Ryan Tansom

<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/02/09/how-to-successfully-find-aligned-startup-investors/" target="_blank">How To Successfully Find Aligned Startup Investors</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">Forbes Now</font>

How To Successfully Find Aligned Startup Investors - Forbes Now

<a href="https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiYmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZvcmJlcy5jb20vc2l0ZXMvdGhleWVjLzIwMTgvMDIvMDkvaG93LXRvLXN1Y2Nlc3NmdWxseS1maW5kLWFsaWduZWQtc3RhcnR1cC1pbnZlc3RvcnMv0gFmaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9yYmVzLmNvbS9zaXRlcy90aGV5ZWMvMjAxOC8wMi8wOS9ob3ctdG8tc3VjY2Vzc2Z1bGx5LWZpbmQtYWxpZ25lZC1zdGFydHVwLWludmVzdG9ycy9hbXAv?oc=5" target="_blank">How To Successfully Find Aligned Startup Investors</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">Forbes</font>

How To Successfully Find Aligned Startup Investors - Forbes

St. John's University

Mahtomedi High School

Exit Planning Institute

Helping entrepreneurs grow the value of their business with an end in mind  -  Podcaster 🎙  -  Speaker 🎤  -  Educator 📓

Stillwater, Minnesota, United States

We started Arkona with a mission to help entrepreneurs get clarity and control on how to grow the value of their company with an end in mind through Value Growth Education and Strategic CFO Services. We created the Intentional Growth™ Framework to help business owners shift their mindset away from annual income to focusing on long-term value creation.

The more valuable a business is, the more freedom and choices business owners have to do what they want with their company WITHOUT sacrificing any personal, financial or professional goals.

There are 4 Steps in the Intentional Growth™ Framework

Learn. Plan. Grow. Choose.

Learn:
Learn how to grow the value of your business with an end in mind by using the 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles.
o	Intentional Growth™ Digital Course
o	Intentional Growth™ Digital Course + Coaching
o	Intentional Growth™ Virtual Cohort
o	Intentional Growth™ Boot Camp

Plan:
Assess your current situation and build a strategic plan to grow value to hit your goals o	A business deep dive that will assist all advisors along the journey
o	Financial Assessment
o	Business Valuation
o	Growth & Value Driver Assessment
o	Strategic Plan

Grow:
We can sit at the table with you as a strategic partner and CFO for as long as you need our advice and resources.
o	Fractional CFO Services
o	Financial Oversight
o	Staff Mentoring & Management
o	Mergers & Acquisitions

Choose:
We'll help guide you through when and how you decide to transition your management role or exit the business

As it relates to the business, some of my responsibilities are:
-  Creator and contributor of the Intentional Growth™ Framework
-  Podcast host of the Intentional Growth™ Podcast
-  Sales and business development
-  Keynote speaking
-  Manage our preferred partnerships
-  Marketing
-  Client engagements

Arkona, LLC.

Partner // Co-Founder

YEC Member

Intentional Growth™ is a podcast for entrepreneurs and business owners wanting to clarify a path toward a more valuable business and turn their vision into reality.

Weekly, content-rich episodes provide you with information on how to get clear on what you want from the business and why, the way companies are valued, strategies to increase that value, and the variety of ways you can transition your role or exit your ownership. From technical episodes dissecting the inner-workings of private equity and ESOPs to intense discussions with authors and thought leaders like Gino Wickman, John Warrillow, Jack Stack, Todd Herman, Chris Yeh and Alan Beaulieu, this podcast is full of information you need to stay competitive in today’s market.

The goal of the show? To help entrepreneurs enjoy work, create wealth and make an impact. By creating sustainable, predictable, and transferable cash ﬂow, you will create a valuable company that gives you choices to grow, acquire, reinvest, or exit and live the life you planned for — all with intention.

Intentional Growth™ - The Podcast

Podcast Host

We are a working team of experienced, driven professionals who take a fresh look at your business and your objectives and determine what actions can be taken to maximum the valuation of your business in an engineered exit transaction.

Business owners who are looking to the future often have no idea how to plan for an eventual exit while continuing to grow. Our proven Growth and Exit Planning (GEXP™) process gives you clarity so you can sell on your timeframe to the right buyer for the price you want.

GEXP Collaborative

Co-Founder

I joined Brandon Wood, the Founder of Solidity after the sale so I could learn everything possible about money and investing. I helped build out Solidity's Wealth Management practice for business owners and entrepreneurs.

There is a deep need for wealth advisors to understand how the value of a company fits into a business owners future strategies.

I learned a lot from selling our family business. One of the most important things I learned was how little we actually knew about what our company was worth, how much money we would take home and how our personal finances impacted all of our exit options and decisions.

Below are some of the things I worked on while helping build out Growth & Exit Planning Wealth Practice.

