Source: Bill Payne Bill Payne has been actively involved in angel investing since 1980, funding over 50 companies and mentoring over 100 more. He is the recipient of the coveted “Hans Severiens Award from the Angel Capital Association, its highest honor. The sale of equity in private companies is regulated by the Securities Act of […]
Early Stage Money – the Problem with PPMs Read More »
Source: Ricky Pelletier, OpenView Partners The Hard Truth About Raising Capital Let’s face it — raising capital isn’t a lot of fun. It usually involves late nights, pitch decks, and far too much time with lawyers and in meetings. Ugh. Raising capital takes you away from the day-to-day of running your business and puts yet another task
5 Ways to Speed Up Your Capital Raise Read More »
Source: Catherine Clifford, Entrepreneur.com As of May 16, 2016, entrepreneurs have a new way to raise money. Equity crowdfunding, whereby entrepreneurs sell a portion of their companies in exchange for cash, has historically only been available to accredited investors. As of today, however, anyone can invest in a startup through equity crowdfunding. This rule change
Equity Crowdfunding From Every Angle Read More »
Source: Brian Carthas, OpenView Partners Conducting a fundraise can be a big distraction from running the actual business. Requiring an investment of time and resources, fundraising has the potential to drag on for months on end (if not run properly). There is no time to waste with the wrong financial partner, so preparing to effectively
7 Questions Founders Should Ask VCs Read More »
Source: Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flare Capital Partners Earlier this week the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released its own study of “inequality” – I mean the 4Q15 fundraising statistics which showed that 46 funds totaling $5.0 billion were raised, bringing the annual total for 2015 to $28.2 billion. Quite clearly the fundraising pace over
Venture Capital Update – January 2016 Read More »
Source: Ricky Pellitier, OpenView Partners Today’s media does an excellent job of covering “successful” fundings. As a result, there is often the misconception that getting investors to pony up a bunch of cash in exchange for upside is easy. In fact, for anyone not actively involved in a fundraising process it can often seem like
6 Alternatives to Venture Capital Funding Read More »
Source: Ricky Pelletier, OpenView Venture Partners Entrepreneurs hear it all the time from investors — either, “Let’s keep in touch,” or “Maybe there is a fit here; we should figure it out.” Sometimes what the investor is saying is exactly what he means. Perhaps your business is not a fit today, so you should keep in
Working Efficiently with VCs – When “Maybe” Really Means “No” Read More »
Source: Martin Zwilling, CEO, Startup Professionals If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into
8 Key Questions to Expect in Investor Due Diligence Read More »
Source: Sudip Verma, OpenView Venture Partners Vinod Khosla: “70-80% of VCs add negative value to startups” In an article on Techcrunch yesterday, Vinod Khosla (one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and of Khosla Ventures fame) spoke candidly about the value (or, specifically, the lack of value) that venture capitalists add to startups. Khosla feels
Do VCs Really Add Value? Read More »
Source: Michael Greeley, General Partner, Foundation Medical Partners Now that all of the 1Q15 venture capital investment and fundraising data are in, some interesting themes are emerging. It is quite apparent that portfolio companies are able to stay private much longer, raising significantly larger rounds of capital in order to do so. This is in
Venture Capital Update – 1Q 2015 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.
