“There’s nothing broken and so they don’t want to fix it.”
– Brian Hersman, JMI, General Partner
Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
Finding and tracking potentially profitable investments right where you live(Main Street) can be safer than Wall Street and more profitable.
For example…
There are a few industries which are famous in Vancouver, BC, Canada:
Mining and natural resources, movie productions, and software development.
Since I live here, and you live where you live, I’ll show you an example of a growing private company I’ve been following.
It’s a company that’s grown up over thirty years in the suburbs of Vancouver, and is now ready to implement massive growth.
The company is called Safe Software (no relation to its co-founder, Dale Lutz).
A recent article in IT World Canada tells their story in a nutshell:
Surrey’s Safe Software rebrands, sets aggressive revenue goals
“On its website, the Surrey, B.C.-based company states the two “experienced the challenge of data interoperability first-hand. Exchanging data and maps while working on a project for the provincial government to help with forestry projects was not easy. Since different organizations use different systems that use different data schemas, information was often lost when shared. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. Data systems just weren’t developed to handle these challenges.”
“But that didn’t mean they never would. Safe Software and the idea of what would become FME began. Safe and FME wouldn’t just help the forestry industry with spatial data – it would later become a key tool used by anyone using any kind of data.”
That was in 1993, and clearly they were on to something, for since then, the company has never reached out for a bank loan, and according to a corporate fact sheet, “has successfully weathered every financial storm from the dot-com bubble burst to the 2008 financial crisis, Covid-19, and now, the current tech downturn.”
Revenues last year totalled $70 million, Safe is on target to record revenues of $90 million in 2023, and the plan for Murray, Lutz and their employees is to reach the $250 million mark within the next five years.”
A few weeks ago, the company sold its co-founder’s share to a private investment firm focused on growth tech in Baltimore called JMI that has already backed several other Canadian Tech companies.
With Safe Software’s profitable operating history, JMI is happy to make the investment and support their annual revenue goal of $250 million.
BetaKit, Canada’s start up news reports:
US-BASED JMI EQUITY BUYS OUT SAFE SOFTWARE CO-FOUNDER IN STRATEGIC INVESTMENT
“In a statement, JMI general partner Brian Hersman—who is taking a seat on the company’s board as part of the deal—called Safe “a true industry success story,” describing its solution for enterprise data needs as “groundbreaking and unique.”
The reason why their software is groundbreaking and unique is because it allows for seamless sharing of enterprise data between different programs.
And the reason why I think it could be a “stable” tech investment is because it supports efficient sharing of data in resource sectors…
And resources are always needed as economies move out of recessions, and into growth in the business cycle.
It doesn’t matter whether the economy is up or down, or industry regulations change, Safe Software’s platform is needed on both ends of the business cycle.
This is a company to watch as they seek to meet their $250 Million revenue growth goal over the next five years…
While their new majority shareholder and co-founder, Don Murray(59) enters retirement years.
Those two indicators point towards a potential IPO in the next several years.
Which means Safe Software is just one example of safe, potentially profitable Main Street investing…
If you dig into your local business journal news, or even niche specific news website in your area, you are bound to find some interesting information…
Even a company like Safe Software to follow, or better.
