Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Carl Caspers, whose leg was amputated below the knee, invents prosthetic technology that allows him to do what he wants. “He is a very free spirit and he likes to live life on his terms,” says Scott Schneider, who co-founded TEC Interface Systems with Caspers in St. Cloud in the 1990s.
They built the company to 57 employees, sold a patient care division in 1996, and created a second “revolutionary type product,” Schneider says. The first was a soft interface that goes between the person’s residual limb and the prosthesis, and makes the prosthesis more comfortable.
The second was a technology that uses a vacuum to hold the prosthesis to the body with greater control. It solves the age-old problem of volume loss when amputees bear weight through a prosthesis, Schneider says.
The partners knew they needed major capital to substantiate their claims about the technology, called Harmony, to invest in sales channels to get the product to end-users, and to defend patents. All that led to a sale to Otto Bock Health Care in Plymouth in January.
“We weren’t necessarily looking to sell the company,” Schneider says. “We were looking to promote our mission statement, and our mission statement was to further our technological footprint, to further our market share, and to further our commitment to society.”
Schneider remains with Otto Bock as global product manager, while Caspers has a consulting agreement but is not an employee. This is the first time that Schneider has been an employee. “I have nothing but kudos at this point,” he says, while acknowledging it’s still the honeymoon period.
Schneider recommends that all business owners put in place an exit strategy, “so that when an opportunity presents itself, they’re ready to assess it,” he says.
“When I have spoken to other business owners that have sold, the No. 1 issue is that people who were not prepared for that decision, whether they wanted to remain part of the business or not, were the main ones unhappy with their choice. It’s a lot of looking in the mirror,” he says.
Scott Schneider, Otto Bock U.S.: 763.489.5121; sc*************@********us.com; www.ottobockus.com
