Killer News: Goode Partners Backs Baker; Eyes Fund II Close

The New York-based firm has held a first close on the fund with at least $40.3 million in commitments, according to an October filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Goode Partners will look to hold a second and final close toward the end of 2013, although it may have interim closings if needed, our source said. The firm has also agreed with investors that the fund’s hard cap, or the absolute limit it will raise, is also $300 million.

Goode Partners, which also has an office in Arcadia, Calif., targets consumer brands and services, retail, restaurants and direct marketing. The firm recently invested an undisclosed amount into Dave’s Killer Bread, a Milwaukie, Ore.-based baker with national ambitions. It was co-founded by Dave Dahl, a former convict who is open about his past struggles with drugs, depression and crime.

“Hey guys, I got some killer f****** news,” Dahl told fans in a video announcement of the deal on the company’s Web site. “We’ve been listening to you guys…and everybody wants killer bread in their town; well, we’re going to make it happen.”

“Going national ain’t easy easy, but we’re going to do it, and we brought on some killer Goode Partners to help us make it happen,” he adds in the video.

Goode Partners’s portfolio also includes Chuy’s, a chain of restaurants in Texas serving home-cooked Mexican food; Luxury Optical Holdings, a retailer of glasses frames; and Bowlmor Lanes, a New York-based operator of upscale bowling lanes.

The firm was started in 2005 by David Oddi, a former partner at Saunders Karp & Megrue; Ron Beegle, the former chairman of Global Consumer Retail Investors, a consulting firm; and Joe Ferreira, the former CEO of Woodclyffe Group LLC, a consulting firm.