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.
Would you join a company that raised nearly $70 million from venture capitalists, angel investors and the public while it was posting only $800,000 in annual revenue?
Would you accept the job of chief financial officer after the company had burned through all that cash except for $6 million?
Would you believe a turnaround was possible if it was losing $2.5 million a quarter?
Would you hang onto your shares even when they finally rocketed to $20 each, up from $2 each, so as not to send a negative message?
Would you bring in one executive, then another, for the CEO job, while you focused on the dirty work of negotiating with creditors and vendors?
Would you keep praising your employees for their dedication to customer service, no matter what was going on?
Would you ignore the lawyers who told you to just file for bankruptcy, because you felt a fiduciary duty to creditors?
Would you stick with the company all the way through, finally becoming CEO and then selling it to a corporate savior for $6 million?
Would you say, when it was over, that you didn’t regret a thing because you’ve got friends for life?
Mike Carrel would. In this month’s Back Page interview, he tells the tale of guiding Zamba Solutions Corp. of Minneapolis through problems that wiped out hundreds of companies like it after the technology stock crash of 2000.
He embodies the old-fashioned value of loyalty, a trait not often linked to people in their 30s, in the technology business, in a company that went through the Internet craze.
“Having a positive mindset is so important,” Carrel says. “There are days you’re miserable, you’re home crying because you don’t have payroll.”
But his mentor, and a primary investor in Zamba, once shared the advice to follow when going hang gliding. “The instructor says you have to focus on the open field. If you focus on the obstacles you’ll hit them,” Carrel says.
Carrel saw the company through because he felt loyalty toward the person who tapped him for CFO when he was only 27 years old. He didn’t want a company failing on his watch. He admired the people who sank millions into Zamba and its predecessor, Racotek. He was grateful to the employees who focused on doing their jobs well.
“I believe in not letting people down,” Carrel says.
Would you commit to seeing your company through, no matter how tough the road?
Would you by personal action stand up to a society that sometimes sneers at loyalty and longevity, and a business culture that seems to favor getting rich quick?
Upsize salutes you, and all small-business owners like you, if so.
— Beth Ewen
editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
be***@*******ag.com
