Bootstrapping A Software Company From Minnesota: Vicki Raport Of Quantum Retail (Part 7)

Sramana: You are a self-financed company, largely owned by six founders and your employees. How do you see the shareholders getting rewarded? Are you doing dividends, or do you see yourself getting bought at some point?

Vicki Raport: At this point, our primary concern is growth. The shareholders are not sitting at the edges of their seats hoping for a payout because we are all gainfully employed. If we were to look at any funding scenario at this time, it would likely be a private equity deal to enable growth, and that may or may not have a liquidity component to it. If we did that we would consider only a minority equity position.

The liquidity event is a bit hard to determine at this time. It is difficult for businesses of this type to get to a size where going public makes sense. The numbers for that scenario to be viable keep going up and up past $100 million. A more likely scenario for us is to look at things like expansion through acquisitions or merging.

Sramana: A lot of women who aspire to be entrepreneurs have a perception that they must be able to do it all. How does your life run, and what trade-offs have you made?

Vicki Raport: You can try and have it all, and some people can. I have been very fortunate. I have a great partner. I made the choice not to have children. That allowed Quantum to be my baby. It gets all my attention. I have learned a tremendous amount from the Ernst & Young Winning Women program. I was a participant in their program in 2009. Every year, they select 10 women run businesses that are showing high growth and high potential and put them on a growth track like they would a high growth startup. They try to bring those companies into the fold to get them on track for entrepreneur of the year.

The biggest problems that women face are lack of access to networks and lack of access to capital. The traditional network is not as inclusive to women as people think it is. How many women are on the boards of the top 100 companies? Women really need to push networking. That is something that I did not do enough of to prepare me to lead a company. Women entrepreneurs really need to concentrate on building a network of people. That is one of the most important things in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Sramana: I have heard that before as well. I personally have not experienced a lack of access to capital.

Vicki Raport: It has not been a problem for me, either. In general, that is what the E&Y folks will tell you. They have a lot of studies about this. Going back to your original question, I will say that it is very hard to pull off that balance.

Sramana: You have made a tradeoff. I have made that tradeoff as well. It is not one that all women are willing to make.

Vicki Raport: I did not decide to not have children so that I could have a company. I decided not to have children because I did not want to have children. I don’t consider that a tradeoff.

Sramana: It does free up time and makes it easier to be successful.

Vicki Raport: It does. The biggest tradeoff that I have made is my own health. When time gets tight, do you take the time off that you need? Do you really take a vacation? Do you get exerceise? That has been my tradeoff. I am not as healthy as I would like to be.

Sramana: We are out of time, but I do want to say that I really enjoyed talking to you. Best of luck with your endeavors.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping A Software Company From Minnesota: Vicki Raport Of Quantum Retail
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