NEW YORK, NY – November 26, 2024 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of Interactive Edge – a provider of business intelligence and reporting software for the CPG industry – to Nuqleous.

Interactive Edge has been at the forefront of category management and sales analytics automation for over 25 years, helping CPG companies transform complex data into compelling insights. The company's XP3 BI Cloud platform integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office to automate the creation of customized category reviews, line reviews, and joint business plans. The combination of Interactive Edge with Nuqleous’ advanced retail analytics is poised to empower category management and sales teams to scale their impact and deliver higher-quality reporting without adding costly resources.

Nuqleous is a leading provider of B2B SaaS solutions specializing in big data, retail analytics, and space planning optimization. Founded in 2013, Nuqleous equips retailers, CPG brands, and distributors with data-driven solutions that enhance agility, efficiency, and decision-making across their operations. With a powerful suite of applications—including ShilohNext (Walmart Luminate API Certified Partner), TR3, ShelfIQ, SpringBoard, and Spotlight—Nuqleous delivers advanced AI-driven analytics and real-time data integration from over 120 retailers globally. With the addition of Interactive Edge, the combined platform will enable category management teams to generate customized, data-driven presentations that use multiple data streams and adapt to each retailer's specific needs with an unprecedented level of automation.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Interactive Edge in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About Interactive Edge

Interactive Edge is a market leader in retail analytics automation, serving many of the world's largest consumer goods companies through its flagship XP3 BI Cloud platform. The company's Microsoft Office-integrated solutions have become the industry standard for transforming complex retail data into actionable insights. Trusted by leading brands including Danone, PepsiCo, Kellanova, Ghirardelli, and Jack Links, Interactive Edge enables category management and sales teams to leverage any data source to create and distribute best practice analytics directly in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. The company's commitment to customer success is backed by comprehensive training and live technical support, helping clients win numerous CGT Customer Management and Visionary awards. For more information, visit www.interactiveedge.com.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives

NEW YORK, NY – November 1, 2024 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of MedStack – a provider of SaaS-based compliance software to the digital health industry – to Launchit Solutions.

MedStack provides a cloud platform that enables healthcare ISVs to build, deploy, and maintain secure, HIPAA compliant digital health applications on Microsoft Azure or AWS. MedStack has been instrumental in powering healthtech solutions across North America, serving a diverse array of clients by reducing the complexity of compliance and enabling developers to focus on the functional impact of their applications.

The acquisition will enable Launchit Solutions, a pioneering health technology studio, to leverage MedStack’s foundational platform, which has been trusted by healthcare innovators for its rigorous adherence to HIPAA and other regulatory standards. By bringing MedStack into the Launchit family, Launchit will expand its capabilities in providing streamlined, security-first solutions to healthtech innovators and providers, helping them to efficiently address critical challenges related to compliance, data privacy, and patient trust.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to MedStack in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About MedStack

MedStack is a cloud automation technology company built specifically for the needs of the digital health industry. Its standardized platform allows healthcare innovators to deliver ready-to-buy, compliant applications to market and is emerging as the de facto standard for delivering industry requirements for digital health. MedStack is trusted by hundreds of leading digital health companies across North America and has been accepted in implementation by several notable payers and providers. The company is based in Toronto, Canada.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives

NEW YORK, NY – July 17, 2024 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the acquisition of Literably – an award-winning, research-backed literacy assessment platform – by Heggerty.

Literably is an innovative digital assessment platform that can assess students across seven key literacy areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, spelling, and rapid automatized naming. Literably has more than a decade of experience working with child-specific speech AI to deliver accurate, actionable data for teachers.

