Earlier this year, the perennially profitable Safe Software announced a strategic growth investment from JMI Equity, a firm providing software companies with capital and industry expertise to build businesses of enduring value.
Headquartered in Surrey, Safe provides solutions that empower people and enterprises to unlock the full potential of their information, especially geo-spatial data. The BC firm’s flagship product is the Feature Manipulation Engine, or FME. With FME’s tools, users can process and convert data, creating workflows that extend the reach of data integration.
Brian Hersman, General Partner at JMI, has stated that Safe offers a “groundbreaking and unique solution for enterprise data needs and represents a true industry success story.”
JMI Equity, which has been involved with Safe for more than 10 years, bought out Dale Lutz through that transaction, reports Nelson Bennet for Business in Vancouver.
Lutz served as co-CEO alongside Don Murray since Safe was founded in the early 90’s. Murray, an Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, is now majority owner and, for the first time in Safe’s history, sole chief executive of the company.
The company has grown steadily over the years, now approaching 300 employees. And it’s always been a financial success.
“Our annual recurring revenue is growing by 30 per cent,” Murray informed BIV. “We’re selling into bigger and bigger organizations all the time.”
Safe Software’s technology is leveraged by more than 200,000 users across over 25,000 organizations worldwide for an array of purposes including wildfire damage mitigation.
Moving forward, Murray maintains his focus on growth.
“Over this year … the hiring plan is 80 more people,” he told Bennett. Current openings include software engineering, tech support, and product marketing roles.
The company offers a “generous” profit share policy, according to Murray, who says 20% of the firm’s profits are distributed to employees.
Why the emphasis on hiring and retention? Consider it a lesson learned.
Despite Safe’s longstanding stability, the CEO believes that hiring more key players earlier on could have better positioned his company for growth.
“One lesson I learned is we should have hired other people sooner,” Murray said to BIV. “Find the best people you can, and then just trust them and support them.”
Better late than never.
