About
Time and room for what numbers can't measure.
The ideal that guides Unplugged, and what our name means today.
Our brand ideal
Unplugged exists to open up the time and room for people to connect, heart to heart — the part of a deal that no number can measure.
In M&A, in investing, and in the daily life of a company, what moves things in the end is what lies between people. No number can measure it.
We leave to AI what AI does well, reducing the time spent reading, searching, and summarizing. We direct the time and room this opens toward engaging with clients and colleagues.
A company whose connections grow closer becomes, we believe, stronger and more enduring.
To that end, Unplugged implements AI through our Prepare–Build–Run approach, deepening how closely people work together.
About the name Unplugged
Unplugged is the name our founder first chose for the company in 2010. The word means playing without the amplifier.
In M&A and investing, the amplifier is AI: reading, searching, summarizing, and counting. Work that suits the amplifier goes to the amplifier.
Unplugged is what remains when it is removed: time for people to face one another and connect, heart to heart.
A founder's note
When conversation moved the deal
When I worked on the Four Nines (999.9) engagement in JAFCO's PE division, I saw that dialogue between people was what moved the deal in the end. Connecting people in ways no number can measure was one of the elements that mattered to the engagement.
eREX, where I served as an outside director, went public in 2014, and Four Nines later became a core company within a listed eyewear group. I was involved with both when they were far smaller than they are today.
What we were doing then, before working on the numbers, was putting the connections between people in place. Once the core was in place, they ran on their own. What no number shows is what grows a company — that is how I have come to see it.
Unplugged works the same way: we build the core together, leave it running in your hands, and step back.
Values
Four things we bring to daily decisions
Read first, then go and meet.
We finish what can be read before meeting. The time together belongs to people. Where distance allows, we come to you.
Bring what numbers cannot measure into the decision.
Alongside valuation and KPIs, we bring the words and relationships of the people who built the company into the decision.
Look from three seats.
Seller, buyer, and fund. A document seen from only one side is still in progress.
Leave the system in your hands.
We see a lighter need for our involvement over time as the direction of the work.