By combining user-friendly digital assessments, child-specific speech AI, and research-proven curricula, the integration of Literably and Heggerty is uniquely poised to revolutionize how classrooms evaluate and address students' literacy skills.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Heggerty in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About Heggerty

Heggerty is a leading provider of reading and writing curricula, professional development, and digital resources dedicated to improving literacy outcomes. Research-proven to improve student outcomes, Heggerty supports educators in over 11,000 U.S. districts in building strong foundational reading and writing skills. For more information, visit www.heggerty.org.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives

NEW YORK, NY – June 6, 2024 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the acquisition of Acadience Learning – the company founded by the original authors of the DIBELS early literacy assessment – by Wilson Language Training.

The Acadience suite of assessments provide a comprehensive solution for screening, progress monitoring and diagnostic assessment to help reduce the gap for struggling students and unlock their full potential. Backed by research, the Acadience assessment measures provide much needed information to guide and support educators and educational systems to make data-informed decisions.

The addition of Acadience’s assessment suite to Wilson’s product line will enable deep instructional cohesion by combining evidence-based literacy curriculum with an easy-to-use formative assessment that already serves nearly two million students globally.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Wlson in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About Wilson Language Training

For more than thirty years, Wilson has advanced its vision of “Literacy for All” through multisensory structured literacy programs and professional learning backed by a commitment to the Science of Reading and implementation. The Wilson Reading System® (WRS), Fundations®, and Just Words® programs build a solid foundation for beginning readers and reduce the literacy gap for struggling students, including those with dyslexia. Wilson’s certifications result in Wilson® Dyslexia Practitioner and Therapist credentials, which have been awarded Accreditation Plus by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). Nearly 300,000 educators have participated in Wilson courses and workshops, and 25,000 have earned WRS Level I Certification.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives

NEW YORK, NY – March 23, 2023 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of Foxpass – a provider of cloud-based, identity-centric network and server access solutions for IT and DevOps systems – to Splashtop, a portfolio company of Sapphire Ventures and NEA.

Foxpass delivers a secure server and network access management solution that integrates seamlessly with popular identity providers, including Microsoft O365, Google Workspace, and Okta, while its cloud RADIUS Server platform integrates with major Wi-Fi access point and virtual private network (VPN) providers, including Meraki, Ruckus, Apple, Aruba, Fortinet, Ubiquiti and others. Its industry-leading platform supports modern, password-less mechanisms to ensure that employees do not share passwords and can access only the servers and networks they need, and only when needed.

Splashtop is a leader in solutions that simplify the work-anywhere world. Its solutions for hybrid work and IT / MSP remote support. The strategic acquisition of Foxpass marks an important step for Splashtop as it builds out the industry’s most robust remote access and security offering, and enables the company to address the needs of a key segment of the market interested in elevating their security postures with powerful, enterprise-class Wi-Fi and server access management solutions..

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Foxpass in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the Splashtop press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – February 15, 2023 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce that Pierre Chamberland has joined the firm and will lead client development and advisory services in Canada. He is based in Montreal, Quebec.

“Pierre has a 30-year track record driving product innovation and operational excellence for technology businesses the world over, spanning semiconductors to security software,” said Steven Freitas, Executive Managing Director at 85 Advisors. "Pierre's decades of experience as a CEO, founder, marketer, operator and technologist will be invaluable in support of 85 Advisors' M&A and strategic advisory engagements."

Prior to 85 Advisors, Pierre was CEO and Founder of NetGovern, an enterprise information governance software company that he founded, grew to an 8-figure business, and subsequently sold in a strategic M&A transaction to Ipro Technology (a portfolio company of ParkerGale). He continues to serve on the Ipro board of directors.

Pierre is a Community Evangelist for the Open Invention Network (openinventionnetwork.com) and the Canadian Council of Innovators (canadianinnovators.org). He also serves as a board advisor to multiple emerging B2B software companies.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives.

NEW YORK, NY – January 12, 2023 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of CloudOps – a provider of cloud consulting, managed application services, and cloud edge orchestration software – to Aptum, a portfolio company of DigitalBridge.

