As Winston-Salem's EMS Management & Consultants and Raleigh-based VAIRKKO unite under a deal announced last week, the CEOs of both companies say the deal is all about growth.
Brian Polackoff, co-founder of VAIRKKO, indicated that he chose the Triad-based EMS as its acquirer despite other suitors offering more money. Financial terms were not released in the deal that adds VAIRKKO's workforce and operations management business to EMS' fold.
Brian Polackoff, co-founder of VAIRKKO, has a long history in the EMS industry – having even worked in the back of an ambulance. VAIRKKO was founded out of a glaring gap in 2009, he said. While there were a lot of vendors catering to the operational side, “The people side of EMS was almost all but forgotten,” he said.
So VAIRKKO started small. The early days were full of “a lot of sweat, a lot of tears, a lot of hours.”
“But we ultimately built a platform that is used not only in the U.S. but also abroad,” he said.
Today, the company has 12 employees, mostly in Raleigh.
When the business began, its services were rolled into a lot of requests for proposals that the EMSMC team, which worked in billing, was also pursuing. The companies developed an advantageous relationship, working together to fill different needs for some of the same clients.
Exploring options
Last year, Vairkko began working with a mergers and acquisitions firm to explore inorganic ways to grow.
Polackoff told the firm to add EMSMC to the list. VAIRKKO had multiple suiters, Polackoff said, including some that might “have offered more, but just weren’t the fit that we were looking for.” But EMSMC emerged as the winner, promising not just to grow the firm, but to keep all of its employees in place.
Polackoff is staying on board, and plans to work with the EMSMC team to grow. A larger team – and wallet – will allow the team to scale and grow “at a much quicker, much more efficient rate,” he said.
Greg Carnes, CEO of EMSMC, said the deal is all about growth.
“We’re planning to invest heavily in VAIRKKO,” Carnes said. His firm, which has more than 200 employees, identified HR – “the people side” as a critical need for its clients.
“It’s staffing, training, certifying and performance managing a scarce resource in this industry, which is the paramedics and EMTs,” he said, noting VAIRKKO fills that need. Carnes said more local jobs are likely to stem from the combination.
The firm is “looking for one strategic position … and more to come,” Carnes said.
VAIRKKO’s platform provides scheduling, training, certification and performance management tools for EMS agencies, and with EMSMC’s wallet, the company will be able to “further accelerate its innovation track record in addressing key areas of the human resource challenges facing organizations today,” the firm said when announcing the deal.
