Hardware with a subscription, sold direct, run on an outside controller and Xero.
Sell through integrators, wait on the ERP until partners told us what to build, prove the subscription sticks.
$14M of revenue growing 135% a year, a clean Deloitte audit, and a $300M sale.
We could not install what we sold. Our customers were integrators: often two people with a ladder, a truck and a low-voltage license. So pricing, contracts and systems moved to them.
I wanted NetSuite early. The CEO held off, and he was right. We asked partners what would make a difference, without telling them our plan. The answer was how they paid us: one portal, one payment method, with terms.
Investors had to believe the hardware made the subscription sticky.
My job, as our president put it in my interview: help engineers build and sales sell.
$36M Series C from Emergence, Greycroft and Sorenson Ventures. A clean Deloitte audit. The $300M sale at $14M of trailing revenue growing 135% a year. Diligence found no holes, and the systems carried the business for years after.
I tried to be HR, finance, legal and facilities at once. I would have pushed earlier for an HR lead and admin support.
Whether I can run finance end to end, with capital, board, systems and people, for a company preparing to raise or sell.
Openpath sold door-access hardware with a monthly subscription, and hardware was about three quarters of revenue. Finance was a part-time outside controller, Xero, and the model the company had raised its first two rounds on. A few months in, we learned that selling direct would not work. We could not install what we sold. Our customers were the integrators who could, often two people with a ladder, a truck and a low-voltage license. Pricing, contracts and systems all had to change with them.
Finance, accounting, HR, supply chain, operations and facilities, reporting to the CEO. I shared legal and equity with him. The board relied on me for numbers they could trust and a clear account of the decisions we needed their help with.
In my interview, our president told me my job was to enable engineers to build and sales to sell. Engineers needed cash and clarity. Sales needed a commission plan they could trust, paid accurately and on time. My first controller came in as a technical accountant and left seeing the business as a system of drivers, having co-led our NetSuite build and run a team. For AR and AP I hired for bedside manner, because our partners had been in the trade for decades and needed people they trusted.
A $36M Series C from Emergence, Greycroft and Sorenson Ventures, and a clean full audit by Deloitte. Then the $300M sale to Motorola Solutions, at $14M of trailing revenue growing 135% a year. A handful of us faced a diligence team many times our size, and they found no holes. The systems we built carried the business for years after the acquisition.
I tried to be HR, finance, legal and facilities at once. I would have pushed earlier for an HR lead and admin support, so I could go deeper where the business needed me most.