Founded in 2005, CloudOps has evolved into one of Canada’s leading cloud computing, cloud networking, and DevOps solution providers. The company helps North America's telecom, utility, financial services, healthcare, media, technology, and public sector organizations navigate their respective digital transformation journeys using open source and cloud-native platforms.

Aptum, which is a portfolio company of DigitalBridge, is a hybrid, multi-cloud managed service provider delivering complex, secure, high-performance cloud solutions. The acquisition of CloudOps will enable Aptum to deliver comprehensive hybrid multi-cloud solutions and services, including advanced cloud migration services and DevOps, to its customers in 43 countries.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to CloudOps in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the Aptum press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About CloudOps

CloudOps is a cloud consulting, managed services, and software company focused on open source, cloud-native platforms, networking, and DevOps. CloudOps helps forward-thinking customers Own Their Own Destinies in the Clouds™ by engineering and operating cloud platforms to meet evolving business goals and achieve long-term operational success. The company’s primary focus is on telecom, utility, financial, large enterprise, software, media, healthcare, and public sector organizations. CloudOps is a portfolio company of Aptum Technologies, a hybrid, multi-cloud managed service and advisory and consulting provider dedicated to driving tangible business outcomes.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector, and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively. We operate with a singular focus to help our clients achieve their long-term strategic objectives. 

NEW YORK, NY – June 16, 2022 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of ClubExpress – a leading provider of club and association management software – to Lumaverse Technologies, a portfolio company of L Squared Capital Partners and PSG.

Founded in 2003, ClubExpress provides SaaS-based association management software that enables member-based organizations to manage their entire front and back-office operations. More than 2,000 clubs and associations use ClubExpress’ platform for member management, marketing, communications, organizational administration and management, and payment facilitation.

Lumaverse tools empower schools, nonprofits, and businesses to streamline group management and coordination. Products include leading solutions in these areas: online sign ups, appointment scheduling, registration, volunteer and event management, membership and donor management, crowdfunding, and auctions. Nearly 200 million people engaged with Lumaverse software in the last twelve months, using the tools to accomplish their mission and impact their communities.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to ClubExpress in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the Lumaverse press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – July 12, 2021 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of Goverlan, Inc.– a leading provider of remote IT operations management software – to EasyVista, a portfolio company of Eurazeo and Cathay Capital.

Founded in 1998, Goverlan provides simplified remote support technology and process automation and is among the G2Crowd’s Top 100 Best Software Companies. Together with EasyVista, Goverlan will enable customers to diagnose and resolve incidents and problems using automation, self-service, and an integrated ITSM tool.

EasyVista is a global software provider of intelligent service automation solutions for enterprise service management and self-help. Leveraging the power of ITSM, Self-Help, AI, and Micro Apps to create customer-focused service experiences, EasyVista has helped companies improve employee productivity, reduce operating costs, and increase customer satisfaction. Today, more than 1,500+ enterprises around the world leverage EasyVista’s ITSM platform to accelerate change, empowering leaders to better serve their employees and customers across financial services, healthcare, education, manufacturing and other industries.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Goverlan in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the EasyVista press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About Goverlan

Goverlan was founded in the late 90s in New York City with a goal to build software that solves help desk pain points. Goverlan is a leader in Remote Support and IT Management Software and is used by customers in over 110 countries and 17 industries. Goverlan enables IT teams to support desktops and servers in real time, without user interruption via background systems management, IT process automation, and secure remote desktop access. Goverlan Reach is a self-hosted software-based solution that can be implemented in minutes with minimal requirements..

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – July 1, 2021 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of FAMOC S.A., a European provider of SaaS-based unified endpoint management (UEM) software, to Techstep ASA, for NOK 110 million.

FAMOC provides cloud-based UEM and mobile security solutions to more 1,900 enterprise and government organizations in Central and Western Europe. Its platform enables customers to control, manage, and secure the use of mobile devices, applications, communications, and documents/data across their organizations.

