Today we’d like to introduce you to Allan Danto.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Allan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started out at 23 distributing envelopes, business forms and printing from my apartment. The company was called Classic Business Forms and Envelopes and was a one stop shop for small to mid size Houston companies. The company moved from the apartment into a warehouse and added several sales representatives to sell our products.
After a few years distributing products, I had the opportunity to acquire one of our printing manufacturers called Stewart and Sullivan from the Stewart brothers who wanted to retire. We acquired the company and moved them into our location. This worked out very well and I developed a strategy of acquiring other printing-related companies and merging them into our operations. Most of the companies were run by older owners looking to retire or get out of the day to day hassles of running a business. Some stayed on as employees and others retired. It was a real win/win for my company and the sellers. We increased our size, brought on new employees and increased profitability by consolidating the selling company into our operations. The sellers got to cash out and retire or take a job with my company and remove themselves from the burdens and responsibility of running a business.
In addition to acquiring these companies, we also began to sell our products nationally through catalogs to niche markets. These markets included Dry Cleaners, Beverage Distributors, Travel Agencies and other industries who all needed very similar printed products. The business grew very rapidly and was recognized by INC Magazine as the 145th fastest growing companies in the US, one of the fastest growing companies in Houston and one of the largest privately held printing companies in the Southwest.
We continued growing and expanding through the 1990’s then a very interesting thing happened. I was at a national beverage trade show in Las Vegas with one of our sales reps and a company was displaying a new “electronic” system that would replace the business forms and printed products we were selling to the beverage industry. Between this and all the new technologies that were coming out, I thought it was the right time to sell the company. I was able to sell the company to a Private Equity backed company called Global Docugraphix and decided to go back to school and get my MBA at Rice University.
This turned out to be the best decision of my life. The Business Forms and Printing industry was completely disrupted by the new technologies that came out and all of the products we sold to thousands of companies nationwide became virtually obsolete within a few years of selling the company. Obtaining my MBA at Rice was a transformative experience. Not only did I learn in the classroom and from world-class faculty, but my classmates were the smartest and most inspiring people I have ever been around. One of them had an idea for a new business venture. We were able to use our class time to develop the idea and I used some of the proceeds from the sale of my company to finance the venture.
After Rice, my life took off in a way I never could have imagined. One was running the company we started which grew and was eventually acquired and the other was coming back to the classroom to teach and help expand the entrepreneurship program at Rice. The professor whose class we developed our business plan in invited me to come back and present to the class. Since I had both the practical experience of starting and growing multiple companies and the MBA academic experience, I was able to connect the practical and academic sides and share these experiences with the students. As the entrepreneurship program expanded, I started to teach additional classes and eventually came on as a full-time faculty member in the business school.
I now teach classes in New Enterprises and Enterprise Acquisition in the full time, evening and weekend program. One is the same class that we started our business in as a student. Due to the entrepreneurial nature that is embedded at Rice and the Jones School of Business, I have been able to be an entrepreneur within the University. I have helped develop initiatives such as the Rice Entrepreneurs Organization which connects alumni entrepreneurs to each other in advisory boards and educational & networking events, work with Military Veteran students to launch the Veteran Business Battle which has raised over $3 million for Military Veteran run companies, start the Napier Launch Challenge which provides startup capital to student companies and help with a number of initiatives that now make the Jones School of Business one of the leading entrepreneurship programs in the world.
Outside of Rice, I recently merged my personal consulting practice into an advisory firm called Exit Advisors that helps business owners develop exit or acquisition growth strategies and also provides certified business valuations. Through Exit Advisors, I can help educate and advise entrepreneurs on both acquisition and exit strategies like I went through.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The entrepreneurial path is never a smooth and even path. My definition of entrepreneurship is that you come home one day and tell your spouse we are going to make a million and come home the next week and say you are going to lose a million. If you can’t get used to that type of tumultuousness, then you aren’t cut out to be an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are driven by a vision and have to connect the dots to fulfill that vision while many are doubting them or quite often think they are crazy. There is never a clear path and obstacles, challenges and opportunities pop up all the time. When I started in my apartment, I never could have dreamed that one day I would employ so many people and sell products across the country. I certainly never would have imagined that I would be teaching hundreds of students each year and advising business owners on the biggest decisions of their lives.
