The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney later persuaded Bill Bain to give that up. The Bain Capital team was initially reluctant to invest its capital. By 1985, things were going poorly enough that Romney considered closing the operation, returning investors' money back to them, and having the partners go back to their old positions. The partners saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, very few had been done. At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities. One of Bain's earliest and most notable venture investments was in Staples, Inc., the office supply retailer. In 1986, Bain provided $4.5 million to two supermarket executives, Leo Kahn and Thomas G. Stemberg, to open an office supply supermarket in Brighton, Massachusetts. The fast-growing retail chain went public in 1989; by 1996, the company had grown to over 1,100 stores, and by 2008, over 2,000 stores. Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade. Another very successful investment occurred in 1986 when $1 million was invested in medical equipment maker Calumet Coach, which eventually returned $34 million. A few years later, Bain Capital made an investment in the technology research outfit the Gartner Group, which ended up returning a 16-fold gain. Bain invested the $37 million of capital in its first fund in twenty companies and by 1989 was generating an annualized return in excess of 50 percent. By the end of the decade, Bain's second fund, raised in 1987 had deployed $106 million into 13 investments. As the firm began organizing around funds, each such fund was run by a specific general partnership – that included all Bain Capital executives as well as others – which in turn was controlled by Bain Capital Inc., the management company that Romney had full ownership control of. As CEO, Romney had the final approval say on every deal made. In 1987, former Herman's World of Sporting Goods CEO Jack Smith made a pitch to Romney, and Bain joined several other backers to help Smith open nine sporting-goods mega stores. Kmart bought the Sports Authority chain for $75 million. Romney discovered few investment opportunities himself (and those that he did, often failed to make money for the firm). Instead, he focused on analyzing the merits of possible deals that others brought forward and on recruiting investors to participate in them once approved. The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney persuaded Bain to give that up.