Techstep, a listed company on the Oslo Stock Exchange, is a leading provider of Managed Mobility Services provider in the Nordics. The company provides managed services consisting of a combination of device management, software, hardware and connectivity. Techstep has 300 employees based in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, serving 550+ enterprise customers across various industries in the private and public sectors.

85 Advisors acted as financial advisor to FAMOC in connection with the transaction.

A link to Techstep’s press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – January 28, 2021 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of DOSarrest Internet Security, a leader in cloud-based DDoS attack mitigation technology, to Link11.

DOSarrest provides a comprehensive suite of fully managed Internet security solutions including DDoS protection for websites, datacenter/network infrastructure protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), network traffic analysis, and a cyber-attack simulation platform.

Link11 is a leading European IT security provider in the field of cyber-resilience. Its Cloud Security Platform is fully automated, defends against all attacks, including unknown and new patterns, in real-time. Link11’s web and infrastructure DDoS protection, bot mitigation, API protection, secure DNS, zero touch WAF, secure CDN, and threat intelligence services ensure holistic and cross-platform hardening of corporate networks and critical applications.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to DOSarrest in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to Link11’s press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – September 22, 2020 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of School Software Group (SSG) – developer of the leading curriculum management software platform, BuildYourOwnCurriculum (BYOC) – to Education Advanced.

BYOC is a SaaS-based curriculum management software platform that K-12 school districts use to plan, implement, assess/revise curricula aligned to standards. Developed with extensive input from educators, BYOC is an intuitive solution that supports the full curriculum mapping lifecycle to drive student achievement. It enables educators to break educational standards into discrete learning steps, plan aligned units/lessons, monitor implementation and assess learning to identify gaps, refine curricula, and report and communicate with stakeholders.

Education Advanced is a privately held K-12 EdTech SaaS company providing operations tools to enable educators to be more efficient, allowing them to dedicate more of their valuable time and resources to exceeding student needs. Its product offering includes TestHound, Cardonex, and now, BuildYourOwnCurriculum. These award-winning and patented technology solutions significantly advance the efficiency of master scheduling, staff planning, curriculum development and delivery, and assessment coordination for K-12 school districts around the country.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to SSG in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to the Education Advanced press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About School Software Group

Education Advanced is a privately held K-12 EdTech SaaS company providing operations tools to enable educators to be more efficient, allowing them to dedicate more of their valuable time and resources to exceeding student needs. EAI’s product offering includes TestHound, Cardonex, and now, BuildYourOwnCurriculum. These award-winning and patented technology solutions significantly advance the efficiency of master scheduling, staff planning, curriculum development and delivery, and assessment coordination for K-12 school districts around the country.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – July 7, 2020 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of NetGovern, a leader in information governance, risk, and compliance software, to Ipro Tech.

NetGovern provides an information governance software platform that enables regulated organizations to analyze, secure, and manage their unstructured data – including email, text, and documents. Using its information archiving and governance software, mid-sized organizations can solve data compliance, safeguard personal information, simplify eDiscovery, and protect their reputation.

Ipro is the global leader in eDiscovery technology used by legal professionals to streamline discovery of electronic data through presentation at trial. Ipro draws upon decades of innovation to deliver high-performance software, services, and support, flexibly deployed via Desktop, On-prem, Cloud, or Hybrid solutions, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of eDiscovery.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to NetGovern in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to Ipro’s press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About NetGovern

NetGovern was founded in 2001 with the idea that information is a precious asset that must be protected. Eighteen years later, NetGovern's information archiving and governance software helps mid-sized organizations solve data compliance, safeguard personal information, simplify eDiscovery, and protect their reputation. Our all-in-one solution offers the fastest speed to value, lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) and most secure and far-reaching visibility into sensitive data. Based in Montreal, Canada, we provide a comprehensive suite of solutions to help businesses safeguard, access, and manage all their unstructured data – including email, text, documents, and more.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – October 23, 2019 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of LogicJunction, a leading provider of indoor positioning and wayfinding software technology, to Purple WiFi.

