Evaluating Financial Options

DeStefano said the friends didn’t immediately go to a private equity partner. He said they agreed to find a banking expert who understood the technology advisor model. They interviewed multiple banks before picking Bank Street.

“We went to them, and [asked] ‘Where do you think we could have our biggest impact? Is it through marketing to strategic organizations that want to have our expertise, or is it going to private equity or venture to give us the best tools that we can get to service our customer and employee population?’ It wasn’t immediately saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go out and find private equity money.'”

He said their book of business went out to multiple organizations for review. However, they and their advisors ultimately turned to private equity, in the form of Gemspring, which DeStefano said bought into their vision.

He added that the entire undertaking lasted a long time and proved challenging. That’s mainly because of how foreign the process was to them.

“We’re good at selling technology, supporting customers and having significant business outcomes for these customers — not going out to to private equity or hiring investment bankers and legal,” DeStefano said. “That wasn’t our expertise, but we did it together, and we did it well. We found a fantastic financial partner in the process.”