Entrepreneur Sean Biganski was just 21 years old when he and his family — wife, Gissela, and in-laws, Steve McIntosh and Christel Reinoso —  launched the software platform that started it all.

A self-taught programmer, Sean came up with the idea for BeQuick while working in a software support role for a wireline company in South Florida. After building a platform to streamline billing services for the provider, he realized there was a gap in the market: hundreds of small telecom companies across the US, just like this one, could benefit from a software solution that improved the efficiency of their day-to-day operations.

Within a couple of years, Sean and his partners had launched BeQuick, a fully hosted platform originally designed for wireline customers that eventually shifted to serve mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The out-of-the-box solution features easy configuration, minimal maintenance, and a range of functions including billing and payments, inventory and shipping, a subscriber portal, and more.

Now, two decades into operations, what started out as a grassroots family business serving a handful of companies has expanded into a successful niche software business with a growing team that supports dozens of MVNOs and their millions of subscribers across the US.

With the company stable and their long-term security in mind, Sean and Steve made the decision in late 2022 to sell the business to Banyan — a move that has already resulted in a 50% increase in customer accounts in less than a year.

For Sean, who stayed on as CEO, the change in ownership has been a growth opportunity not just for the business, but also for his career. We sat down to chat with the founder about his experience through the acquisition process and what other owners can expect if they’re thinking about selling.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

We had considered selling the company at a few different points in our history. Probably once a month, on average, we’d get an unsolicited email from a prospective buyer. We got all the way through to due diligence at least twice in the past, but those processes felt more like a bait-and-switch as we got closer to what would have been a closing. That made us skeptical about anybody that would come knocking on the door.

After a little bit of persistence from Banyan and a short pitch on being an honest player with a buy-and-hold philosophy, we decided to have a conversation. At that point, we weren’t shopping at all, but we had just passed our two-decade mark. We had been flat for a couple of years. Nothing was changing too much in the market, so we decided to go down the path. The initial offer was good, and we felt confident that Banyan would protect the long-term interests of our business, team and customers. That was enough for us to say, “Let’s give it a shot.”

First off, it was really a gut feel for Jeff Davie, our primary contact from Banyan — that he was being truthful and wasn’t just telling us what we wanted to hear. The more we talked to him, we established trust. Not just short-term trust that we weren’t wasting our time, but also trust that this new buyer would not come in and dismantle what we had built, or let our customers down, or break our employee trust.

Second, it was the concept that Banyan is buy-and-hold. We’ve got a couple dozen companies depending on our existence. Within those companies, thousands of employees depend on things running properly. And they can’t run properly if someone comes in and breaks the platform. So, while we don’t have thousands of employees, we affect thousands and we’d have a big negative impact if something went wrong.

And then besides that, of course, it’s the personal financial equation. Our owners have families and mortgages, and we need to have a reliable income. Because Banyan came in with an offer that was generous enough to get our attention and then we largely stuck to that number throughout the process, we continued through to the sale.

We closed right before the end of the year, in December 2022. There was a very fast budgeting and projection process that we went through to establish goals for the next year. That was really eye-opening, and it set us on track for significant growth over 2023.

We also moved some things over. It was a relief to merge in Banyan’s healthcare, legal, payroll, and other administrative functions. And we established a weekly call with our operating partner. It took some time to learn what the roles and boundaries are. At first I didn’t know — am I still the boss? Is he the boss? Is the board the boss? I realized, over time, I’m basically still in charge, but now have the support of a broader team.

We knew that due diligence would be a lot of work for us and I think it could have been much easier if, at the time, we had an internal database and CRM of our own. Ironically, we build CRM functionality for our MVNO customers but did not have an easy way to gather our own customer contract and pricing data from a central place. Since acquisition, we took the opportunity to gather all of that information and keep it well maintained in a simple database going forward.

The team was nervous when they learned about the sale, as you would expect. Some of them have been working with us for over a decade. And they’ve only ever known BeQuick as a family-owned company. But nobody ran for the door. 

As for the customers, it was equally a shock to them. We have some customers that have been with us for 16 years. Just last week, I saw several of them in person and I was asked about a dozen times how the acquisition was going. They expect it to be bad, like a private equity firm picking us apart for dollars. But that hasn’t been the case and Banyan has come through on their promises and has had a light touch. If I didn’t tell the customers and employees, I don’t think anybody would know.

Right after we closed with Banyan, I took the CEO title. Over this past year, we’ve taken on more accounts than we have in the past three or four years combined. We have about 30 customers total, and 10 of those we took on since acquisition.

Working under Banyan, I’m learning a lot. I feel there’s a lot of work I can do. And, as long as it’s challenging and changing in some way, I’ll be here.

I feel like I’m in charge of shaping my role. I’ve largely been acting like the salesperson and the business development person, but there’s more opportunity in the business going into 2024 where I can hand off some of those business development conversations. We’re engaging an outside sales partner. And we’ve added several new employees and contractors this past year.

One thing I’m learning is the discipline of a formal budgeting and projection process. That was never a regular practice for us. As long as things were working out on a month-to-month basis, we never looked out a year from now and tried to make predictions or work towards a specific goal.

Now we’re talking about things like: What hires are we planning for 2024? How much are we going to spend on them? If we build something new, where’s the ROI? And also setting growth goals. Previously, we would take on whatever new business came our way, but we didn’t work backwards. We didn’t set a number and then figure out how to get there in the most efficient way. That’s something I’m learning, is just shifting my focus from customer-facing and operational to being more financially goal oriented.

Trust your instincts when you’re going through the due diligence process. With any of the other companies that we considered over the years, there started to be little smells that something was off. Pay attention to those hints that they’re dropping. When they seem like they’re altering the deal or not being totally forthcoming, and when you feel like you might be wasting your time, stop and back away. And just wait for somebody like Banyan to come knocking, somebody that you connect with from the beginning.

I guess I would also say, don’t run for the doors right after the deal closes. Stay on for a bit and see it through. Maybe you’ll find there’s something you can learn from the new owners.