It’s been more than 12 months since Buffalo-based startup Patient Pattern was acquired by an Ontario company.
Co-founder Steve Buslovich has seen the ins and outs of the merger transition and the differences between running his own business and working for a large company.
It’s a journey that’s packed full of lessons for other entrepreneurs, many of whom aspire to earn similar successful exits.
“Without trust, you don’t have anything in any business,” Buslovich said. “You just have to be able to trust the people you’re working with. I felt that I could and so far it’s worked out really well.”
His company’s acquisition was announced last spring.
Previously CEO of Patient Pattern, Buslovich is now vice president of senior care - value based care at PointClickCare, a Mississauga, Ontario-based health information technology platform.
Patient Pattern has created an electronic health record and integrated care management platform that allows practice providers who are transitioning to value-based care models a way to manage both value-based care and traditional fee-for-service functions on one platform.
We asked Buslovich about the acquisition decision, the transition and his advice for other founders seeking exits.
What do Patient Pattern’s operations look like now that it has merged with PointClickCare?
Patient Pattern’s team was always predominantly remote. The startup has kept its Buffalo office and retained all but one of its team of roughly 23.
The difference is, as part of a larger company umbrella, there are now large teams working on some things that previously one Patient Pattern employee was doing.
The startup, as a part of PointClickCare, has also retained 100% of its customers and has seen its customers grow 15-20% through increased members’ enrollments.
“As they grow, we grow, and I think that’s a win-win,” Buslovich said.
What was the transition like?
PointClickCare has a “fairly well-oiled process for integrating new teams,” from people helping with setup to human resources to training and onboarding.
The company also paired Patient Pattern workers up with existing employees to help them navigate their new employer and its company culture.
The main challenge was moving from Google and Slack to Microsoft, Buslovich said.
What are your biggest lessons learned from the experience?
Plan as much as possible during the diligence process, so when the acquisition closes, you hit the ground running.
“It’s challenging because the acquisition is incredibly time-consuming and everyone’s working 20 hours a day and running the business and trying to plan ahead,” he said. “If we knew what we know today a year ago, we would have definitely moved faster, done things a little bit differently for sure.”
Understanding the culture of a potential acquirer and whether it’s a good fit for your team is also crucial. There can be a huge difference between a business that’s still family run, like PointClickCare, and a public company, for example.
During the diligence process, Buslovich spoke with as many people as he could from different levels of the organization to understand the company and look for any inconsistencies. In his case, he didn’t find any.
“If you can’t trust the people you’re in diligence with, then you probably shouldn’t move forward with the wedding,” he said.
What advice do you have for local founders seeking successful exits?
Sometimes there’s a misconception in the startup world that companies need to raise a lot of money to get acquired.
But raising won’t help if a startup doesn’t have the right product market fit, the customers aren’t “sticky” and a business overleverages itself.
“I would always encourage everybody to focus on the customer and if you’re obsessed with having your customer succeed and they do, you’re going to succeed as a company,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to be successful if you’re chasing an acquisition.”
