The husband-and-wife team that grew Epicor Software Corp. into a nearly $1 billion business-software dynamo hopes to follow a similar trajectory with a new venture.
It’s been a busy six months for George and Lauri Klaus, who acquired two businesses, developed a product road map and sales strategy, and opened a handful of offices in their bid to build KeyedIn Solutions into a global cloud-services player.
Their goals are lofty: $200 million in annual sales in three years with a longer eye on a $1 billion valuation and a public offering. The power couple has done it before and hopes to do it again.
“We have a lot of small tech companies looking for a sales-and-marketing engine,” KeyedIn Chief Executive Lauri Klaus said. “That’s what we’re really good at building.”
She served as vice president of worldwide sales and services at Epicor, leading some 1,500 employees and a $200 million business line.
George Klaus was chief executive there for 16 years, overseeing 14 acquisitions in the last decade that helped grow Epicor from a $30 million business into one of Orange County’s largest software companies, with annual sales eclipsing $450 million. It was acquired a year ago for $976 million by London-based private equity firm Apax Partners and combined with Northern California-based Activant Solutions Inc. in a pair of deals valued at $2 billion.
Apax decided to go with Bay Area-based executive Pervez Qureshi over George Klaus to lead the company and shifted its headquarters from Irvine to Livermore in Alameda County.
George Klaus retained his role as Epicor chairman for a few months after the deal and now serves as chairman of KeyedIn. Lauri Klaus resigned her Epicor post and quickly discovered home life in OC didn’t suit her.
“After about 60 days, I was going stir crazy,” she said. “I felt like it was time to move on and start a new venture.”
Datacom
The couple used cash from the Epicor deal to take a 70% stake in Minneapolis-based Datacom International for $2 million in December. They put the company under the KeyedIn banner and kept the headquarters in Minneapolis, Lauri Klaus’ hometown.
Datacom was founded in 1970 and targets the manufacturing sector with its cloud-based enterprise software, which it bills as integrating every facet of an operation, including development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.
KeyedIn then acquired Atlantic Global PLC, a Yorkshire, U.K.-based project management and professional service automation software maker, for $8 million in February. That product line, rebranded as KeyedInProjects, will be available in the U.S. in June.
The company is eyeing two more targets that should close in two to five weeks, according to Lauri Klaus.
KeyedIn started with four employees and now has more than 70. It will add more than 30 new hires in the coming months as it opens new offices.
KeyedIn already has offices in Parsippany, N.J.; Cleveland; Atlanta; the U.K.; and Melbourne, Australia, where it houses a development team.
Last week it opened its first Orange County office in Newport Beach. Immediate expansion plans target New Zealand, Sweden, England, Colombia and South Africa as its suite of offerings go to market.
The company will employ a mix of direct sales and a global network of resellers to expand the product footprint. It will initially target sign manufacturers and digital printing companies before moving into other markets.
Opportunity
KeyedIn sees an opportunity to improve software from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. for attorneys, information-technology consultants and other professionals, Lauri Klaus said.
“We don’t believe they have a strong [professional-services automation] solution,” she said.
KeyedIn’s local competitors include Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. and Sage North America in Irvine. Other rivals include Intuit Inc. in Mountain View and big players such as Microsoft, Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, which go after large and small businesses.
The company projects sales of $20 million for its first fiscal full year, which began in April.
