Source: Kateri Zhu A company’s capital structure is arguably one of its most important choices. From a technical perspective, the capital structure is defined as the careful balance between equity and debt that a business uses to finance its assets, day-to-day operations, and future growth. From a tactical perspective however, it influences everything from the firm’s risk […]
Capital Structure – What it Is and Why it Matters Read More »
Source: BizActions New guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Labor provides clarification on the definition of an independent contractor (Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2015-01). This guidance may be helpful to employers who are contemplating hiring extra workers but are concerned about all of the obligations associated with hiring employees, including health insurance, workers’ compensation, unemployment
Contractor or Employee – How to Manage Given New Regulatory Guidance Read More »
Source: Brandon Hickie, OpenView Partners As many people are aware, Google acquired Nest Labs, the market leader in smart thermostats and smoke detectors, last year for $3.2 Billion. This resulted in a huge payday for the Nest executive team and their investors. Most startup executive teams can only dream of such an outcome for their
Positioning for Successful M&A Exit 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: Krista Tuomi, Associate Professor, American University Bank loans are appealing to startups who fear loss of control/equity in their venture. And certainly in the early stages of a startup, or for those with a limited expansion plans, these can be an important financing source. However there are a number of factors that need to
Are Bank Loans Still an Option for Startups? Read More »
Source: Axial Networks Despite the overall popularity, mezzanine financing has been experiencing some trouble recently. The strategy that thrived in the hot buyout market has struggled to maintain its relevance in today’s cooler conditions. “Overall, traditional mezzanine is in a tough spot right now,” explained Joe Burkhart of Saratoga Investment Corp. Mezz has largely been forced
2 Trends Shaping the Future of Mezzanine Financing 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: Brandon Hickie, OpenView Venture Partners This blog will teach you how to apply eight different B2B market sizing approaches to quickly assess the value of a given market. Quick Overview of 8 Approaches to Market Sizing For B2B companies, market sizing is a complicated process because it evaluates purchases of companies as opposed to
8 Approaches to Estimating Market Size Read More »
Conventional wisdom says that 20 percent of health plan participants tend to run up 80 percent of health plan costs. An in depth analysis of health plan expenditures paints a potentially starker picture. It turns out that as little as four percent of participants may actually account for nearly 50 percent of costs. An overall
Containing Your Healthcare Costs Read More »
Payzer, a mobile and cloud based financial technology platform, recently announced a $4.2M Series A financing round led by Grotech Ventures and Route 66 Ventures. The investment will allow the company to accelerate its sales and marketing growth and to expand its product development team. Scale Finance Managing Director, Dave Gilroy, managed the capital raise
Scale Finance Closes $4.2M Venture Capital Raise for Payzer, LLC 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.