LogicJunction provides a complete, highly scalable, and easy-to-use indoor location services solution for creating enhanced digital maps and indoor wayfinding experiences. Its software platform is used by some of the largest healthcare organizations globally. LogicJunction’s underlying technology utilizes WiFi, Bluetooth, as well as the unique geomagnetic signature of a building to provide precise indoor location/navigation with minimal hardware infrastructure required.

Purple offers a WiFi platform through which businesses can monitor a customers’ shopping patterns and habits, allowing them to communicate with targeted messaging, as well as providing powerful analytics tools. With the acquisition of LogicJunction, Purple now offers one of the most comprehensive and scalable indoor navigation systems, including ahead-of-the-curve location-based indoor positioning, overlaying the service with its existing data analytics portfolio, enhancing both client and end-user experience.

85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to LogicJunction in connection with the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to Purple’s press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About LogicJunction

LogicJunction is a Cleveland-based technology solutions provider specializing in indoor navigation systems for the healthcare industry. With a suite of well-established navigation platforms, including a state-of-the-art mobile app that fuses Geomagnetic location-based data with Wi-Fi and BLE data, LogicJunction delivers a scalable and cost-saving system that enhances indoor experience.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – June 6, 2019 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce that Jeff Fisher has joined the firm as an Executive in Residence. He will serve as a trusted advisor to 85 Advisors’ M&A and growth advisory clients in the cybersecurity and IT operations management sectors. Jeff will be based in New York City.

“Jeff has a 20+ year track record of developing and implementing the go-to-market and M&A strategies of several notable emerging and growth-stage infrastructure software businesses,” said Steven Freitas, Executive Managing Director of 85 Advisors. “Jeff’s deep domain knowledge and breadth of operational experiences will be invaluable in helping our clients plan and implement successful growth and M&A strategies.”

Prior to 85 Advisors, Jeff was Vice President of Sales and Alliances at Hysolate, a Team8-backed endpoint security startup, where he led the effort to bring the company’s disruptive secure client hypervisor software solutions to the U.S. market. Previously, he served as Vice President of Strategy and/or Alliances for a number of innovative enterprise software companies, including Softricity (acquired by Microsoft), Desktone (acquired by VMware), RES Software (acquired by Ivanti) and KEMP Technologies. In these roles, Jeff helped conceive and evangelize emerging product categories, such as Application Virtualization and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) that are now multi-billion software markets.

In addition, he was an integral member of executive leadership teams that raised more than $100 million in venture/growth capital and delivered more than $400 million in exit value to shareholders. Earlier in his career, Jeff held technical sales and business development roles at Microsoft and Citrix. He earned a B.A. degree from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.

NEW YORK, NY – September 25, 2018 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce the sale of Pirean Limited, a leader in Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) and Consumer Identity and Access Management (IAM) software, to Exostar, LLC.

Pirean’s IDaaS platform, Access: One, is used by organizations worldwide in the banking, financial services, insurance, and government sectors, as well as the energy, retail, and telecom industries. Access: One helps secure business-critical applications and sensitive corporate and personal information by providing easy-to-use and innovative consumer, workforce, and mobile IAM functionality.

Exostar offers cloud-based solutions that help companies in highly-regulated industries mitigate risk and solve identity and access challenges. Nearly 150,000 organizations leverage Exostar to help them collaborate securely, efficiently, and compliantly with their partners and suppliers.

Under the acquisition agreement, Pirean Limited will be known as Pirean, an Exostar Company. 85 Advisors acted as exclusive financial advisor to Pirean. Financial terms were not disclosed.

A link to Exostar’s press release announcing the transaction is available here.

