Panthera Advisors Research
Advisory Approach
Panthera Advisors is a premier investment banking and financial consulting firm founded in June 2018 by serial entrepreneur Alejandro Cremades and M&A specialist Michael Seversen. The firm operates with a thesis-driven approach centered on empowering entrepreneurs and business owners to maximize value through mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising. Unlike larger institutional advisory firms, Panthera positions itself as an advisor exclusively focused on small to medium-sized companies and early-stage ventures, bringing founders-by-founders mentality to complex financial decisions. The founding partners themselves have lived through both successful exits and capital raises—Alejandro sold Onevest (a platform with 500,000+ active members) for millions to a California media corporation in 2018, and Michael brings extensive M&A experience from his previous banking career. This founder-operator perspective fundamentally shapes their advisory philosophy: they believe that 99% of success in M&A and fundraising is execution, transparency, and meticulous process management.
The firm operates on a hybrid fee structure combining retainers with success fees, rather than purely transaction-dependent compensation. This alignment reduces conflicts of interest and allows them to advise clients on both defensive and offensive M&A strategies without pressure to force transactions. The partners pride themselves on hands-on engagement at the partner level, avoiding the industry practice of handing clients off to junior associates.
Sector Focus
Panthera Advisors maintains a deliberately horizontal approach to industry focus, serving companies across virtually all sectors with particular strength in early-stage, capital-intensive, and technology-enabled businesses. Their track record demonstrates meaningful activity in consumer technology, software-as-a-service (SaaS), mobility and logistics, healthcare services, and diversified technology companies. Notable capital raise clients include Acculon Energy (a Columbus, Ohio-based advanced battery company that raised a 10-figure Series A), VAI (a Brazilian mobility company that raised $85 million in one of Latin America's largest Series A rounds), Famosos (secured $4.5 million in capital), and Woobly. These engagements reveal the firm's strength in advising high-growth, venture-backed companies navigating scaling and institutional capital deployment.
The firm's approach is fundamentally founder-friendly and process-driven rather than industry-vertical specific. They actively advise on both buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, and complex financing structures. Their thesis is that quality execution, transparent communication, and exhaustive preparation unlock value regardless of industry vertical. The diversity of their client base across software, consumer goods, industrial services, healthcare, real estate, and technology validates this horizontal positioning.
Process & Fee Structure
Panthera Advisors operates a disciplined, four-phase engagement model emphasizing preparation, market execution, and close management. The process flows through: (1) LAUNCH & LEARN—gaining deep understanding of the company, objectives, and market context; (2) PREPARE & LAUNCH—strategic planning, financial modeling, and positioning development; (3) MARKET & NEGOTIATE—execution of targeted buyer/investor outreach and negotiation strategy; (4) EXECUTE & CLOSE—transaction documentation, due diligence coordination, and deal closing.
The firm employs a hybrid fee structure combining upfront retainers with success fees. While exact pricing is negotiated per engagement, the firm references both Lehman and Modified Lehman fee models in their advisory materials, indicating familiarity with and flexibility around traditional investment banking fee formulas. Retainers are typically credited toward success fees. For capital raising engagements specifically, Panthera charges flat fixed fees rather than transaction-dependent compensation, reducing conflicts of interest and allowing pure advisory guidance.
Engagement timelines typically extend 6-9 months for institutional-quality processes. The firm maintains a deliberately limited number of concurrent engagements to ensure hands-on partner-level involvement throughout every engagement. They explicitly decline engagements with founders seeking limited or abbreviated processes, as their value-add is predicated on exhaustive preparation and market outreach.
Buyer Network
Although a boutique advisory firm, Panthera benefits from the extensive personal networks of its founding partners. Alejandro Cremades maintains an active podcast (DealMakers, ranked in the top 0.5% globally with millions of downloads) that features interviews with successful entrepreneurs and executives, creating ongoing relationship-building with founders, PE partners, and strategic acquirers. The firm has supported over 80 transactions in its first year of operation, indicating meaningful deal flow and credibility with institutional capital sources.
