Celebrating 15 Years at Vista Point Advisors

By Michael Lyon, Founder & Managing Director

I am proud that Vista Point Advisors is celebrating its 15 year anniversary.

Our intention when starting this firm was to create an investment bank that served founders, not institutional investors. When we first started VPA, few in the industry talked about conflicted bankers. Now it comes up in almost every conversation with founders. VPA has had a big part in changing the conversation, and I am immensely proud of that.

Along the way, I learned the importance of working for and alongside great people. I am extremely grateful to the founders who put their trust in us and to the team who has made it all happen over the last 15 years.

To our founder clients (many of whom are listed below):

From our first clients who made a leap with a brand new investment bank to those who recently trusted us with the sale of their life's work, we are grateful for your faith in us. Supporting you through one of the most intense and rewarding moments of your life is what motivates us.

To the VPA Team:

To Jeff Bean and Jeff Koons: VPA simply would not exist without you being there from day one. I am immensely thankful for your confidence in the vision of this organization and for showing up on the first day with your own chairs.

To Scott Austin, Mike Greco, Miles Lacey, and Russell Perkins who have been with VPA for almost 13 years: You created the foundation that supported the company’s growth and set the standard for the work that we do.

To the newer members of the firm (Annie Baker, Ethan Carlson, Valerie Chagares, Michael DiBiagio, Kara Frazier, Lili Kaissar, Michael Mabry, Nick Martel, Austin Nall, Finn O’Connor, Sam O’Donnell, Sarabeth Sandweiss, Maxwell Smith, Loson Stockton, Grant Sturtevant): Thank you for choosing to be part of this team and enabling us to grow the business and help more founders. Our clients consistently praise your work and are impressed by your commitment and expertise. I am lucky we get to work together.

The amount of history we all have together is remarkable and the number of internal arguments is staggering. Why Carolina basketball and the Denver Broncos are the best teams in sports, iPhone versus Android, if turkey is worthy enough for Thanksgiving, whether you can judge the quality of a burger place by their veggie burger (you know who you are), who can put up the best time in the VPA racing simulator, and Zandvoort versus Spa. I love competing and fighting with you guys every day.

I also wanted to thank those individuals who contributed greatly to Vista Point in the beginning, but have since moved on: Eddie Le (VPA co-founder), William Heldfond, Morgan Livermore, and David Cho.

To my family:

Lastly, I also want to thank my wife, Yvette, and our daughters, Freya, Olivia, and Amelia, for their love and support. I will always be thankful that you stood beside me when I took this leap 15 years ago. Building an investment bank from scratch is not the easiest thing to accomplish and none of this would have happened without you. Thank you for your understanding through interrupted vacations, canceled plans, and endless calls. I love you all very much.

A few years after starting VPA, a PE firm tried to give us a backhanded compliment by calling us scrappy. The first 15 years have been eventful, and I am excited to see what the next 15 years bring for VPA. With such a strong team and the results we have delivered, I believe the future looks incredibly bright. Stay scrappy VPA!

Thanks again to everyone for their contributions and support. I love you all.

Special thanks to our founders:

