Illness Creates Opportunity to Acquire Webvanta

Posted 13 April 2016

Eight years ago, I cofounded Webvanta, a SaaS CMS platform and web development agency.

I have been running Webvanta ever since, through all the usual startup ups and downs, restarts, pivots, and more. It has been a tough business, but it was really starting to hum last fall.

Then the world shifted. In October I was trying to ignore a nagging gut pain, which in early November was diagnosed as stage 4 intestinal cancer.

As my pain level increased, pain meds began affecting my state of mind, and medical appointments filled up half my week, it became apparent that continuing to run Webvanta was not something I could do much longer.

Personally, my top priority is to ensure continuity of service for all of our customers. The business needs more resources to do so reliably, so we have made the difficult decision to seek a buyer.

Webvanta’s client list is diverse. In addition to hundreds of small and midsize businesses, such as Macbeath Hardwood, Mr. Pickles, Payette Architects, and Olde Towne Jewelers, Webvanta has focused on educational institutions and mission-driven nonprofits.

Major education and nonprofit customers include the University of California (six different sites at UC Berkeley), the Nature Conservancy (casalmon.org), the Green Music Center, West County Health Centers, Music Academy of the West, and Ag Innovations.

A client list like this is impossible to build quickly — but this situation allows someone to acquire it instantly.

We are moving very quickly, as time is of the essence. We’re planning to identify all the interested bidders by the end of April and to close a deal in May.

If you’d like to learn more, email me at michael@webvanta.com, or call me at 888.670.6793 ext. 7.