Brian Kesselman is cofounder and now CRO of Skematic, a compliance management and workflow software for financial services firms. Brian was a lawyer for major financial services companies who helped manage internal compliance in this highly regulated industry. He took a job selling compliance software and broke sales records before starting Skematic with a coworker and launching in September 2022.
Skematic grew quickly by solving an acute problem for lawyers and compliance execs just like him in his industry. The company became profitable quickly as Brian focused on outbound selling with cold calls and savvy demos to busy compliance executives. They approached $1M ARR with profitablity in just over one year and attracted attention from potential acquirers.
In June 2024, FRT, a larger legal software company, acquired Skematic for an undisclosed amount, including some cash and incentives. Brian and his cofounder still run Skematic and enjoy being part of a bigger software company owned by a private family office that is highly aligned with their culture and values.
Quote from Brian Kesselman, cofounder of Skematic
“My co-founder Charles and I had worked at a number of PE-backed software companies. And we had our own opinions about what it’s like to work at a PE-backed company.”
“The family office structure is very different from a private equity firm across the board. They’re looking typically to build profitable cash-producing assets. And so that enables our team to think long-term, which benefits not only the founders and the people that are still participating in the upside of the business.”
“That also means that the clients will benefit because you are going to do things that will benefit the clients every step of the way, one year, two years, five years, 10 years. And that was paramount to us, given that we’ve grown up in this very niche industry and our reputations to us are pretty much everything we have.”
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