Source: New York Times, Kevin Roose I’ve got a great idea for a start-up. Want to hear the pitch? It’s called the 75 Cent Dollar Store. We’re going to sell dollar bills for 75 cents — no service charges, no hidden fees, just crisp $1 bills for the price of three quarters. It’ll be huge. […]
The Smell of Burning Cash is Spreading Read More »
Source: Ken Kousky, BlueWater Angels and Krista Tuomi, American University A number of public policy activities and initiatives that occur in American states are just as important to angel investors as federal-level issues. The key state issues include tax credits for angel investments, matching co-investments by the state, grants and incentives to angel networks and
Matching Grants: What Does Your State Have? Read More »
Source: Rob Go, Cofounder, NextView Ventures Every time I see blog posts referencing multiples on VC investments, I wonder if writers or readers appreciate how hard it is to generate these kinds of multiples and how multiples should really be calculated. Obviously, the way to calculate a return multiple is to divide the amount returned
How Hard is it to Earn a 10X Return on Investment? Read More »
Source: Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Goldman Sachs and CB Insights recently reported that startups have raised over $1 billion in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) this summer – more than the total amount of venture capital raised during the same period. At Flybridge, we are wading into this uncharted territory as a result of one of
Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and Implications for Venture Capital Read More »
Source: Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flare Venture Partners With Bitcoin blasting through the $7,800 per token ceiling last week (then promptly dropping $1,000 in last two days), Apple now worth $900 billion, and unemployment at 4.1%, it is a good time to look at 3Q17 funding data. The venture capital industry continued to power along
Venture Capital Market Update – Turbulence Ahead Read More »
Source: Billy Fink , Axial Forum Pre-money and post-money are frequently used terms to describe the valuation of a company when raising capital. In this post, we provide an introduction to the concepts as well as explore the impact multiple rounds of funding have on the entrepreneur’s ownership stake. The pre-money valuation of a company is simply
Business Valuation – How to Think about Pre/Post Money Valuation Read More »
Source: Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flare Capital Partners Now that most of the investment data are in for 1Q17, analysts are using words like “disciplined” and “normalized” to describe the activity of the first 90 days of 2017 – obviously not how we would characterize the current political climate. As always, the headlines belie what
State of the Venture Market – May 2017 Read More »
Source: Michael Greeley, Flare Capital Partners As we head toward the end of 2016, there is mounting evidence that the venture investment pace has slowed markedly across the board. There were the obvious political distractions but it does appear that there is more going on. Meaningfully fewer companies received funding this past quarter, perhaps suggesting
Venture Capital Industry Update – December 2016 Read More »
Source: Sarah McBride, Bloomberg As venture capital deals decline from their peak last year, more young companies are left without options. While many other VCs continue to make smaller investments, big firms are driving up the average investment size in young companies. Declines in the venture capital market are hitting startups of all sizes, but the ones left particularly vulnerable are the
Many Boomtime Startups are Fizzling Out Read More »
Think venture capital investment is the answer to your company’s problems? Think again. Believe it’s the key to growth and success? Not even close. Take it from OpenView, we’re a VC. When companies look for funding they’re thinking of scalability and increased market share, and dreaming of all of the prospects and customers who will
How Venture Capital Can Ruin Your Company 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.
