Simon went clubbing for seven months

After more than a decade of working for leisure industry giants, including Granada, Lee Simon decided it was time to run his own nightclub business. In the middle of last year he walked through the doors at Directorbank, which matches industry experts with businesses they could run.

He walked out the next day with a deal to lead the management buy-in team. And in March, after seven months of negotiations and due diligence, Graphite Capital backed a £15m deal in which Simon took control at C-side, a Brighton chain of nightclubs, bars and restaurants.

Finding such a perfect match so quickly is the dream scenario. It is also highly unusual. But Jenny Billington, who led the deal at Graphite Capital, says that the venture capital team and the outgoing owners were very clear about what C-side needed to take it on to the next phase of its growth. "It was clearly a situation where people had built a business and then wanted to exit completely. They did not want to continue in it," says Billington.

This left Graphite Capital with a problem. The second-tier management team was strong but young, and there was no clear leader to take over. "That was why we set off down the management buy-in route," says Billington. "We had to try and plugt that gap."

C-side is a profitable chain of 23 sites, many with late licences, trading in Brighton. Although owned by one company, each of the sites is distinctive. "The management had created a chain, but it did not have the feel of a branded group," says Billington. The approach had enabled C-side to grown more than 20 sites in one town without diluting the product. This made the company particularly attractive to Graphite Capital, but it was crucial that they found the right calibre of manager to continue to grow the chain while retaining its feel. "You are always nervous when doing a buy-in that the people getting out are the magic of the business," adds Billington.

She was prepared to invest time finding the ideal buy-in candidate and began trawling databases of potential managers who fitted the criteria. They had to have experience in the leisure industry and a clear vision for driving forward a business such as C-side.

Simon came to the top of the pile instantly. "We know that his profile fitted and we liked him when we met him," say Billington. "It was a dream scenario for the company, and we valued his input enormously." Simon was closely involved with the due diligence work on C-side and in coming up with strategies to take the company forward.

"We asked him to look at the business and give his view. He was the one who said that he was clear about the business, that there are concepts there that could be rolled out without playing out a branded theme The company has the potential to grow and grow.

As far as Jonathan Hick at Directorbank is concerned, the time taken to make the match was exceptional. "This guy came through the door and wanted a nightclub deal. The next day a nightclub deal happened. It still took seven months to do that deal, but the match was made in two days. The reality is that it takes months before you come up with a deal and even then it can fall down." Billington admits that the speed of matching Simon to C-side was extraordinary. She says: "People often set aside two years to find the right business. They have to identify the business, then find someone to back and advise them."

Even then there are no guarantees that a deal will complete. For instance buy-in/buy-out deals, such as C-side, can bring their own set of tensions when trying to match a new manager to the existing second-tier management. But Simon got on with the incumbent management - who stayed after Graphite Capital invested - and this helped swing the deal in his favour. "It is a real team. They have a good working relationship," says Billington.

Although it is still early days, the investment is performing as Graphite Capital had hoped. There are three new sites and Simon and his backers are already looking at rolling out the chain in the south east.