Dec 01, 2023
INC Magazine's 2023 Founder Friendly Investors list, showcasing top founder-friendly private equity and venture capital firms, was released in early November 2023. We are proud to report Edison Partners' distinction.
We pride ourselves in backing over 200 founders over the last 37 years with our unique approach to investing and value creation: meeting founders and their companies where they are. Our pull, not push, philosophy—championed by our Operating Partners' and Director Network's vast expertise—is tailored to the stage, sector, and unique needs of each founding team, business strategy, and model. From the outset of each relationship and at every step along the company’s growth journey, we drive alignment through transparency. For us, it’s all about shared success and a ‘whatever it takes’ mindset that matches founders’ passion, intensity and commitment.
Prompted by our distinction, we launched a social media series called 'Founder Stories: How They Did It' featuring portfolio company founders and their journeys to success. Here are some anecdotes and pieces of advice from the series:
Melanie Stricklan, Co-Founder of Slingshot Aerospace
Melanie grew up in a small town where the night sky captured her full attention at a very young age. Her curiosity bloomed into full-blown fascination, leading Melanie to joining the United States Air Force Space Command and later launching space sustainability company, Slingshot Aerospace.
For the full story, check out Episode 11 of Electrifying Growth, Resilience and Reaching New Heights with Melanie Stricklan.
Greg Lettieri, Founder of Recycle Track Systems
Following a series of sales jobs, Greg's RTS journey began in his New York City apartment while watching the World Series with a neighbor who had four generations of family members in the garbage industry. 30 days later, the two formed a company, had a business plan, built the first version of their tech, and began raising seed money. It took six months for the team to secure their license, and they landed their first client within 15 days.
Greg's advice for success? "Just smile. People want to be around happy folks. They want people who are willing to roll up their sleeves, work, and help out. Even if you're not the most talented, if you're willing to do the work, put the hours in, listen, and learn… I would prefer work ethic over talent any day."
For the full story, check out Episode 12 of Electrifying Growth, Operating Within Reality with Greg Lettieri.
Jarrett Bauer, Co-Founder of Health Recovery Solutions
When Jarrett was 24 years old, his grandmother was readmitted to the hospital for heart failure. He began to research common causes for readmission and realized non-compliance with medication and diet, plus a lack of caregiver support and health literacy, greatly impacted patient recovery. Jarrett was sure he could improve those statistics. Nearly 13 years later, he says, "When you engage patients to be proactive in their disease health management and give patients the tools to be successful, they'll surprise you."
Check out the clip on our LinkedIn page.
A.J. Loiacono, Co-Founder & CEO of Capital Rx
A.J. grew up surrounded by independent pharmacists but decided to take a slightly unique path, pursuing software development in the pharmaceutical supply chain. He worked in audit and procurement services for insured payments and noticed an overarching commonality: confusion around drug pricing. Over the next 18 years, A.J. theorized about drug prices in the United States and eventually decided to put an end to it, launching Capital Rx.
His advice to running a successful business? Evolve. "You have to be thinking about what comes next."
For the full story, check out Episode 15 of Electrifying Growth, Transforming Healthcare, One Benefit at a Time with A.J. Loiacono.
Mark Brosso, Founder & CEO of PurpleLab
Mark cashed in his 401k to start his first business. Multiple years and much perseverance later, he leveraged his data knowledge and passion to improve healthcare results, launching PurpleLab, an outcome-driven data platform that makes health risk understandable, meaningful, and actionable.
Mark's advice to success is to "remain completely egoless." Give credit where it's due. Surround yourself with people you can rely on. Be confident in your team.
For the full story, check out Episode 16 of Electrifying Growth, Finding Freedom in Entrepreneurship with Mark Brosso.
Rita Gurevich, Founder & CEO of SPHERE
Rita's career began at Lehman Brothers where she witnessed people who'd dedicated their entire lives to the company's success surrender their futures as the company collapsed; they'd lost complete control, some even losing their retirement funds. This exposure led her to courageously take a new path, starting her own business at the age of 25.
Her vision was simple. "I knew every year would be bigger than the year before, I knew every year I would be proud of something different than the year prior, and I knew that this journey would lead to something absolutely beautiful." Right she was!
For the full story, check out Episode 6 of Electrifying Growth, Bootstrapping & Breaking Down Barriers with Rita Gurevich.
Flint Lane, Founder of Billtrust
Once upon a time in 1998, Flint co-founded a company called Paytrust, an online "bill pay" software to consolidate bills, making payment much easier and more efficient than before. "It was a really fabulous idea… but a really terrible business model," he says. However, the idea heavily resonated with investors, leading Flint to raise ~$100 million in 18 months… only to spend the entire $100 Million and learn many, many hard lessons. "The biggest mistake I made… was who we raised it from and who we allowed on the board."
Learning from his mistakes, Bill says, "When I started Billtrust in 2001, I focused on the other side of billing, which is involves the people who sent in the bills and get paid." His revised goal: "...to build a real business before I raised a penny of outside capital so that the capital could go to growing something that actually worked as opposed to just funding a wild idea."
For the full story, check out Episode 2 of Electrifying Growth, My $100 Million MBA with Flint Lane.
Jack Hooper, Co-Founder & CEO of Take Command
Imagine you're on a road trip from Texas to Pennsylvania when your college-age significant other tells you she doesn't feel well… only to find out that she's pregnant… with twins. This was the beginning of Jack's journey to launch Take Command, piquing his curiosity at how much something like this may cost, especially within the confines of their fixed grad school student loan budget.
"I could calculate, ''Okay, I'm going to need a little bigger apartment, my wife is not going to be working now so replace her income; we need diapers, formula…' I could budget everything out except what to pay the hospital for twins." His only goal was understanding a ballpark number, "Was it $5,000? $500,000? No one could tell me. I talked to doctors, insurance people; no one could tell me or even give me a range. That's what started my healthcare journey."
For the full story, check out Episode 17 of Electrifying Growth, Putting Your Money Where Your Pain Is with Jack Hooper.
As we celebrate the conclusion of our ' Founder Stories: How They Did It' series, we reflect on the who behind the how. Our commitment to our portfolio over the past 37 years is unwavering because we invest in people and businesses who share our values of trust, accountability, commitment and transparency.
Our Founder Friendly Investor distinction is a catalyst to share the extraordinary success stories and insightful anecdotes of our portfolio company leadership, underscoring the resilience, innovation, and diverse paths to success within our team. As we look to the future, we remain dedicated to fostering meaningful partnerships, embracing transparency, and championing shared success with the passion and intensity that define the entrepreneurial spirit. Cheers to another year of electrifying growth and empowering founders to reach new heights!
