Gwin Scott

Remitdata deal

I couldnt be more jazzed about the news this am about one of our portfolio companies here at EmergeMemphis. Remitdata www.remitdata.com has received a $5 million equity investment from 2 highly reputable firms in the southeast by SSM Partners www.ssmventures.com  in Memphis and Noro-Moseley www.noro-moseley.com out of Atlanta. Here is an excerpt of the deal:

MEMPHIS, TN – RemitDATA, Inc., today announced that it has received a $5 million minority equity investment from Noro-Moseley Partners and SSM Partners.  RemitDATA is a leading provider of web-based productivity solutions for the outpatient healthcare marketplace.  RemitDATA’s tools enable physicians to identify and minimize payer reimbursement problems and cut the costs of collections.  Due to the nature of its tools, RemitDATA is a leading aggregator of specialty-specific claims data exceeding $15 Billion per year in Medicare

Bently and his team have really epitomized what being an entrepreneur is all about and in the course of their 7 yrs have been very patient with their growth. Something that not everyone has the discipline and ability to see through. This is a perfect example of when opportunity and timing come together. They continue to establish themselves in this health care IT area within the revenue cycle management sector.

I cant help to remember when they were trying to figure out what to do, whether it be continued organic growth, angel, or vc money. The process really took 2 yrs to solidify, after numerous meetings and debating.  Questions/thoughts like do i really want to give up equity in the company i founded, we can do it on our own for a while longer, ill have people to report to, are they like me and will it be collegial, why do we need that much money, will they micromanage our direction---just to name a few.

But today's result couldnt be much smoother and now a new chapter is beginning for them and they are scaling up already spending as prioritized by new hires and IT/infrastructure purchases. casey(ssm) and allen (noro) are both solid partners and i look forward to seeing them over here more during their quarterly meetings.

This story is also about a Memphis firm---comprised of mainly Memphis investors---investing in a Memphis company, as well as an Atlanta firm/money coming to Memphis and recognizing the fact that there are worthwhile opportunities here to invest, as the last few yrs these investments have been made in other cities. Hopefully others will come and the bar has been raised.

Jack's got the right perspective

Check out this month's Men's Journal profile on Jack Nicholson   http://www.mensjournal.com/index.html , as he really does make his own rules and has a great attitude on a variety of topics. Here are a few excerpts that are worth noting:

1)What should a man get straight before his number comes up?  I dont have much philosophy other than Live in the Now. And that is very difficult to do...It's the things you dont do in life, as opposed to the things you do do, that creat lingering regrets. Dont leave something that you really want to do undone...

2)How should a man deal with any lingering regrets? There's no point in overburdening yourself with guilt. The key is to get in the habit of kind of redirecting it. Learn from the regret. Some regrets you cant recover....

3)How should a man face his fears?  Fear is the elixir of my work....But the real fear I have to overcome, actually, is the fear of the unknown. We're very uncomfortable with the unknown, and that's why we tend to cling to the status quo, to structure, to relationships--to just cling. I once put it this way in a comedy film: Where there's clarity, there is no choice. Where there's choice, there's misery.

4)How should a man best control his anger?  You have a choice. Go ahead and be angry once, but if it has a certain unpleasant result and you keep doing it, that's your fault, not anybody else's...

5)How should a man best embrace happiness? We do overthink the concept. Happiness, of course, is circumstantial, but it's also a grace and a skill. My friend Elmer Valentine used to say, "Jack, a lot of people scored, and they don't know it. We scored, and we know it."

Each of these points really do have a business/entrepreneurial relevance, even though he was putting a social spin on it. Anyway, a nice reinforcer on approaching things on a daily basis.