Source: Amanda Maksymiw, OpenView Partners John Greathouse, Andrew Parker, Alex Taussig, Sarah Tavel, and Rob Go switch gears to look at some of the most common reasons why young companies ultimately disappoint. Based on your experience, what are some of the most common reasons why a startup company fails? John Greathouse, General Partner, Rincon Venture […]
Why Do Startups Fail? VC Roundtable Read More »
Source: Ho Ham, General Partner, Altos Ventures I regret to say that I’ve personally served on a dozen boards of venture backed companies that have replaced CEOs. It’s usually not a good sign. It doesn’t mean those start-ups were doomed; but it does mean drastic change was needed. The decision to replace a CEO is
Replacing CEOs in VC-backed Companies Read More »
Source: Tien Anh Nguyen Using the customer renewal rates data to unveil sub-optimal customer service, neglected account management, indifferent product marketing and faulty market strategy: I would not be adding much value by simply stating that customer renewal rate is an important performance measurement for any technology business. It has long made its way into
Customer Renewal Rate – Critical Metric for Decision-Making Read More »
Source: Tom Eisenmann – Professor, Harvard Business School Business model analysis is central to the lean startup approach developed by Eric Ries, Steve Blank, and others. When entrepreneurs “run lean,” they formulate hypotheses about major elements of their business model, then they devise experiments to test those hypotheses with minimal waste of time and resources.
Business Model Analysis: Key Questions Read More »
Most inexperienced CEOs dread board meetings. That’s because they think they need to create all sorts of materials especially for the board, and need to spend most of their time in the meeting educating the board on the business. So by the time the meeting is done, nothing really gets accomplished. WRONG. The board meeting
How To Run a Good Board Meeting Read More »
Source: Firas Raouf, OpenView Partners One of the turning points in the life of an early stage software company is the creation of a board of directors. Typically, this happens when the company raises its first institutional round of financing. But I see no reason to wait for that event. When you think about building
How to Recruit a Board of Directors Read More »
By Firas Raouf – OpenView Partners Here’s a scenario that some startup founders dread: After years of developing their business and product — and years of accepting rounds of capital investment — a company’s founder wakes up to find that they’re no longer in charge of their startup. Best case scenario, they’re now a minority
How to Prevent Shareholders from Taking Over Your Startup Read More »
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman gave a speech on March 15th about how entrepreneurs can “invent the future”. Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, he recited a list of 10 rules of entrepreneurship. Hoffman, who is now a partner at venture firms Greylock Partners, cautioned that he “reserves the right” to change
10 Rules of Entrepreneurship Read More »
Chris Dixon, Co-founder of Hunch and the Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund run by entrepreneurs I never had the opportunity to invest in YouTube but I have to admit that if I did I probably would have passed (which of course would have been a huge mistake). I’d been around the web long
Timing Your Startup Read More »
All Systems Grow (strategies for growth in the worst of times)
All Systems Grow (strategies for growth in the worst of times) 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.