When I look back at the challenges and obstacles that it took to overcome that and get to this point in my life, I sometimes wonder if would do it all over again had I known what the path was going to be like. Had I not surrounded myself with other entrepreneurs through the Houston Entrepreneurs Organization or been in such a positive entrepreneurial environment like Rice, I’m not sure I could have gotten through some of the struggles. Until you have taken on the responsibility and challenges of growing a company, hiring employees, managing cash flow, answering a lawsuit, having employees leave to start their own business and myriad of other challenges that can never be written into a business plan you simply can’t understand the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
My biggest advice to entrepreneurs is to surround yourself with not only other entrepreneurs at your level but make sure to have good advisors and mentors who have been down the entrepreneurial path. Never underestimate the power of wisdom and experience. What maybe 5 minutes of advice to you can be based on years of experience and painful lessons. You simply don’t know what you don’t know and can avoid a lot of pain and hard lessons by seeking the wisdom and experience of others.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Exit Advisors – what should we know?
Exit Advisors specializes in preparing business owners to exit their companies and maximize the value of their business. Hopefully, we are known for providing practical, impactful, insightful advice that helps get business owners across the finish line and exit their companies.
We have helped educate and advise dozens of business owners through the process of exiting their companies. From understanding what drives business value and the marketability of their companies to the excruciating details of surviving due diligence. Once our clients understand the process and requirements, we can help them make the necessary changes to get through all the challenges of exiting a company. It is never easy but we have established a system and framework to help business owners understand and complete the process required to exit a company.
Exiting a business and monetizing years of struggles and hard work is most often the biggest accomplishment from a financial and satisfaction standpoint that most business owners ever achieve. When someone gives you their trust and the responsibility to guide them through this process, it is not something to take lightly but there is no greater satisfaction than completing a successful transaction.
Our experience is what sets us apart. My partners and I all have years of experience in accounting, financial valuation, completing transactions and running businesses. We’ve been there and done it.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
You couldn’t get to this point in a career like mine without a lot of support. As an entrepreneur with a lot of uncertainty and trying new things, there have to be people in your life who keep things organized and in control. My first partner and roommate when starting my printing company Joe Baden was a CPA and always kept our books and records in order. Now that I understand the complexity and challenges of due diligence, we never could have gotten through the rapid growth that we accomplished and the acquisition process with a Private Equity group unless he kept our house in order so well. Along the way, another incredibly organized manager who helped us grow and maintain the business was Maggie Bosek who is still with me today almost 30 years later.
I always say behind many a successful entrepreneur is a spouse with a steady job. My wife Donna worked at Deloitte when I started my first company and enabled the company to get off the ground without me taking a big salary. She has always held down the home front while I’ve ventured into new areas.
As I mentioned before, mentors with experience are critical to success in business and life. I have been very fortunate to have them at every point in my career. Perhaps the most important in my life have been Al Napier and Ed Williams the two founders of the entrepreneurship program at Rice. Not only did I learn lifelong lessons in their classroom as a student, but they taught me everything I know about teaching and believed in me enough to pass the teaching responsibility of their classes on to me. As amazing a job as they did in starting and growing the program at the Jones School, I have been able to be a part of the incredible growth of entrepreneurship at Rice from the business school to a University-wide initiative led by Dr. Yael Hochberg who set the vision and let everyone do their part.
Certainly, the biggest influence of my entrepreneurial career has been the Houston Entrepreneurs Organization and the Rice Entrepreneurs Organization. Through both of these organizations, I was able to be a part of a small advisory group of 8 – 10 fellow entrepreneurs who met on a monthly basis to discuss the challenges and opportunities of running a business. When I look back at the biggest decisions in my career, they were made with them as a sounding board. Sometimes, it was simply a reconfirmation of what I knew but other times it was the radical shift of a viewpoint or calling attention to a blind spot that I was missing.
Contact Info:
- Address: Exit Advisors
1703 W 12th St, Houston, TX 77008 - Website: www.exitadvisors.com
- Phone: (832) 680-0014
- Email: al@exitadvisors.com
Image Credit:
Al Danto and wife Donna, Al Napier
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