Intentional Growth

TaxAct CoFounder Scales Company after PE Firm Acquisition and Exits a Second Time

Listen Later

My guest today is Cammie Greif. Cammie is a co-founder of TaxAct. In the mid-1990s, Cammie and three of her former co-workers decided to build a highly profitable tax filing software. With a focus on growth and profit, TaxAct was born.

In 2004, Cammie and her partners sold the business to TA Associates a private equity firm. During today’s episode, Cammie shares what it was like to run a multi-million dollar company and how the sales process worked out for them. She stayed with the company for fourteen years so she has seen a good chunk of the business cycle.

In the mid-2000s, TaxAct was sold again to InfoSpace (now known as Blucora.)  Cammie tells me about walking away and finding a new purpose. We follow Cammie’s story through their humble beginning in the first floor of a former mortuary to being the third biggest tax service software on the market. Tune in for this incredible story!

You will learn about:
  • Cammie’s time with Parsons Technologies.
  • How Cammie found her 3 partners and their initial shareholder agreement.
  • The tremendous effort put toward clear communication with the TaxAct leadership.
  • The early milestones for the company and what they did when it didn’t happen.
  • Are you building a profitable or a growth-oriented business?
  • Cammie’s focus on building a profitable business.
  • Why Microsoft failed in the tax software space.
  • The move to an online service.
  • The 2002 sales pitch and due diligence.
  • The sell to TA Associates in 2004.
  • The expectations of Cammie and her partners.
  • The truth about private equity firms.
  • Why TA?
  • The changes made by TA.
  • The unexpected blow to the business during the first year with TA.
  • How Cammie and her partners corrected the problem.
  • How TA was able to help during that time.
  • Returning to sale plans.
  • Reading in a succession team for a sale pitch.
  • The agreement with HR Block that fell through.
  • The sale to InfoSpace.
  • What it is like selling to a public company.
  • The final deal structure.
  • Cammie’s move into startup mentoring.
  • The importance of recognizing trends and patterns in business.
  • Cammie’s advice for the listeners.

    • Profitable businesses. We’d all like one, but how many of us started out thinking, “My business is going to make a profit in year one”? Not many. For our guest today, Cammie Greif, however, that’s exactly what she did. She and her three co-founders decided that profit was their first and foremost step and that they would do whatever they had to do to run a profitable business.

    Bootstrapping a Startup

    You work hard. We all do. But when it comes to getting your enterprise off the ground, are you willing to go without pay for two years? Very few of us could commit to that just to see the revenue of our business grow so we can reinvest it in our company, rather than pay ourselves. However, Cammie’s own business plan was just that—go in with the bare minimum, work hard and cash in later.

    The lessons new entrepreneurs should take (or even repeat entrepreneurs who want to focus on a profit rather than growing the business) from this is: you can make do with a lot less. You don’t need the newest and greatest, unless you’re in the highest of tech businesses. You really don’t need that fancy art, fashionable sitting area or expensive scotch — okay, the scotch maybe… but honestly, there are so many areas you can cut co

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store
    Intentional GrowthBy Arkona - Intentional Growth