About Pirean

Pirean brings employees and applications, consumers and products, and people and devices together to digitally and securely conduct business. Our Access: One platform improves customer engagement, enables workforce productivity, and secures access. Over 10 million users across industries including banking, financial services, manufacturing, government, and pharmaceutical leverage our easy-to-use, intuitive single sign-on, identity governance and administration, mobile identity and device management, and other capabilities to protect data, ensure compliance, support collaboration, and feel confidently in control. www.pirean.com.

About 85 Advisors

85 Advisors is a strategic and financial advisory firm that helps technology companies plan, analyze and execute successful growth, financing, and M&A strategies. We work closely with our clients' senior management and board of directors to evaluate, plan and execute myriad strategic alternatives, including mergers, acquisitions, financings, joint ventures, and divestitures. Our focus and expertise extend beyond traditional investment banking services and, accordingly, we serve as a trusted and objective advisor to growth-stage and middle market technology companies on a variety of investment, growth, and operational matters. Our recommendations are informed by our extensive domain expertise paired with rigorous analysis of relevant macro, industry, company- and situation-specific factors. To this end, we have a strong track record of anticipating disruptive trends and changes in the competitive dynamics within the IT sector and advising our clients on how to exploit these shifts proactively.

NEW YORK, NY – April 14, 2018 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce that Mark Kovarski has joined the firm and will primary advise clients focused on emerging technologies, including AI, blockchain, and next generation analytics. He will be based in Toronto, Canada.

“Mark has a 25 year track record driving growth and innovation within Fortune 2000 technology, communications, and financial services organizations," said Steven Freitas, Executive Managing Director at 85 Advisors. "Mark's experience as a senior technology executive and as a trusted advisor to some or North America's most prominent financial institutions and startups will be invaluable in support of 85 Advisors' M&A and growth advisory engagements."

Prior to 85 Advisors, Mark served as Senior Managing Consultant at Cisco Consulting Services where he advised some of North America’s largest financial institutions regarding technology strategy, implementation, and digital process transformation. While at Cisco, he was a key member of the strategic development teams responsible for defining Cisco’s M&A and competitive strategies in (Big) Data Analytics and Blockchain. In that capacity, Mark also provided strategic guidance to promising FinTech startups as a Barclays’ Rise NYC accelerator program mentor.

Previously, Mark held multiple leadership roles within BMO Financial Group’s IT organization, including business technology strategy and strategic vendor management. Earlier in his career, he led IT operations management teams at Rogers Communications and AT&T.

NEW YORK, NY – February 1, 2018 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce that Amy Jones has joined the firm to lead a new Education Technology focused advisory practice in addition to assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer. She will be based out of the firm’s New York City office.

“Amy brings extensive education industry experience and an impressive track record of transforming institutions, systems, and practices to deliver better educational outcomes for students,” said Steven Freitas, Executive Managing Director at 85 Advisors. “We are thrilled to have an individual of Amy’s caliber lead our emerging EdTech practice, as her deep strategic and product insights will be of tremendous value to 85 Advisors’ clients.”

Amy has nearly 20 years of education leadership and administration experience. Prior to joining 85 Advisors, she was Chief Academic Officer and Deputy Chief Executive for Special Education for the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the United States with 1.1 million students and a $24 billion operating budget. In this role, she directed professional development for more than 100 thousand staff members supporting more than 290 thousand students with disabilities. In addition, she oversaw numerous projects to reengineer instruction and systems for the multi-billion dollar Division of Specialized Instruction and Student Support, including learning management systems, management information systems, analytics, student information systems, inventory and ERP, personalized learning, assistive technology and accessibility of education materials.

Amy was widely recognized for strategic vision and leadership of large-scale change efforts to transform NYC schools and ensure better learning outcomes for all students. Earlier in her career, she served as a teacher, an adjunct professor for online graduate courses, Director of University Partnerships for Teach For America and a school principal.

Amy earned a M.A. in Organization and Leadership with a focus in School Leadership from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

NEW YORK, NY – October 18, 2017 – 85 Advisors is pleased to announce that Derek Schwartz has joined the firm’s growing leadership team as Managing Director and Head of Client Development.

