A serendipitous music industry investment resulted in a new business venture for Cape Capital Partner Johan Holgersson and Eurythmics' Dave Stewart.
On paper it might seem like an unlikely union. British musician, songwriter and producer Dave Stewart, best known as co-founder of Eurythmics, and Swedish Cape Capital partner Johan Holgersson, who has been instrumental in the company’s growth over the last 23 years. Yet what the pair share is a passion for entrepreneurialism that has evolved from a mutual music industry investment into far more than that – a new spirit brand, Poetry Vodka, and a true friendship.
I’ll invest a small amount on one condition: that one day you set me up for a coffee with Dave
“I’m creative first, business second, and when we first met, I realised that Johan is like me, only the other way round. He loves music and playing the piano, he cares about the arts,” explains Dave, of the duo’s yin-and-yang personalities. Their initial encounter came about after Johan stumbled across a fund-raising music business, of which Dave was a shareholder. “The idea itself caught my attention but also Dave was my music idol growing up. I contacted the CEO and said, I’ll invest a small amount on one condition: that one day you set me up for a coffee with Dave.”
Coffee became lunch and after that, the two stayed in touch. One day, they were in Dave’s Nashville recording studio when Johan calculated that he was working on 22 different projects at once. “Talk about thinking outside the box: there is no box with Dave. He has a non-stop creativity which I’ve never experienced, whether he’s performing, writing musicals or books, or producing new artists,” says Johan. Then Dave suggested that they collaborate on producing a refined vodka aimed at an artistic crowd – an idea which had been percolating ever since the 1980s when, as an up-and-coming musician, he sipped his first vodka martini at La Coupole brasserie in Montparnasse (a famous haunt for artists, writers and Hollywood stars). “I already had the designs for the bottles and the domain name but until I met Johan, there was nobody who I wanted to work on it with,” he recalls.
Although a small-scale start-up is, in theory, a wildly different proposition to his role at Cape, Johan sees many similarities. “What I’m doing with Dave, both in our music investment and Poetry Vodka, is trying to create something unique in industries that already exist,” says Johan. “It was the same when Alex (CEO and Cape Capital founder) came to me with a rough presentation about what is now Cape Capital. At the time there were already 2,500 wealth managers in Switzerland and I’d never heard of this way of doing business, but I knew Alex since our days working together in Moscow and I knew we shared a common set of values that have guided us over the years, so I was ready to give it a go. I’m not a starter guy but once someone presents a cool idea, I’m not afraid to say yes.”
Fast forward nearly 25 years and Alex’s distinct hyper client service-centric approach to business, which first drew Johan to Cape Capital, still holds firm today. For instance, rather unusually, team members are hired for their mindset and personality first, rather than a list of accomplishments on a CV. “It’s also the way we are with clients, spending quality time with them so both sides can feel whether the relationship works,” confirms Johan. Of course, being able to problem solve – whether that’s adapting to a continually changing financial market or persuading a third-generation Polish vodka producer to come onboard – is integral to any successful company. “Whatever the industry, you have the tools in front of you; it’s about being creative with how you use them. That’s where the business building comes in and that’s what I love,” continues Johan.
Whatever the industry, you have the tools in front of you; it’s about being creative with how you use them. That’s where the business building comes in and that’s what I love
He cites other important transferable cross-industry factors as putting the right people together and having complete trust in one another. At Poetry Vodka, Dave and Johan play to their individual strengths, but there is plenty of overlap too – and not just in the way they both like to drink a martini (dry, two olives, ice-cold vodka added last). “There’s a misconception that artists have little sense of business but Dave has been on the entire journey to make Poetry Vodka happen,” says Johan. “One day he’ll say, I’ve just recorded an album for Poetry with musicians from Ronnie Scott’s and we’ve printed vinyls, and it’s on Spotify. That’s the kind of thing that happens when he is involved.”
Their partnership has been nearly five years so far and they’ve never had a disagreement. “We bounce off each other. I’ll come up with a crazy suggestion and Johan will either go, ‘I’m not sure Dave, we might get arrested’, or ‘sure, that sounds fun’,” jokes Dave. Ultimately though, they bond over shared values and simple things, from their humble beginnings to putting their families first. “I once spent Christmas Day in Zurich with Johan and his family; we sat down to eat and everyone started singing Viking songs at full belt. We’ve also gone driving and hiking in the Swiss mountains, had nights out in bars, and Johan has been to a few of my gigs, including when I played the Baloise Session music festival in Basel.”
Both are enjoying riding the wave of ups-and-downs that come with setting up a new enterprise. Downs include a stolen shipment from the docks in the UK and trademark issues in licensing the name and label on the bottle; highs include producing the first batch of vodka in time for Dave’s 70th birthday bash in Sunderland and being hosted at the production plant in Poland where the gentlemen were treated like kings for the day. “It’s a complete side hustle but creating something from scratch and getting across those hurdles is what makes it fun and exciting,” concludes Johan. "We are two sides of the same coin."
Sometimes, it seems, opposites really do attract.
For more information about Poetry Vodka, visit the website here.
Johan Holgersson
Partner Cape Capital & Co-Founder Poetry Vodka
Dave Stewart
Musician & Co-Founder Poetry Vodka