- Company Vision & Strategy): Develop, manage and adapt our short- and long-term visions and strategic plans with my business partner. Work with clients, vendors, and strategic partners to continually enhance our personal financial management service offering.
- Business Development): Work with all the business professionals in our network (Attorneys, Accountants, Insurance Professionals, Bankers, etc.) in order to bring as many resources to our clients as necessary.  Work with my partner to continually grow our service offering using technology and modern day investing philosophies.
- Sales & Marketing): Manage and oversee all sales and marketing efforts.  From client meetings to website management and digital campaigns.  My goal is to make sure our brand is consistent and one that is unique to our clients and one they can relate to.
- Operations & Technology): Work to streamline and improve internal operations using the best in class technology.  Constantly striving to reduce risk, increase compliance, and bring our clients information to them in real time.

Solidity Financial

Vice President

After selling the family business, Imaging Path, to Loffler Companies I stayed onboard for a brief stint to make sure all of the employees and operations were transitioned smoothly.

Loffler Companies

Helped with Integration After Sale Of Our Business

- Company Vision & Strategy): Collaborate with the CEO and Executive team to define the company’s strategy, direction, and mission.
- Leadership - Management): Hire, develop, coach, train, and retain a highly qualified staff. Lead by example through appropriate participation and involvement in all facets of the business. Plan and provide continuity and succession for all critical positions.
- Sales): Guide the sales dept. & clients throughout the sales cycle. Oversee the pricing & packaging for the client’s solution. Develop training programs and a new sales compensation plan that aligns with the business goals.
- Business Development): Develop short- and long-term visions and strategic plans. Work with clients, vendors, and employees to determine what are the desired offerings. Lead the implementation of the offerings and manage the revenue, COGS, and expense in line with the company’s budget and forecast.
- Operations): Manage and prioritize company projects in order of importance by impact on service profitability and expenses in order to hit the desired bottom line. Continuous implementation of the ERP to maximize automation.
- Marketing): Oversee Company’s marketing strategy and Marketing Coordinator; website, sales handouts, proposals, social media vehicles, sales promotions, trade-shows, Wild partnership, webinars, press releases, and any other community relations.
- Budgeting): Attend Bank meetings. Manage & monitor budgetary performance, review and approve capital expenditures, and ensure budget compliance; create effective partnerships and negotiate advantageous agreements with external service providers and hardware and software vendors.

Imaging Path

Executive Vice President

- Responsible for three technology service divisions at Imaging Path; Managed IT Services, Government IT Sales, & Document Management.
- Responsible for the budget, P & L, recruiting, hiring, retaining, and managing all employees that range from sales to engineers.
- Responsible for pricing and packaging for all three divisions.
- Research, vet, and develop product - vendor relations for all three divisions.
- Manage all operations and Service Level Agreements for each offering.
- Design all go to market strategies and ideas and worked with marketing on materials such as brochures, proposals, handouts, presentations, ROI calculations, etc.
- Managed the sales process start to finish and delegate tasks to the correct resource throughout the process.
- Train the sales force on service offerings, products, and cases studies.
- Develop client contracts for the service and product offerings by working with company Law Firm.

VP of Professional Services

- Present on sales calls in order to identify opportunities within client base as well as new clients.
- Analyze P & L of current go to market strategy
- Developed future budget and strategy to meet division target revenue and expense goals
- Help develop new financial structure within current accounting system to correctly recognize products, services, and costs associated with division
- Increase revenue in division from $250,000 to $451,000
- Research and analyze current software portfolio.
- Developed, presented, and executed migration of current accounts to new platform
- Developed processes and procedures for sales cycle and client on-boarding
- Developed Imaging Path Scope of Work and Service Level Agreement for our software clients
- Recruited and managed engineers, project manager, and sales reps
- Developed training and education roadmaps for division resources
- Developed and executed marketing initiatives such as email blasts, webinars, and demonstrations specific to industries and target markets.

Director of Technology Sales & Operations

- Business Development in a set territory by cold-call via phone, email, LinkedIn, networking meetings, trade-shows, webinars, etc.
- Utilize company CRM to track all sales activities throughout the sales cycle.
- Used CRM database to strategize sales marketing plan for new and current customers
- Dialed 400 calls per month to average 20 appointments per month with 50% new client appointments
- Preform net new sales presentations and lead appointments by understanding customers' diverse but specific business needs
- Created proposals by showing an ROI by applying service and product knowledge to meet the client’s needs
- Preform quarterly business reviews with current clients
- Prepare and deliver software and hardware presentations/demonstrations articulately and confidently to the client.
- Sale rep of the month 3 times and a 2 times Presidents club winner
- Increased new customer revenue by $1.4 million in current territory
- Increased software solutions in overall company profile by 5%
- Handle client hardware or software service issues and escalate to correct technician

Sales Executive

- Specialist in incoming and outbound packages.
- Assisted in inventroy control.
- Used our inventory management system

Liturgical Press

Inventory / Shipping Specialist

Business to Business sales:

- Seak out opportunities for placement of the current water filtration system.
- Replace Culligan water bottle systems
- Telemarketing sales
- Door to door sales
- Follow sales throughout entire process and into implementation