Exclusive: Gary Vee, Matt Higgins On The Carnage Coming To SPAC Markets And What Sets Omnichannel Acquisition Apart

Omnichannel Acquisition Corp OCA CEO Matt Higgins and VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk joined Benzinga's "SPACs Attack" to discuss an array of topics.

About Omnichannel Acquisition: Omnichannel Acquisition is searching for a consumer business that can grow through increasing its digital or physical presence.

“I am very passionate about modern consumer businesses,” Higgins said.

Higgins has backed operators all his life and teaches a course at the Harvard Business School on how companies can grow their omnichannel presence: "The expectation now, especially coming out of pandemic, is frictionless transactions."

Higgins said the pandemic has compressed five-plus years of e-commerce growth into one year. This is both a positive and negative and the leadership team with Omnichannel Acquisition could help a company thrive instead of struggle in the current environment.

The Omnichannel Acquisition Team: Higgins told Benzinga he put together a dream team of operators. There are 21 individuals as members of the Omnichannel Acquisition board of directors and advisors, including Vaynerchuk who serves as a special advisor to the SPAC.

Higgins referred to the team as his “omnichannel Avengers” that all can do something special and add value to the team.

The Omnichannel Acquisition team was put together through reverse engineering, Higgins added.

Choosing The Right SPAC: Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee, told Benzinga he has been approached by several SPACs to take his companies public and to join as part of the management team.

“Matt is like a brother to me,” Vaynerchuk said. Higgins was an investor in Vayner Media and the two have been close over the years thanks to investments and Higgins’ past relationship with the New York Jets.

Vaynerchuk said Higgins has "superpowers" and is a great person to back in the SPAC industry since he has a history of helping companies succeed.

SPAC companies have to actually perform when going public and discuss how profitable they are, compared to some private companies that are more of long-term investments.

Outside of Omnichannel Acquisition, the oversupply of SPACs and large valuations given to private companies, Vaynerchuk predicts trouble ahead.

“I think there’s going to be complete carnage," he said. "There's a lot of companies that shouldn't be going public.”

Vaynerchuk said he wasn’t interested in wasting his time in the SPAC space he doesn’t fully understand, but joining up with Higgins was “an easy course for me to jump on.”

SPAC Picks: Higgins discussed the SPAC industry and said it doesn’t make sense fundamentally for some of the companies to be trading under $10.

Higgins looks to find good management teams and offered up some picks in the SPAC space.

Accelerate Acquisition Corp AACQU, which is still trading in units, has a great management team led by Bob Nardelli. Higgins said the management team at AACQ has access to deal flow, good resources and a strong management team.

Michael Dell’s SPAC MSD Acquisition Corp MSDAU was another SPAC highlighted by Higgins.

“What I find interesting about that one is they’re partnering with Gregg Lemkau,” Higgins said. He worked with Lemkau on attempting to buy Formula One several years ago.

KKR & Co KKR has access to deal flow and a strong management team. Higgins highlighted their SPAC KKR Acquisition Holdings I Corp KAHCU as another one that interests him.

Disclosure: The author is long OCA.