Work / life balance. (Thinking about snow…)

This post has nothing to do with new paradigms in finance or markets or anything like that. It does however have a good dash of entrepreneurial zest. But mainly it’s about skiing and how following one’s passion is a great way to start a new business. And it’s also a reminder that not all startups fit the Y Combinator model and that venture capital can (and should) be a broad church…

Just last week I’m happy to say I closed on a modest personal investment in an exciting new ski company called the Faction Collective:

Faction. n. ‘A minority group working within, and in opposition to, a majority group.’

When we founded Faction, our manifesto was (and continues to be) to build the best high performance skis we can, without compromise. Our focus is on providing versatile, progressive products that answer the needs of freestyle and freeride skiers – designed by riders, for riders. Every person involved in Faction, from the people working here in the office through to the guys in the warehouse and the team riders on the hill as well as you the consumer, has a say in how we design, build and manage our products.

Now as many of you know, I am an avid skier, however my true passion is racing. Fast, hard, steep. 5,4,3… So when my friend Alex Hoye first approached me about Faction (where he is co-founder and Chairman) last year, I was skeptical. First, I didn’t know the first thing about investing in a consumer goods start-up and secondly, I didn’t feel I had any way to judge the quality / desireability / competitive position of their products as Faction is focused on freestyle, freeride and big mountain (off-piste) skis. Give me a GS ski, well that’s something I can have an opinion on… But I had a look, and the vibe – reminded me of my teenage skateboarding days, kind of like a 21st century Powell-Peralta for snow: the new Dogtown (and Z-Boys)? – felt great and so I asked him to send me a couple pairs of skis to test. I had them for 2 or 3 weeks and not only did I test them, but I let a number of my ‘local’ friends try them out too, including a teenage ex-racer, a ski instructor and a ski shop owner. Everyone, including me was blown away. Not only that, except perhaps for the teenager, we were all pretty skeptical in an old reactionary kind of way to these ‘newfangled’ funny looking “skis” (if you could call them that.) All of the sudden, I rediscovered the joys of off-piste skiing – powder, crud, bowls, glades – it was so easy and fun. And I’ve never seen skis turn so many heads in a lift-line. The final confirmation that these guys at Faction were on to something is when the teenager didn’t want to give back the skis and kept insisting he would buy them off me! I decided I better dust off the IM and take a closer look…

They are only making about 1200 pairs or so this season (and just the folks I know will probably put a dent in that limited number!) so if you want the ultimate Christmas gift for your teenage son or daughter who spends all day in the snowpark, or if you want to go off-piste or tear up the powder and feel like you are a teenager again, I definitely wouldn’t wait too long to order yours, once they are gone, they’re gone…Contact the good folks at Faction and they’ll tell you who sells them close to you.

And once you’ve kitted yourself out in the latest, greatest gear from Faction, you’ll probably be thinking I need to book a place to stay! That’s where my next set of (non-tech) entrepreneurs come in. Martine and Laurent are good friends, who are living their life’s dream and putting the finishing touches on the brand new 4-star hotel they have built and will run in Meribel. For those of you that don’t know it, Meribel is an absolute gem of a resort in the French Alps, sandwiched between Courchevel and Val Thorens at ‘the heart’ of Les Trois Vallees – the world’s biggest ski resort. We’ve been going there for over 15 years now and I can tell you there is something for everybody. However one of the things that is in short supply in Meribel is hotel beds – the resort has c. 40,000+ beds but most of these are in chalets and apartments. Until this year if you wanted to stay in a luxury hotel, you really only had a choice between two and they were booked up years in advance. With only 20 rooms, and an ideal location, modern infrastructure (the advantage of building from scratch!) I’m sure after this season it will be equally hard to get a room at L’Helios.

Trust me, I had a tour a couple weeks ago – it is going to be awesome! And unlike most alpine hotels it is ready made for families and groups, with many interesting interconnecting suites and modular grouping of rooms, including many with duplexes. Unfortunately you can’t book directly online yet (has to do with banking/payment laws and the fact they are just starting up, don’t ask…!) but contact them via their website and I’m sure you will get a prompt response (especially if you tell them I sent you!) Sadly I’m not an investor in L’Helios but I’m sure it will be a roaring success. And if you do go let me know and maybe we can have a drink together on the sundeck. (I might even be able to get the owners to let us have it on the house!)

And just to make sure you are counting the days until first tracks, here is a little Faction video to get the imagination going:

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• Skiing holidays: Dearer hotels and cheaper chalets for skiers (telegraph.co.uk)

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