche and deep expertise, and who know their swim lanes. We launched our firm to identify, invest in, and partner with these kinds of experts.
The journey has been more challenging than we expected. Over the years we’ve researched, interviewed and kicked the tires with well over 100 potential opportunities, and have invested in eight.
Some of the teams we met had deep, credible, and valuable expertise, but we felt lacked the drive, charisma and savvy to grow a business. Some were engaging and driven but didn’t present a differentiated offering or compelling value proposition. Some had great ideas, but no real experience in growing or running a business. And some had everything we were looking for, but the timing wasn’t right, or the terms didn’t work.
In the end, our investment decisions rested on three critical components: the people, the premise, and the chemistry.
Let’s start with the people. FHS partners have decades of experience and relationships in this industry. The majority of our deal flow has come through personal referrals from sources we know and trust, and who’ve had direct experience with the firms or people they referred. We realized early on that whomever we chose to invest in would be representing our own personal reputations, and that the character of the individuals, as well as the integrity of the firms, had to be of the highest caliber.
Once we were comfortable that the right people were in place, we took a hard look at the service offering. Was it unique? Was it in demand? Was it easy to understand? Was it compelling? And perhaps most importantly, was it relevant? With the radical transformation wrought by technology, polarization and activism, there has been an explosion in demand for new services in the marketplace. We’ve seen more change in the communications industry in the past three years than the prior 30. We want to invest in firms that can help companies cope with this transformation.
Finally, the most elusive element in our equation has been chemistry. FHS is a strategic partner, meaning capital is only part of our value proposition. We also invest focus, energy and relationships to help our portfolio companies grow, which means we will be spending a lot of time together. If the chemistry doesn’t work, if the collaboration is strained and the trust is not implicit, then the partnership will not succeed.
Our journey to date has been exhilarating and rewarding. It has also been enlightening. And we look forward to continuing to share it with you.
“FHS Partners’ insights into how communications is evolving as a discipline and their collaborative approach to building solutions have made them true partners in growing Alethea’s business and capabilities.”
— Lisa Kaplan, Chairman, Founder, CEO, Alethea
The Partners
Bob Feldman
Bob Feldman is a founding partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. Feldman is also the founder of The Dialogue Project, a program housed at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, that explores what role business can play to reduce polarization and improve civil discourse in our society. Bob has held executive positions with ICF Next, DreamWorks Animation, GCI Group, Ketchum and Burson-Marsteller. He serves on several Boards and is the recipient of numerous industry awards for excellence and leadership in the communications field.
Bill Heyman
Bill Heyman is a founding partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. Bill is also the founder of Heyman Associates, an executive search firm that specializes in corporate communications and public affairs. Bill founded Heyman Associates in 1989 and has built it into a global organization. With more than a little help from an extraordinarily talented team, Heyman Associates has completed thousands of senior level searches. Bill has won a variety of industry awards including being inducted into The PR Week Hall of Fame. He has served as a founding advisor of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, as well as a number of other notable organizations. Currently, among his volunteer activities, Bill serves on the Board of Trustees at Gettysburg College, his alma mater.
Don Spetner
Don Spetner is a founding partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. Spetner is also a Senior Corporate Advisor for Weber Shandwick Worldwide. Don has the unique experience of having served as a Chief Communications Officer for three global, publicly traded companies, while also having recruited and placed CCO’s and CMO’s for major organizations. Don advises on a range of issues, including structuring of the communications and marketing function, identifying and developing talent, and employing best-in-class practices for leading a world-class department.
David Kyne
David Kyne is a partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. David is a healthcare communications specialist and founder of the KYNE communications agency. In addition to his role at FHS partners, David is co-founder of the Kyne Foundation, a non-profit with a focus on health and education in Africa and Europe, is co-founder of Resilience Action Network International, a global advocacy network focused on emerging health and climate threats and is Board Chair of Panorama Global, a social impact nonprofit based in Seattle.
Gulden Mesara
Gulden is a partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. Gulden is an award-winning C-Suite executive and change agent who excels at counseling leadership and influencing business strategy to reinvent how companies communicate. She has successfully led high-performing communications, public affairs, branding and marketing organizations at Pfizer, Abbott, AbbVie, and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). Her achievements have earned her numerous honors, including Marketer of the Year (PM360), Top Women in Retail (Mass Market Retail), Top Women in PR (PRNews), and Top 30 Health Influencers (PRWeek).
Dave Samson
Dave is a partner at FHS Capital Partners, an investment firm focused on early-stage professional service and technology businesses that deliver high-value niche expertise to chief communications and chief marketing officers. Dave Samson is a globally recognized communicator who has held leadership roles at some of the world’s most notable companies, including Chevron, Levi Strauss & Co., IBM, Oracle and Edelman. Over the course of his career, Dave has managed complex communications on range of highly sensitive issues and international policy matters. Communications teams under his leadership have set industry benchmarks in the design and execution of global integrated communications and advocacy campaigns.
