14 questions to ask before issuing equity to employees Source: David G. Bates, Contributing Writer, Gunster After representing entrepreneurs for more than 20 years, I remain dismayed at both how quickly and how often they issue equity ownership of their business to co-founders, employees, strategic partners, consultants, and vendors. Overeager entrepreneurs too often use equity […]
Using Company Equity as Currency Read More »
Source: OpenView Venture Partners Team We’ve all heard Tom Cruise’s famous line from Jerry Maguire, but showing your sales team members the money is often a complicated equation. In this guide, you’ll find tips for designing sales compensation packages that yield results and actually scale. Table of Contents Salary or Bonus-Heavy Compensation: Which Model is
Creating a Scalable Sales Compensation Plan Read More »
Source: Jonathan Kimmel, OpenView Partners With all of the focus today on SaaS and hyper growth companies, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that not every business is ready for 100% growth or can even support that level of expansion. On the other hand, there are a few precious companies that are fortunate
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Many companies run into problems with customers or clients not paying their bills on time — or not paying at all. The best way to avoid uncollectable bills depends on several factors — such as whether you sell products or services and the type of payment practices that are customary in your industry. For example,
DO’s and DON’Ts to Help Avoid Collection Problems Read More »
On March 13, President Obama directed the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to come up with a way to update overtime pay rules to reflect the “changing nature of the American workplace” and to make them more “in keeping with the intention of the Fair Labor Standards Act.” “President Obama believes that, in America, if
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Are Your Employees Stealing? Source: Heide Olson, All In One Accounting, Inc. Last week, a woman who kept the books at an Apple Valley car wash was accused of swindling $350,000. Prosecutors claim she wrote excess payroll checks to herself for more than five years before being discovered by the business owner. Studies suggest the
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Source: Ori Yankelev, OpenView Partners In one of my previous posts I covered three key concepts of outbound lead generation compensation plans: The Cap The Cliff Incremental Pay Out I wrote those three concepts as a follow-on to a Mark Leslie’s article, “The Sales Learning Curve,” on the OpenView Labs site, which covered some fantastic
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Source: OpenView Partners Staff If you’re offering freemiums in hopes of increasing customer acquisition, you might want to reconsider your pricing strategy. Learn how raising prices to match your product’s worth can actually result in quality customers and higher retention rates. Table of Contents An Argument for Increasing SaaS Prices Tips for Testing and
Is Raising Price a Simple Key to SaaS Success? Read More »
Here is the definitive annual survey of executive compensation levels in VC-backed technology and life sciences companies in the Southeast, from Hutchison PLLC and Carlyle Conlan. http://www.hutchlaw.com/newsresources/2013-hutchison-pllc-carlyle-conlan-compensation-survey Note – There is a short form that folks fill out to access this survey (first and last name and email address). Respondents will be added to the
2013 Executive Compensation Survey Read More »
Even the most efficiently run business occasionally encounters some delinquent accounts – those bills that aren’t paid on time. As a result, you may face the unpleasant task of trying to collect on past-due accounts. Your company probably has its own internal debt collection process, but when additional help is needed, you may need to
How To Select a Collection Agency 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.
