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.
Nicolas Thomley founded Pinnacle Service Inc. to assist people with developmental disabilities and mental illness to find housing, jobs and other necessities. The business school graduate and former Marine says his business isn’t lucrative, but he feels it’s vitally important. He’s also in the midst of a run for the state legislature.
“We’ve been really growing. We started operating in 2001, working with people with developmental disabilities. The last three years we’ve been helping more people with mental health issues, with housing.”
It came from a Supreme Court decision that stepped up services for people with mental health issues. People with developmental disabilities have had strong advocacy, with groups like ARC and PACER.
We’re primarily a government contractor, primarily Medicaid is our payment source. We’ve been able to find innovative ways around or within the system. Our most current example is a housing program started in March of 2007.
We purchased a building in northeast Minneapolis for about 18 people who need assistance with daily living, help with medications. There was no guarantee people would come. We struggled at first but by the end of the year we had it almost full.
Navigating the system is a challenge. It gets really complicated. We are always finding ways of doing things differently.
Another example is our employment services. There are established players doing this, like Opportunity Partners, RISE. They’ve done in-sheltered workshops. We took a different approach. We thought that was a good first step, but we want to force the issue of getting people with disabilities employed competitively.
We are not going to have a facility. We’re going to do everything competitive. Everything we do will be minimum wage and above. We’re going to provide the support they need to be successful.
For me it’s a civil rights movement. For God’s sake, it was only 28 years ago that we had people in institutions in this state. We need to take that step forward. To me there’s a fundamental right that people should be included.
We serve 35 people through the employment service so far. It?s relatively small. The state, which doesn?t always like what I do, is starting to take notice. The other thing, it’s cheaper typically, which helps.
I founded the company when I was 19, although we started operating in 2001 when I was 21. My mother and grandmother and aunt are all psychologists, yet I think I turned out OK laughs.
My grandfather worked with a lot of people with physical disabilities. He and my grandmother founded a small business in St. Cloud working with people with disabilities. We actually compete with them.
I went to school for business, and obviously this isn’t a business to make money. I was in the Marine Corps. I had a business partner when I started. I no longer do, as a lot of partnerships go. We worked together at a health service, and we thought we could do this on our own. Our intent was to open a group home. Why it took us so long was the licensing it’s so regulated. Then we had to get a county contract, which took too long.
In January of 2001 we got a client. The first person we worked with was a man from China and also had schizophrenia. He spoke no English. That was a tough one, but we worked it out.
I have an MBA. I’m working on a doctorate.
Our newbuilding, I’m so excited about it. It’s a 21,000-square-foot building on Central Avenue in Minneapolis. It’s this old warehouse, 95 years old. We needed to move we were out of space here in our St. Louis Park location. This building, it was full of asbestos, full of lead paint.It will cost $2.2 million for everything.
We built out a third of the main level and the rest will be for the future because of our growth. I financed through the SBA, and North American Banking Co. is the bank.
Mental health has been an underserved area. I went to Kuwait with the Marine Corps, and many of them come home with stress disorder, all kinds of things. I’m certainly passionate about the veteran. We haven’t treated people like citizens in my opinion.
Every so often you hear the story about someone who’s mentally ill will do something, but there’s also people without mental illness that are criminals. I do believe we haven’t done justice to these people. We’re going to address them. We’re going to do this.
If we had more money we could grow faster. Last year revenue was $7.8 million. We’ll go over $8 million this year. I do believe in a free market and I do believe in reasonable profits, even though ours may be considered less than reasonable.
I do believe business is the tool for innovation. It’s the private sector that will drive all these things home. I like to think that we’ve made a dent in the way services have been provided.
When we started the company I borrowed $20,000 from my grandma. We blewthrough that in about two payrolls. I went back to Grandma and she puther houp so we could get a loan.
I’ve always been passionate politically. I know care can be improved.If I can win this election, which is a big if, I’m going against Steve Smith, I can make those changes. I know I can. And I can drastically improve the system for everyone with disabilities.
As much as I respect the government there’s so many things that I want to do better. I’m an entrepreneur so I’m stubborn. I can get it done.
-as told to Beth Ewen
Nicolas Thomley,
Pinnacle Services Inc.:
612.977.3100
nicolas.thomley
www.pinnacleservices.org
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