What a year it has been for the Proteus team. There has been much to celebrate as we’ve achieved many milestones and overcame great competition to successfully position our solutions in the marketplace. One of the primary reasons for our success is the Proteus company culture of relentless innovation, understanding our client’s unique needs, and choosing to “run our race.”
The battle is never really with your competitors or their products. Instead, it’s an internal pursuit of excellence and building the most agile and scalable platforms to suit investors’ unique needs; a goal we have consistently achieved.
Overcoming Market Bias
This time last year, we were duking it out in the market, but the battle was primarily one of perception. We weren’t vying for position regarding our competitors’ offerings but rather overcoming “known commodity bias,” the filter through which clients perceive that their businesses and clients are safe. It can be challenging to select a solution from a lesser-known brand like Proteus. It’s much easier to choose what is “safe” and familiar.
Proteus’ solutions are long-term commitments. On the short end, a client relationship with Proteus will last for at least a few years and, on the long end, a decade or longer. However, for the types of businesses we are working with now, the relationships are intended to last a lifetime.
For these reasons, it is understandable and appropriate that a lesser-known brand be keenly scrutinized. Working in private investments requires a remarkable degree of care and respect for the investor. We expect nothing less from our prospective clients than to apply the known commodity bias to Proteus when evaluating our solutions.
The Watershed
As the year progressed, our solutions’ power, unique capabilities, breadth, and adaptability overcame the standard bias, and clients of all sizes began determining that the solution was too compelling to ignore.
Key Bank was the first to partner with Proteus. What a due diligence process they put us through, but we came out of that process stronger than we went in. Key Bank had a chance to witness the strength of the business we have created and knew this was something different. Something special.
Next was M Financial. Sometimes it takes special people willing to look past conventional notions to see the value of transformative ideas. M Financial and Key Bank are two of those firms. In both cases, we have already begun our “phase 2” initiatives. These initiatives are yet to be announced, but they speak to how long our business relationships are intended to last and the promises we deliver.
In the fourth quarter, we experienced a powerful tailwind of momentum. Relentless communication and a string of press releases celebrating wins over our most direct competition started to break down the biases against the size of our logo. As a result, we have witnessed new business deal cycles go from 3 years to 6 days, a phenomenon that happens when you innovate, solve problems, and refuse to be held back by market perception.
Looking Ahead
What we see for 2023 at Proteus is the convergence of brand recognition, firms genuinely having the ability to evaluate the merits of our solutions and competing from a position of strength. Everybody at Proteus knows we are doing something different and believes in the mission. One thing is for certain, we will continue to innovate, build better solutions, and capture markets in the new year.
We wish everybody a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023.
This document does not constitute an offering of any security, product, service, fund, or any other pooled investment vehicle (each, a “Fund”) managed and advised by Proteus, LLC, a registered investment advisor registered with the SEC (“Proteus”), for which an offer can only be made to qualified investors through a Fund’s Confidential Offering Memorandum (the “Memorandum”) prepared by the Fund.
