From our humble beginnings in the early 90’s, we at ACH have always invested our own money. That means we get to operate using our self-imposed guidelines and judgements rather than strict rules around investment process and checklists. It also means we can act fast and be opportunistic.

Our first business unit was Apple Core Hotels, a collection of New York City hotels which we operated with great success from the 90s through the first decade of 2000. We began exiting that business as it became less profitable stemming from distribution changes caused by the internet, an influx of new hotel inventory built after the 2008 financial crisis, and inherent limitations of NYC union hotels. As we sold our hotel portfolio starting in 2015 and completing the exit in 2021, we’ve replaced those properties by rolling into some great real estate assets across the country.

After 30 years of working together, we continue to live our investment lives seeking profits as the primary goal, but put much weight on doing interesting things with exceptional people we like to be around. Those values have lead us on a journey over the last three decades seeking opportunistic investments with asymmetric risk/return dynamics.

Sometimes an opportunity presents itself as a new line of business, like when we openned the spectacular event space, Gotham Hall, in 2001, or when we created partnerships with great funds as anchor investor such as Abundance Opportunity Fund in 2012, Capri Ventures in 2015, and IrrvnrtVC in 2021.

In the early days of our venture investing, our deals came direct in the late 90s during the dot com boom. Despite the bust that came in the early 2000s, we did quite well seeding some of the biggest stories in New York, like Register.com and Go America Communications.

More recently, much of our direct deal flow comes through our fund relationships, co-investing along side them, although we still see much direct deal flow through our other networks. Common themes of our direct investments include Cyber Security, Enterprise Tech, Adtech, Nextgen Commerce, and multiple contexts for the use of AI.

Our one occasional investment theme that is more about fun than profit, has been getting involved in arts and entertainment projects that speak to us. These efforts have brought some great works of art to life, like the incredible play and movie, Passing Strange. Hopefully these projects generate profits but they always provided much needed soul nurturing.