Derek brings deep IT industry insights and a breadth of sales, operations, and M&A experience to his new role at the firm, which will add tremendous value to 85 Advisors’ M&A and growth advisory clients.

Derek has more than 25 years of enterprise software industry experience as a CEO, sales leader, and strategic business development executive. A citizen of the world, Derek has led, built, and grown disruptive technology businesses in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and South Africa.

Prior to 85 Advisors, Derek served as CEO of Safe-T Group North America, spearheading the company’s U.S. expansion and successful IPO. Previously, he oversaw the financial services sales practice at SEEBURGER of Germany and Axway of France where he was responsible for the integration of Axway’s acquisition of Tumbleweed Software.

Derek earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. 

Earlier this week, I was consulting a founder/CEO who wanted my perspective on a variety of business challenges. During one exchange, the CEO said, “John, you just summarized in 5 minutes what literally took us over two years to figure out.” What prompted him to say such a thing? I told him to forget about selling through channel partners - for now. In the beginning, the worst thing you can do as a startup CEO is to sell through the channel. Let me explain why.

(Note: This post is specific to VARs (value add resellers) and vendors that sell B2B technologies that have high average deal sizes. It does not address distributor arrangements.)

Many startups think that selling through an indirect channel is the right approach to early revenue generation. The two most frequently cited reasons for this view are: (a) channel partners will provide the necessary coverage, and (b) they will deliver quality sales opportunities. On both counts, this is generally not true.

Coverage and motivation are two completely different things. If you are able to find a channel partner that is highly motivated to sell your products, it could make sense to add them to your GTM strategy. However, you will rarely be able to find them.

Why is that? Simple. The single motivations for a channel partner is profit. That’s it. Channel partners need to move product at volume. It is worth reminding yourself that you are hoping for channel partners to sell your products precisely because you are nowhere near generating volume sales. Think of the situation from the channel partner’s perspective.

Channel partners do not have the incredibly large margins that a product vendor enjoys. Some channel partners get additional “value add” revenues from services that piggyback on vendor product sales. But, without volume product sales, there is not a pull through of these other revenue streams. So, a channel partner could be jeopardizing its entire business by dedicating too much effort on your product. They are not motivated to blow up their business for you.

Now, onto the question of whether or not channel partner will deliver high quality sales opportunities? First, let us assume that you are only considering partnering with a partner that is doing a significant amount of business. If a channel partner is not driving a lot of business, it then follows that they would not be much of a lead generation vehicle for you since they do not have enough customers to introduce your products to.

Meanwhile, a channel partner that has a lot of customers will only bring you high quality sales opportunities if your product is not disruptive to their existing sales motion. If introducing your product can delay a purchase, it is not a good thing for the channel rep. And, almost always, your new (unknown) product will introduce risk. This is the least understood part of early stage startup GTM and what the  CEO I mentioned above was referring to when he stated that I summarized in five minutes what it had taken his company two years to learn.

The most common way that a channel partner will bring YOU a golden sales opportunity is when its own customer(s) inquire about your product. Thus, the vendor still needs to sell and market its own product to the end customer. The channel partner in this case is actually not bringing you a sales opportunity but rather serving as a fulfillment channel. And, you are giving away a big portion of your profits to what is essentially a fulfillment intermediary.

To get a clearer sense of your initial GTM, it is useful to think through others’ incentives - not your own. Then, combine that analysis with that of your own required tasks for building either a direct or indirect sales strategy.

In order to find the right channel partners, a vendor must work backwards from the target customers. Do those customers primarily purchase through a channel? What channel type? Do these channels carry competitive products? Do they carry a portfolio of complementary products (e.g., selling 10 of your product will naturally lead to selling 100 more of another product)? How extensive is their technical pre-sales capabilities? How much of their income is generated from post-sales services? Are they mostly transactional or solutions-oriented?

