The journey to ProcessMaker’s $45 million investment by Aldrich Capital Partners in February, 2021, wasn’t necessarily smooth sailing, according to the company’s Co-Founder and CEO Brian Reale.
Reale is the first guest on Season Three of Exit Stories, hosted by Jurassic Capital’s Kevin Mosley. Reale had much to share from behind the scenes of the open-source BPM (business process management) and workflow software startup.
This episode tracks the entire ProcessMaker story from its inception in South America to its move to Durham to the Aldrich investment. [Editor’s Note: we previously featured Reale and ProcessMaker in October, 2018, and he was also a subject of the Download Q&A in August, 2021.]
Here are some key takeaways from the episode:
- Building a startup requires grit. For ProcessMaker, this meant no one took a salary for the first three years. While the team knew nothing about acquiring funding, Reale said investors repeatedly told them they would never be fundable. But they were stubborn and kept doing what they were doing, Reale said. (12:49)
- In around 2017, ProcessMaker realized they would need to do a few things to have a successful exit: establish a strong U.S. presence with executives living here, and rebuild their technology. If the $45 million investment/acquisition is any indicator, this pathway worked. (15:51)
- Being bootstrapped makes it much easier for a startup going into a major transaction, Reale said. This is because a company’s board can more efficiently make decisions without too much outside influence from early investors. (23:54)
Listen below for this week’s full episode, then subscribe so you’ll be alerted to each new show.
