Source: Meghan Maher, OpenView Venture Partners If you have decided that you will be hiring interns for the summer, the next step is deciding whether or not you want to have a paid or unpaid internship program. Unpaid internships were the norm back in the day, but they have become increasingly rare. While the war […]
Cost Containment Through Unpaid Internships – Might Be Illegal Read More »
Source: Ed Mathers, Partner, NEA with WRAL Tech Wire It’s no secret that the flow of capital into the life sciences industry has slowed to a trickle over the last several years. The number of funds being raised continues to decline, with only a handful of firms raising fresh funds in the past two years
Life Science Startups Look to New Sources of Funding Read More »
Alexandria, VA – February 11, 2013 – Culmen International, LLC (www.culmen.com) assists the U.S. government with the execution of complex international security initiatives and the management and facilitation of advanced contracts and programs between domestic and foreign government agencies. Culmen also provides technical and management advisory, program management support, domestic and international procurement, logistics, and
Scale Finance Closes $12M Capital Raise for Culmen International, LLC Read More »
Source: Gary Haber, June 7, 2013 SBA administrator Karen Mills says the organization will be making more money available to investors in early stage companies. Only six percent of venture capital today is going to early stage funding rounds of between $1 and $4 million, which creates the so-called “Valley of Death” for startups, Mills
SBA Makes More Money Available for Startup Lending Read More »
Source: PitchBook Venture capital (VC) deals steal most of the media attention, but in VC circles much of the recent discussion about the industry has centered on the topic of fundraising. Everyone knows that capital is the lifeblood of startups, but it also plays a similarly crucial role for VC funds. Unlike their counterparts on
2013 Venture Capital Fundraising Update Read More »
Startups Can’t Borrow Their Way to Success Source: Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute and TheFunded.com. Over the past few years, Founders and investors alike have flocked to convertible debt, loaning billions of dollars per year to insolvent startups. The great irony according to debt settlement companies is that nobody expects this debt to
“Convertible Equity” – Alternative to Convertible Debt for Startups Read More »
Source: John Lauber, LauberCFOs When bottom line results don’t make sense from one period to the next, it is often a signal the company is not paying attention to simple accounting rules. Why should we care? The purpose of financial statements is to give management and other interested parties an understanding of how the business
Credible Financial Statements Read More »
Source: Firas Raouf, OpenView Partners For SaaS companies with recurring revenue, a really good benchmark is when a dollar in Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) results in a dollar in first year revenue. Yet many SaaS companies operate on a 12-24 month break-even point for CAC. That doesn’t mean they are not good businesses. It just
Growing a SaaS Business Faster by Spending Less Read More »
Source: Scott Maxwell, OpenView Partners How do you know that you have an attractive economic model? The ultimate economic model has 5 characteristics: 1. Your cost of acquiring new customers is low relative to the cash flow that they generate for you once they become customers. This is a pretty simple idea, but really important
5 Characteristics of Attractive Economic Models for Entrepreneurial Companies Read More »
Graf Research™ unleashes innovation by developing ideas into disruptive technologies. The Graf mission aims to perform research, provide services, apply analytics, and create products that enable secure, high-performance, embedded, and adaptive computing solutions.
When the Director of Finance for Graf was leaving the company, Graf needed an experienced financial team to get them through the transition. Managing Director Gary Hayes was introduced to Graf and determined that CFO Rendy Richards and Controller John Schefke would be an ideal combination. These two were particularly important because Graf is a U.S. Government contractor, and both Richards and Schefke have strong backgrounds and deep skill sets in this industry.
The two Scale Finance professionals quickly responded to Graf’s time-sensitive need, logically split up the work, learned the DELTEK version used by Graf, introduced more efficient processes and techniques, and helped meet their financial reporting needs. Our professionals also determined that the Senior Staff Accountant was underutilized and helped her grow into a permanent, cost-effective Controller role.
FX HedgePool (FXHP)
FX HedgePool (FXHP) is a New York and London-based highly innovative fintech company. FXHP is an award-winning peer-to-peer matching platform that optimizes the FX swaps market. The Company eliminates market impact and minimizes the effects of volatility – significantly improving outcomes for all investors.
FXHP’s unique credit model separates liquidity from credit, creating a new source of safe and dependable liquidity for the swaps market. The Company exists for the community, guided by the community with a “win-win-win” commitment that helps members, underlying investors, and banks yield safer and better results.
Scale Finance began serving FXHP years ago, providing annual business valuations to support 409A compliance for the Company’s management incentive equity plan. During this period, Scale Finance Managing Director Dave Gilroy advised FXHP about potential strategic corporate transactions. In 2022, the Company decided to raise institutional venture capital. Scale Finance managed this process from end to end, resulting in a highly successful closing of an $8 million Series A equity financing led by Information Venture Partners with participation from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures and NAventures (National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm).
Scale Finance continues to provide periodic business valuation support.
Heritage Trust
As the first independent trust company in New Mexico, established in 1994, Heritage Trust (HT) uses innovation, experience, and flexibility to meet clients’ needs. HT provides a full range of trust services, e.g., acting as their client fiduciary for their Trust assets, being an executor or personal representative related to the distribution of estate assets, managing and growing financial assets, and preparing annual tax returns for trusted clients.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO and managing Controller support since February 2021. We have streamlined their monthly and year-end close process and established budget/forecast capability to support management. Their business has grown over 40% since Scale Finance has been involved with the company’s financial management. Gary has also participated in Board Meetings as and when needed.
Southland Transportation Company
Southland Transportation provides transport, supply chain, and campus management services on a local, regional, and nationwide basis. When Southland contacted Scale Finance, they had a strong accounting staff but no Controller or CFO. After an unsuccessful search for a full-time CFO, Southland engaged CFO and Partner Rendy Richards as their fractional CFO.
Over 18 months, Richards helped integrate a new acquisition, made improvements in accounting and finance processes, developed the company’s first-ever annual budget, helped with the onboarding of a new Controller, and provided business valuations in conjunction with Scale Finance’s Managing Director, Dave Gilroy.
For over six decades, Cooper Electrical has served a wide range of industrial, commercial, and municipal customers across the Southeast, providing best-in-class Electrical Design/Build, BIM, Prefabrication, Instrumentation & Controls, and Calibration services. Cooper’s expertise spans multiple major markets, including bio-pharmaceutical, chemical, water & wastewater, power generation, manufacturing, gas production & transmission, and food & beverage.
When Cooper’s CFO left the company for another opportunity, the owners engaged Rendy Richards as interim CFO while they searched for a full-time replacement. On a half-time basis over eight months, Richards kept the company’s financial organization humming, made improvements in several business processes, initiated a detailed financial forecast, and met with the owners to share his observations and recommendations on the most feasible way to staff their finance and accounting department cost-effectively.
SymmetryRX, LLC
SymmetryRX is a leading provider of eSampling services allowing Pharma Manufacturing companies to access physician practices for the ordering and distribution of drug samples across the US. The Company was acquired in November 2018 from Aptus Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck. Since then, the company has expanded its robust suite of services that provides pharma manufacturing executives, brand managers, sales managers, product managers, and launch managers the ability to help more patients have greater access to samples, improving medication adherence and healthcare outcomes.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO Services to the Company since 2018 and was integral in the acquisition process, facilitated initial financing to support the company with a 7A SBA loan package of $600 thousand and an SBA-backed $300 thousand LOC. Since then, Gary has been actively providing CFO support across financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash planning, and strategic planning.
