Opex Analytics History (Part 1): The Timeline
The unofficial start date of Opex Analytics was in early 2012. Ganesh Ramakrishna and I were stuck in traffic, in the back of a hot cab, in Manilla, Philippines. Both of us worked for IBM at the time. In that cab, Ganesh suggested that we should start a company.
In April of 2013, we officially signed the paperwork to start Opex.
The two weeks before starting the company, we had to figure out its name. That will be for another post.
The moments before starting the company, Ganesh and I argued about whether we’d be a software or consulting company. We didn’t come to a conclusion on that discussion, but decided to sign the papers and get it going anyway. And, that is for a different post too.
We bootstrapped the company right from the start and never took in any outside money. We grew it all with money from clients.
By the end of 2013 (our first year), we had hired four people and had an accountant to keep the books.
In 2017, we could qualify to for the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Private companies. Here is our growth for the last 2 years we were independent:
2017: 43 employees, $6.6M in revenue
2018: 80 employees, $14.3M in revenue
We sold to LLamasoft at the end of 2019. At that time, we had about 140 employees and the revenue was keeping pace with our growth.
We sold to LLamasoft for half cash and half equity.
At the end of 2020, Coupa purchased LLamasoft.
As a fun side note, this was my second back-to-back acquisition. In 2007, I was with LogicTools. We were sold to ILOG. About 18 months later, in January 2009, we were sold to IBM.
This series of article on the history of Opex Analytics is to provide context for advice on start-ups and running a business— I want you to have the right context.