Exclusion Criteria
What we consider first.
Park South Capital considers direct principal-investment opportunities in founder-led and owner-controlled businesses, operating platforms, special situations, and technology-enabled sectors, including digital assets. We focus on proprietary situations where we can invest our own capital with clear principals, lawful operations, complete diligence access, and a realistic path to long-term ownership or influence.
Sector exclusions
These categories are outside our current mandate. They are grouped so submissions can self-screen quickly.
Financial products, structures, and advisory channels
- Brokerage, placement, or finder arrangements
- Credit Card - Merchant Processing
- Debt Recovery or Collection Businesses
- Fund of Funds Mandates
- Life Settlements
- Litigation Finance
- Management of public securities on behalf of others
- Passive product or fund distribution
- Payday Loans
- Receivables Finance
- Trade Finance
Real estate, infrastructure, and hard assets
- Agricultural Based - Farming
- Construction Companies
- Garages or Parking
- Infrastructure (Roads, Tolls, Bridges)
- Marinas or Shipyards
- Non-U.S. Data Centers
- "Pad" Development Projects
- Raw Materials / Mining
- Residential Real Estate Projects
- Utilities
Consumer, retail, and local-service businesses
- Alcohol & Tobacco
- Auto Dealerships
- Big Box Retail
- Consumer Disposable
- Fast Food Franchises
- Franchise Opportunities
- Funeral Homes
- Hair, Nail, Beauty Salons
- Loose Stones/Watches/Jewelry
- Nightclubs
- Pickleball - Padel Opportunities
- Restaurants
- Social Clubs
Healthcare, wellness, and regulated life sciences
- CDMO
- Hospitals
- Medical Service Centers/Labs
- Peptides
- Supplements
- Wellness Centers (Infusion Centers)
Sensitive, professional-service, or other low-fit categories
- Guns and Ammunition
- Legal & Accounting Firms
- MLM Related Transactions
Additional financing-structure screens
We invest equity into operating companies and generally do not review submissions involving the following structures.
- Standby letters of credit (SBLC), bank guarantees (BG), and medium-term notes (MTN).
- Instrument leasing, "leased paper," and any monetization or discounting of the above.
- Prime-bank instruments, high-yield investment programs, and private "trade platform" or "buy-sell" programs.
- Proof-of-funds letters, verification of deposit, comfort letters, and RWA (ready-willing-able) letters.
- Balance-sheet leasing, credit enhancement, guarantees, or co-signing of any kind.
- Escrow, paymaster, and funds-transfer arrangements.
- Any structure in which our capital is pledged, blocked, deposited, or held rather than invested.
Jurisdiction and compliance
These compliance screens are separate from sector fit.
- Restricted jurisdictions. Domiciled or primarily operating in OFAC-sanctioned jurisdictions, or in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Turkey, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Italy, or France.
- Sanctions / diligence. Principals who are sanctioned parties or foreign agents, or who decline standard KYC and background diligence.
Submission requirements
These process rules apply to every inbound opportunity. They are not additional excluded sectors.
- No fees. We do not pay retainers, upfront fees, commitment deposits, due-diligence fees, or success fees to intermediaries. There are no exceptions and no reimbursements.
- No blind pools. We do not review blind pools. "Sign an NDA and then I'll tell you the company" receives no reply.
- No pre-call documents. We do not sign NDAs, LOIs, or term sheets prior to a first substantive conversation with the principal.
- Principal contact required. We require direct contact with the founder, CEO, or controlling owner. Submissions from unauthorized intermediaries or unnamed "mandate holders" are discarded without review.
- No mass distribution. We do not respond to mass-distributed teasers, chain-forwarded decks, or broadly shopped auction processes.
- No artificial urgency. We do not evaluate opportunities carrying a deadline of fewer than 14 days. An artificial deadline is itself disqualifying.
- One submission only. Resubmitting the same company under a different name, entity, or intermediary results in a permanent block.
- No feedback obligation. We do not provide feedback, valuations, referrals, or introductions on declined submissions.
- Use the form only. We do not accept submissions by phone, text, LinkedIn, or through the personal channels of our principals. Submissions sent this way are not forwarded internally.
- Submission ownership. Submissions become the property of Park South Capital and are reviewed without obligation of confidentiality unless separately agreed in writing.