Dan Irish, founder and managing partner of Irish Benedict, a boutique M&A advisory firm, has built his practice by providing expert guidance for startups and growth-stage companies. With a focus on specialized software development firms, Irish Benedict helps clients navigate complex financial transitions, from securing funding to preparing for acquisitions. Central to their success is their partnership with indinero, which has revolutionized their approach to financial management and M&A preparation.
Company: Irish Benedict
Industry: Investment Banking and Financial Services
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Services: Mergers and acquisitions advisory, fractional CFO services, financing, valuation, and restructuring
Key Contact: Dan Irish, Founder and Managing Partner
The Main Challenge
As Irish Benedict grew, Dan recognized a critical need among his clients: robust financial preparedness.
“Besides being in the right vertical at the right time, this is the next most important leg of the business foundation. No one can sell a company without solid financial reporting,” Dan explains.
Many startups struggled with messy processes, lack of expertise, and insufficient bandwidth to manage complex financial needs. These issues often became barriers to growth, hindering companies from clearly understanding their financial state and profitability. Dan needed a solution to address these challenges efficiently and scale with his growing client base.
The List of Challenges Ahead
- Complex Financial Management: Irish Benedict is a firm that handles mergers, acquisitions, and financing for VC-funded entities. As such, it needed robust financial management solutions for its clients.
- Diverse Client Base: Irish Benedict’s clients range from video game developers to B2B blockchain technology companies, so it required a flexible financial solution that could be adapted to various industries.
- Time-Sensitive Deals: Time is critical in M&A and financing. Delays due to incomplete or inaccurate financial information could potentially kill deals.
- Scaling Operations: Irish Benedict aimed to grow their client base and deal volume but needed efficient processes to manage this growth.
- LLC to C Corp Conversions: Many clients required assistance with converting from LLC to C Corp, involving legal, accounting, and tax components.
The Indinero Solution
Dan turned to indinero to provide his clients with comprehensive accounting and tax services. He was impressed by indinero’s ability to make clients “essentially audit ready or diligence ready” within 30 days. The established procedures for month-end and year-end close added significant efficiency, eliminating the need to play catch-up at year-end.
One of indinero’s standout features was its proficiency in handling LLC to C-Corp conversions, a common next step among Dan’s clients seeking financing or preparing for acquisition. “Indinero has helped manage this process dozens of times for me and my clients,” Dan notes. “The conversion was clean, efficient, and well documented.”
Indinero’s cloud-based platform also proved invaluable, eliminating version control issues and allowing seamless collaboration between the companies’ internal finance teams and the indinero accounting team. Dan appreciates the integration capabilities with various systems like Carta, Gusto, and ADP, ensuring nothing is missed in the financial management process.
Key aspects of the solution included:
- GAAP-Compliant Financial Reporting: indinero ensured all financial reports were GAAP-compliant and diligence-ready.
- Real-Time Financial Tracking: Implemented systems for real-time financial performance tracking, allowing for quick adjustments and informed decision-making.
- Efficient Diligence Preparation: Established monthly processes to catch errors early and maintain diligence-ready financials at all times.
- Integrated Systems: Seamlessly integrated various financial tools (Carta, Gusto, ADP, Earth Class Mail) into indinero’s system for comprehensive financial oversight.
- LLC to C Corp Conversion Support: Leveraged indinero’s experience to streamline the conversion process, ensuring equity distribution and balance sheet conversion accuracy.
- Tax Compliance: Maintained vigilant oversight of tax obligations across multiple jurisdictions, which is particularly crucial for remote-work companies.
Results and Impact
The partnership with indinero has been transformative for Irish Benedict.
Dan reports:
We have grown from a 1-2 deal a year firm to multiple deals per year, as well as grown our book from 7 clients to 19. That’s some serious growth.
He attributes this success largely to the efficiency and speed that indinero brings to the financial management process.
The comprehensive nature of indinero’s services has allowed Dan to focus more on strategic advisory work. “More of my time can be spent engaging with potential acquirers and less time preparing diligence items or fixing mistakes from overworked entrepreneurs,” he explains.
Moreover, the partnership has given Dan peace of mind, knowing that critical compliance issues won’t be overlooked. This confidence has been crucial in streamlining deals and avoiding potential roadblocks during the M&A process, ensuring no hiccups can prevent a deal from going awry.
The main benefits that indinero provided Irish Benedict include:
- Increased Deal Volume: Irish Benedict grew from completing 1-2 deals per year to multiple deals, sometimes 1-2 per quarter.
- Client Base Growth: The number of clients increased from 7 to 19, representing substantial growth.
- Revenue Boost: Irish Benedict approximately doubled its revenue compared to the period before insisting that clients use indinero.
- Improved Efficiency: The standardized processes and procedures allowed Irish Benedict to scale their operations effectively.
- Faster Deal Closures: With diligence-ready financials always available, deals could be closed more quickly, reducing the risk of deals falling through due to delays.
- Reduced Legal Costs: Particularly in LLC to C Corp conversions, the streamlined process and ready availability of necessary forms and worksheets reduced the need for extensive legal work.
- Enhanced Client Preparedness: Clients were better prepared for audits, acquisitions, or financing rounds, with clean, accurate financials always at hand.
One of the ways that indinero has helped my firm with both impact and results is it has allowed us to take on more clients and complete more deals. We’ve probably doubled our revenue when compared to the time prior to which we were insisting on clients use indinero.
Conclusion
For Dan Irish and Irish Benedict, indinero has become more than just a service provider – it’s a trusted partner in their growth journey. By providing robust financial management, streamlined processes, and expert guidance, indinero has enabled Irish Benedict to scale its operations and better serve its clients. As Dan looks to the future, he sees indinero playing a crucial role in helping more of his clients achieve successful and profitable exits.
