JumpStart, formed in 2004 to give fledgling companies in northeast Ohio the resources needed to eventually fly on their own, has seen its first portfolio company leave the nest.
Yardi Systems, a Santa Barbara, Calif. company with offices in Broadview Heights, announced May 5 that it had acquired DIY Real Estate, a Broadview Heights-based property management software developer.
JumpStart, through its JumpStart Ventures arm, invested $340,000 in DIY in fall of 2008. The sale provides a return "in the 20 to 30 percent range," says Cathy Belk, JumpStart's chief marketing officer.
"The JumpStart Ventures group invests in companies with the full intention that we are the first investor and that the company will eventually have an exit event," Belk says. "We started working actively with them in the fall of 2008, so it wasn't that long ago."
She notes that an average time for a venture-backed company to exit through either merger or acquisition, or through an initial public offering, is a little more than eight years. "And we are an investor that comes in earlier than a venture capital firm."
Bob Lasser, Managing Director of Danville Partners and former chairman of DIY, says the company enjoyed more than 100 percent compounded growth between 2007, when it was formed, and 2009. He says the company's three Cleveland-area employees intend to remain and that there are plans to add additional support personnel.
JumpStart, based in Cleveland, is a non-profit organization that provides resources and assistance to entrepreneurs leading high-potential early-stage companies. JumpStart Ventures has made 60 investments in 47 companies.
Belk says "This is the first of many (exits) that we want to duplicate," adding that another couple of JumpStart-invested companies could follow suit later this year. "The model's coming full circle."
Sources: Cathy Belk, JumpStart, and Bob Lasser, Danville Partners
Writer: Gene Monteith