Michael Seversen brings institutional investment banking and private equity experience from his prior career, connecting the firm to relationships with PE sponsors and strategic acquirers. The firm's positioning as a founder-centric advisor attracts founder-friendly PE partnerships and strategic acquirers seeking to acquire growth-stage technology companies.
Competitive Positioning
Panthera Advisors differentiates from both bulge-bracket advisory firms and boutique M&A shops through several mechanisms:
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Founder credibility: Both founding partners are successfully exited entrepreneurs who have lived through capital raises and acquisitions. Alejandro's successful exit of Onevest and his work as a series entrepreneur creates authentic credibility with founder-clients.
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Thought leadership: Alejandro is a best-selling author ("The Art of Startup Fundraising" and "Selling Your Startup," both published by John Wiley & Sons), prolific Forbes contributor, podcast host reaching millions monthly, and guest lecturer at elite business schools (Wharton, Columbia, NYU). This thought leadership attracts deal flow and media visibility.
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Founder-friendly approach: Explicitly focused on early-stage and SMB companies, not large institutional deals. They pride themselves on partner-level attention and transparent, controlled processes rather than adversarial negotiation.
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Capital markets expertise: Beyond M&A, the firm advises on capital raising, company valuations, financial modeling, and growth strategy. This breadth allows them to advise comprehensively on both offensive and defensive financial strategy.
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Global reach: Despite being a small New York-based firm, they have successfully advised international transactions (notably VAI's $85M Series A raise in Brazil and transactions across Latin America).
Not a Fit If
Panthera explicitly declines engagements that don't align with their founder-centric, hands-on model:
- Founders seeking passive or minimal advisory engagement
- Organizations prioritizing cost minimization over execution quality
- Companies requiring global institutional banking relationships for very large (mega-deal) transactions
- Situations where founder-advisor alignment is misaligned or where founders lack confidence in the advisory thesis
Team
The firm operates with approximately 8 total team members across New York and Southern California offices. The leadership team consists of:
Alejandro Cremades – Founding Partner. Serial entrepreneur and author. Law degree from Universidad San Pablo CEU (Madrid), Master's in International Business and Trade Law from Fordham Law School (2009). Previously worked as international arbitration attorney at King & Spalding on major cross-border disputes. Founded Rock the Post (crowdfunding platform, 2012), later founded and exited Onevest/CoFoundersLab (500,000+ members, acquired 2018 for millions). Host of DealMakers podcast (top 0.5% globally, millions of monthly downloads). Author of "The Art of Startup Fundraising" (2016, foreword by Barbara Corcoran) and "Selling Your Startup" (2021). Guest lecturer at Wharton, Columbia, NYU. Frequent Forbes contributor. Named Top 30 Under 30 (Vanity Fair, Entrepreneur Magazine, GQ). Headquartered in New York City.
Michael Seversen – Founding Partner and M&A Specialist. Brings decades of M&A, investment banking, venture capital, and private equity experience. Specializes in financial modeling, deal structuring, and buy-side advisory. Previously held senior positions at institutional investment banks and PE firms. Based in Los Angeles metropolitan area. Brings institutional relationships with private equity sponsors and strategic acquirers.
Senior advisory team members (approximately 6 additional advisors/analysts) support client engagements across M&A transaction management, financial modeling, pitch deck development, and due diligence coordination.
Recent Activity & Client Outcomes
In its first 12 months of operation (June 2018 - June 2019), Panthera Advisors supported 80+ transactions across early-stage companies and SMBs globally. Notable engagements include:
- Acculon Energy (Columbus, Ohio): Advised on capital raise, outcome was 10-figure Series A funding round
- VAI (São Paulo, Brazil): Advised on $85 million Series A round, noted as one of the largest Series A financings in Latin America at the time
- Famosos: Advised on capital raise, outcome $4.5 million round
- Woobly: Supported capital raise and strategic planning
The firm continues to operate on founder-friendly principles, with a stated commitment to hands-on partner involvement and transparent, controlled processes across all engagements.
Geographic Coverage
Primary operations in New York (headquarters at 251 W 89th St, New York, NY 10024) and Southern California (Los Angeles area). The firm serves early-stage and SMB clients across the United States and increasingly internationally, with successful transaction experience in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia) and emerging markets.