A few weeks ago, I implored you to second-guess selling your company in my post “12 Reasons Selling Your Business is a Bad Idea.” But I may have missed the mark a little when I said, “Your employees often lose out.” I failed to mention how my first company’s employees fared in the end. Of the 40 employees of First Research, 10 company alumni have founded five new companies, all successful. And, if you add up their revenues, it’s a bigger number than First Research’s revenues in 2007, the year we sold. They must have thought, “If Bobby can start a successful company, then I know I can.” Turns out, they were correct, and they are among the five reasons I’m glad I sold my first company.
- Local Market Monitor: In 2009, Ingo Winzer and Carolyn Beggs reintroduced Ingo’s brilliant home price forecast models. Today, banks, mortgage firms, and home construction companies are subscribers. Ingo is regularly quoted by the national media. In fact, he was recently asked to be a regular contributor to Forbes!
- Schedulefly
: In 2008, Wes Aiken, Tyler Rullman, and Wil Brawley launched this employee work scheduling software for independent restaurants. Today, more than 6,000 restaurants and hundreds of thousands of their employees use it every day. They’ve also added two more First Research alumni to their technology team.
- etailinsights: In 2010, Darren Pierce started a sales and marketing intelligence tool designed specifically for online retailers. Today, this business is jamming with hundreds of customers ranging from DHL to Symantec, just to name a few. Did I mention that etailinsights has a fantastic work culture too?
- Vertical IQ: In 2011, Bill Walker, Susan Bell, and I teamed up and launched this company to provide industry profiles to help bankers better-prepare for business calls. Today, we have 130 banks on board, 26,000 users, and the company is growing like a weed.
- Boardroom Insiders:
In 2009, First Research alum Lee Demby helped founder Sharon Gillenwater crank up this tool that provides in-depth information about business executives. Cisco, HP, and Citrix are just a few of its many clients – and the business is growing insanely fast.
This phenomenon is like the great circle of life, so I must quote the The Lion King, “There’s…more to do than can ever be done…It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all.” So sell your company; just make sure you and your team start new ones – preferably ones experiencing hockey stick growth like these!
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