Portfolio note — Q1 2026

A quick note from the desk, addressed to the small group of people who care to read it.

Brittle Brothers

A strong winter behind us — gifting season ran clean, retention on the subscription program is in a place we are pleased with, and the Charleston kitchen is at the edge of its capacity. The conversation now is about what scale looks like without the brand losing the texture that made it the brand. We have a working answer; we are not yet ready to share it.

Exact

The studio is full. We are turning more work away than we are accepting, which is the right problem to have. The team grew by two senior engineers in the quarter. We continue to believe that small, senior, founder-aligned studios are the most under-discussed unit of value in the digital economy.

Topshell

Quietly excellent quarter. Margins held; the new digital infrastructure is in soft launch. We will say more in the next note.

What we’re watching

The macro picture is what it is. We are not in the business of timing it. We are paying close attention to two things: the cost of building a small, premium consumer brand from zero (rising), and the willingness of operators to take genuinely long-horizon roles in companies they did not start (also rising, encouragingly).

If either of those describes you, write to us.

— A.F.