Based upon an extensive analysis, you will get a firmer understanding of the specific tasks required to be performed over a certain period of time. These are things like partner sales training, technical training/certification, establishing processes (PRM, or partner relations management), deal registration, incentives, partner portal, contracts, and numerous other less familiar but critical things such as dynamic business planning/tracking, co-branded collateral, lead gen routing, and the list goes on.

I am sure you can see where I am going with this. Here is what this looks like from a partner’s perspective:

Low Motivation + High Risk + High Cost = Heartburn

Lack of Motivation: Partners would rather sell what is easier to sell. And, the familiar is always easier to sell. People always choose easy money over more difficult (but potentially more lucrative) money.

Introducing Risk Into Existing Deals: Channel sales typically have shorter sales cycles and this is by design, as they make a lot of their money from post-sales engagements. Consequently, the channel tend to favor established vendors selling known products into known situations.

Sales Training Cost: Every month, week, day, hour and minute they spend learning how to sell your product is opportunity cost for them.

Is Direct Sales The Only Way? In the beginning, direct sales is probably your best option to generate revenue. Once you build up some critical mass, you can turn on the channel spigot. For me, the key question is not to decide between Direct vs. Indirect Sales. The real question is, “How can we model our Direct Sales motion and overall GTM so that we can gain early success that can be replicated and scaled?”

Everyone knows how expensive building out a direct sales team can be. I would argue that implementing a high performing channel partner strategy is more expensive and riskier by many orders of magnitude. Remember that just as there is a thing called sales enablement, there is this little thing called partner enablement. The upside to hiring your own direct sales rep is that they are motivated, lower risk, and lower relative cost.

The reality is that there will be a relatively small number of sales opportunities in your first revenue year. Startups should use this period wisely by focusing intensely on just two things: (1) prosecute those deals and close them, and (2) build up the opportunity pipeline. To do so, you do not need an army of sales and marketing people.

Instead, what you need is razor sharp focus and discipline. And, at all cost, avoid the flawed  logic that plagues so many startups.

If someone tells you that hiring five sales reps can yield $8M-10M in revenue, you should really ask some very pointed questions and test the assumptions This is the prevailing (but broken) approach of many startup CEOs, VCs, and Sales VPs because that is that way they have always done it. Heavily venture-backed Silicon Valley startups can get away with (and spend their way out of) this strategy but the vast majority of startups will not be able to survive this type of illogical GTM planning.

Why is it illogical?

The assumption that a single sales rep can retire a $2M quota leads me to believe that there are some dramatic (and likely incorrect) assumptions being made. Let us dig into a hypothetical case.

Let’s say you are selling infrastructure software that has an average deal size of $100k. For each sales rep, that represents 20 deals necessary to achieve their quota. In a best case scenario, that means each rep will need a pipeline of at least 3x-5x, which translates to 80 quality sales opportunities. To provide some context, even a marketshare and mindshare leader in its field such as F5 Networks needed almost 3x pipeline coverage to meet its sales goals.

To get 80 strong opportunities, a rep will need to tackle roughly 160-320 qualified opportunities over the course of a year. For five reps, this translates to 800-1,600 qualified and accepted sales leads. Where do those qualified opportunities come from? Ask a competent marketing head who understands real-life conversion rates for high touch B2B products and ask her to apply the math to see what the numbers north of that 800-1,600 qualified opportunities must to look like in the marketing funnel in order for this nightmare of a model to actually be valid. It’s HUGE.

My advice is to Invest in acquiring the sales opportunities. You will need just two sales reps to close those deals. I recommend having two sales reps because that will help you judge who can close and who cannot. Another path forward could be to hire a more senior outside sales rep along with a pre-sales engineer (SE) who can wear both hats. Using either approach, you will avoid a high cash burn rate while actually being able to improve and refine your GTM based on results you can measure and analyze. Based on this initial  analysis, you will now have actual metrics you can use as a basis to build out and scale your field organization.