VARBusiness 500 Editor's Choice Award: MTM Technologies
How does a company go from three locations, about 100 employees and roughly $60 million in revenue to 28 sites, 700-plus staffers and $101 million--in just 24 months? What's more, how did it earn this year's VARBusiness 500 Editor's Choice Award? It's magic, of a sort.
But to everyday Muggles, more mundane terminology comes to mind: smart acquisitions and a seasoned executive team. If you're looking to grow but feeling envious because the M&A gods appear to be smiling on MTM Technologies (VARBusiness 500 No. 226), this might help get the green out of your system.
While it's true that MTM, based in Stamford, Conn., has been snapping up other VARs at a rapid-fire pace, the company's success is by no means arbitrary. MTM's management team and venture-capital partners know a thing or two about growing a business.
"The people involved in MTM's build-out have done all this before," says CEO Frank Alfano, who was with VAR AmeriData Technologies when that company was scooped up by General Electric in 1996 and absorbed into GE Capital IT Solutions.
MTM's exponential growth in 2004 was jump-started with a cash infusion led by Gerald Poch, a managing partner at Pequod Ventures. Poch built AmeriData from a start-up to a $3.5 billion operation. And Steven Stringer, MTM president and COO, hails from GE Capital as well, once serving as the powerhouse's global COO.
Will the VAR continue its upward climb? Time will tell, but MTM has lots to keep it busy meanwhile. "Our focus is integrating the businesses we've acquired and rolling new expertise across our footprint," Alfano says.
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