Source: Adam Marcus – OpenView Venture Partners It’s no secret a lot of CEOs aren’t big fans of their boards of directors. They derive very little value from them and in some cases find the board to be an utter distraction. Even seasoned CEOs who have managed to assemble a valuable team of advisors and […]
Your Board of Directors Can be Useless or Great – It’s Up to You to Decide Read More »
Source: John Lauber, LauberCFOs Most business owners have some way of intuitively understanding how their company is doing. That insight could be based on any number of factors, including new orders, shipments, machine hours, labor activity, etc. In effect, those are key performance indicators – information that owners and managers rely upon to keep their
A Dashboard View of Business Health Read More »
Source: Michael Jacobs, Jacobs Capital and professor at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School The old adage “it’s lonely at the top” applies nowhere better than to running a private company, where CEOs make daily decisions about disciplines in which they have no background. Having worked with more than 200 private-company owners over the past 25 years,
Why Business Owners Need Boards Read More »
Source: Nick Hammerschlag, OpenView Partners I and a number of my colleagues have spent time writing posts on what we look for in an investment opportunity. It’s probably the most frequent question we get from entrepreneurs and expansion-stage company management teams. Since I’ve already opined on how VCs assess investment opportunities in broad strokes, I
How VCs Assess Market Size & Opportunity Read More »
Source: Bjoern Lasse Herrmann – co-founder of Blackbox, which runs a startup accelerator program and Startup Genome, a research and development project for uncovering the mechanics of startups. Months ago, my team at Blackbox set out on a mission to crack the innovation code of Silicon Valley and share it with the rest of the
The 7 Signs of Failure for Internet Startups Read More »
Source: Meghan Maher Employee perks and benefits are the second biggest thing employees should consider when thinking over your job offer (behind base salary). Of course there are the normal (and costly ones) like healthcare, dental, vacation days, and bonuses. However, not all benefits need to cost your company a ton of money, and these
6 Simple, Creative Benefits & Perks to Keep Employees Happy Read More »
Source: Devon McDonald, OpenView Partners Based on my observations, here are the top 5 most common reasons why 1 out of 4 reps are getting a big “F”: Inadequate training and on-boarding program This one is pretty obvious. If your new reps starts and your training program is the “baptism by fire” approach, the likelihood
Top 5 Signs One of Your Sales Reps is Failing Read More »
This story appears in FORBES magazine, accompanying the cover story, Inside Amazon’s Idea Machine. With the passing of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos is now tech’s leading philosopher-CEO. His advice ranges from what to read (give the Declaration of Independence a shot) to how to deal with stress (“Laugh a lot”). Mostly, though, Bezos sticks to
Bezos Leadership Lessons – Still Day 1 of the Internet Read More »
Source: Jason Baptiste, OnStartup.com blog Everyone thinks that being a startup CEO is a glamorous job or one that has to be a ton of fun. That’s what I now refer to as the “glamour brain” speaking aka the startup life you hear about from the press. You know the press articles I’m talking about…
14 Ways to Be A Great Startup CEO Read More »
Source: Doug and Poly White, Whitestone Partners It’s undeniable that small business is the growth engine of the economy. The Small Business Administration reports that there are 22.9 million small businesses in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that 90 percent of all net job creation from 1996-2007 came from small
Why Some Entrepreneurs Decide Not to Grow their Business 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.
