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.
UPSIZE STAGES :: THE EARLY YEARS
About Upsize Stages
UPSIZE STAGES is a series of guides detailing how to operate businesses at distinct stages in their life cycle. This is the second guide to be published, Upsize Stages: The Early Years.
Business owners whose companies thrive often point to a multi-faceted reason: steps taken, decisions made and systems put in place during the first few years. Yet in the heady and hectic days of a company in start-up mode, it can be easy to overlook the foundation work. This guide is intended to succinctly help companies with all facets of the challenge, and introduce them to local experts who can act as trusted resources.
Upsize reporter Andrew Tellijohn interviewed many sources to prepare the articles, including business owners who have successfully started businesses; accountants, attorneys, bankers and other financiers who help young firms with documentation and capital formation; and technology, management and marketing consultants who specialize in helping companies through their early years. Contact information for major sources is at the end of the guide.
The guide includes excerpts from Q&A interviews with experts who work with early stage companies. Hear the full podcasts by visiting dev.divistack.com; click on Upsize How-to Audio and the expert?s name. The first guide in the series, Upsize Stages: Turnaround, is available here.
As the name suggests, Owatonna-based Kamp Automation looks for customers with a process they’d like to automate. It could be a small, inconvenient, tiny part that people can’t assemble. It could be a high-volume product so needed that the customer can’t find enough labor to produce it in the necessary quantities. “We’ll work anywhere from medical device companies to the seed industry for corn and soybeans,” says Kent Patterson, co-founder, president and CEO. “We just jump all over wherever there is custom automation.” The company started in his garage. Patterson and his partners built a machine. The company started to grow to the point where now it has 48 employees — and had a bunch of people and stuff in different locations. “We went from a garage to a shop to a shop and just kept moving to new places and signing leases,” he says. “We got to a point where it’s like, OK, this is getting big enough and sustainable — we felt that we wanted to look for our own space.’”
