Pro investor offers tips to entrepreneurs: 'No one cares how long you can pay yourself'

Boot64, a Metairie-based private equity and venture capital partnership formed by John Roberts and Mickal Adler, has emerged as one of Louisiana's most active early-stage investors since its June 1, 2023 launch. In its first three years of operation, the fund has written 51 checks totaling approximately $7.5 million across 40 different startup companies, predominantly located in Louisiana with select investments outside the state.

Roberts, who spent more than two decades operating a convenience store chain before co-founding Boot64, and Adler established the fund to capitalize on federal matching capital made available through Louisiana Economic Development. Boot64 was the first firm to close under this state-run program, which pairs private venture capital deployment with federal matching funds targeting early-stage companies with growth potential. The fund is operating at a deployment trajectory that will exhaust nearly the entire $10 million committed capital within three years, with several additional deals scheduled to close over the subsequent two months.

Portfolio performance has validated the fund's investment thesis, with several portfolio companies achieving 2x or greater returns. Roberts now evaluates early-stage companies for public and private investment partners, focusing on companies with defensible business models and genuine market opportunity. His guidance to entrepreneurs emphasizes that institutional investors prioritize business fundamentals and revenue potential over founder compensation structures—a signal that capital providers are evaluating unit economics and scalability rather than personal runway considerations when making allocation decisions.