What We’re Seeing at Helm Ventures: Why the Right Support Can Be a Game Changer for Growing Businesses and Landowners
At Helm Ventures, we’ve had the privilege of working with a wide array of businesses across industries—from food and beverage and cannabis to industrial, multifamily, and seniors housing. Despite the diversity in verticals, we’ve observed some strikingly consistent themes among the small to mid-sized companies and landowners we serve. These shared experiences—and the gaps we’ve helped bridge—are worth spotlighting, not just to tell our story, but to help others understand where strategic real estate advisory adds real value.
We Work Best Where We’re Needed Most
At Helm, we specialize in working with operators—entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized business owners who are focused on the day-to-day and who may not yet have internal infrastructure like a director of real estate, controller, or in-house architecture team. We love working with companies at this stage because this is where we can provide the most transformative value.
When it’s just the operator at the table, our job becomes both simpler and more essential: bring structure, clarity, and strategy to complex growth decisions. These leaders are often brilliant at operations but need support thinking through the nuances of expansion, capital deployment, site selection, and long-term planning.
Capital Constraints Aren’t Always About Capital
One of the most consistent challenges we see is access to capital—but not always in the way you might think. Many business owners struggle not because the money isn’t available, but because they don’t yet have the tools and materials to confidently ask for what they need.
Here’s the truth: if you don’t have a clear financial model, a branded investor presentation, and an articulated growth strategy with vetted projections, you’re likely undercutting your own potential. These are the tools investors, banks, and lenders need to make decisions—and building them isn’t just about checking a box. It forces founders to answer critical questions:
What do you actually need to raise?
What assumptions are baked into your growth plans?
What’s your equity story?
What return profile are you offering to partners?
At Helm, we help founders get answers to these questions. We build the decks, structure the pro formas, run sensitivity analyses, and prepare you for the room. Whether you’re trying to lease your second location, raise funds for a new production facility, or enter a new market, having this foundation in place saves time, improves your chances of success, and positions you to negotiate with confidence.
Fact: According to Pitchbook, companies that approach investors with fully developed models and clear use-of-funds documentation close fundraising rounds 50% faster and on more favorable terms.
For Property Owners: Vision is Value
On the flip side, we frequently work with landowners, landlords, and property holders who may not be constrained by capital but instead need a strategic roadmap for how best to use what they already have.
Sometimes it’s modeling how to go vertical on a site, exploring adaptive reuse, or preparing an asset for sale or redevelopment. In other cases, it’s positioning an underutilized building for leasing, acquisition, or joint venture opportunities. We develop highest and best use analyses, investment memos, and underwriting documents to help these owners take their vision to the next level—and attract aligned capital partners or tenants.
Fact: Predevelopment advisory work—including feasibility studies, use-case modeling, and zoning analysis—can reduce development soft costs by up to 15–20% by avoiding missteps early in the process.
A Few Core Truths We’ve Learned
Speed favors the prepared. Whether you’re a business owner or landowner, you’ll move faster—and more confidently—if your story is packaged and ready to go.
Capital partners are looking for answers, not exploration. They want risk mitigated in advance, which is why deliverables like investor decks, site comps, cash flow models, and use-case memos are essential.
Decisions compound. The earlier you bring in a strategic real estate partner, the more impact you’ll see. From lease structuring to TIA negotiation, site analysis to exit planning, small choices at the start often have six- or seven-figure implications later.
Your opportunity cost is real. Time spent navigating real estate alone—without the right support—often means missed deals, higher buildout costs, delayed openings, or poorly structured terms.
Let’s Talk
Whether you’re a business operator looking to grow your footprint or a property owner looking to maximize your site’s potential, Helm Ventures is built for your stage. We’ll help you structure the right deal, raise the capital you need, and avoid costly mistakes.
Let’s build your next chapter—strategically.