• Redon Gjika and Matt Brown at Bonsai
• Travis Harvego and Joe Hoffman at Roofle
• Joel Ohman, Alicia Howson, John Gadbois, and Joel VanderPol at Exercise.com
• Margot Schmorak, Stephan Osmont, and David Jacoby at Hostfully
• Dylan Ramsey and CJ Sanders at ConsumerVoice.org
• Scott Bergeron, Nathan Bergeron, Ryan Larson, MBA, and Cliff Long at PSTrax
• Shawn Boyer at goHappy
• Dan Amos at Book Creator
• Christoffer Klemming and Jonas Klemming at Waitwhile
• Anthony Perera at Inspected.com
• Elliott Lander and Grace Lander at ATR Inc
• Drew Sharma and Stan Sandberg at TravelInsurance.com
• Matt Sellers at Quimbee
• Matthew Reeves and Nathan Goldstein at Together Software
• Ardis Kadiu at Element451
• Brian Clark at CourseLoop
• Matt Hay, Oliver Felstead, and Louise Hughes at Bulbshare
• Jake Brydon, Jason Nolen, and Jesse Mahan at RoofLink
• Evan Steele at rater8
• Kenneth Fox at Channel Mechanics
• Jon Garner and Donna Garner at Arborgold
• Kyle Thielk and Mike Grenier at Time To Pet
• Ryan Shantz at SumoQuote
• Sarah Rowell and Scott Mackenzie at Kantola Training Solutions
• Paul Abelowitz at PosterElite
• Kevin Lozer and Roger Pine at Holistiplan
• Ed O’Donnell and Vicki Turjan at Versatile Credit
• Michael Johnson at Clear Law Institute
• Marcus Räder, Saber Kordestanchi, and Mikko Nurminen at Hostaway
• Vik Tantry and David Becker at FormSwift
• Ajay Shah and Randy Shiozaki at ListReports
• Tobe Thompson at SmartMoving
• David Brown at TravelNet Solutions
• Mike Martin at Hotel Effectiveness
• Tim Ballantyne at Suralink
• Peri Pierone at Eleven Software
• Joris Kroese at Hatch
• Casey Schorr and Kevin Materi at Printfection
• David Wigley, Mark Riley, and Peter Wigley at ContentKeeper
• Travis Crabtree, David Lubbat, and Charles Lubbat at Swyft Filings
• Todd Wolfenberg at Yoga International
• Patrick Fringles at Leap
• Cliff Mitchell and Joe Mitchell at ClockShark
• Sabari Raja and Binu Thayamkery at Nepris
• Lukas Dryja and Tyler Rooney at Format
• Sanjeev K. Singh at Zenwork
• Andrew Jones at HighLevel
• Eric Doster, Luke Soules, and Kyle Wiens at Dozuki
• Eric Koefoot at PublicRelay
• Stuart Draper at Stukent
• Josh May and Ben Ross at POWr
• Zack Schuler at NINJIO
• Neeraj Shah at Supplier.io
• Aaron Sherman at SevenFifty
• Kevin Borders and Joe Golden at Collage.com
• Mike Pallatta and Andrew Rawson at Traliant
• Brandon Grover at Briostack
• Mike Murphy and Robert Satcher at Softdocs
• Anthony Showalter, Michal Eynon-Lynch, and Riley Eynon-Lynch at Pear Deck
• Max Paltsev at Service Fusion
• Richard Wyles at Totara Learning
• Robert DeFilippis at One Legal
• Adi Azar at Remodeling.com
• Joe Healey at Faster Asset Solutions
• Joseph Morse and Russel Allinson at Therigy
• David Wyle at SurePrep
• Chris Babel at Nymity
• Jonathan Pototschnik and John Caldwell at Service Autopilot
• Brandon Miles at Appspace
• Smita Bakshi and Frank Vahid at zyBooks
• Sidharth Kakkar at Freckle
• David Brady at Vuture
• Frederik Fleck and Phil Soffer at Test IO
• Tracy Lotz at LiveRez
• Steve Gustafson and Debi Wright at HRH / TE
• Jonathan Wu, Vincent Wu, and Ting Pen at Value Penguin
• Russ Lindmark at Veriship
• Dean Pichee at BizLibrary
• Rajiv Jain at a2z, Inc.
• Meir Cohen and Eli Finkelman and at TelTech
• Jamie Duffield and Hamish Leighton at Revolution IT
• Advait Shinde at GoGuardian
• Noah Anderson at EverydayFamily
• Craig Bloem and Chris Bache at LogoMix
• Ed Sattar at 360training
• Andrew Robbins and Matt d’Arbeloff at Paytronix
• Todd Krizelman and Jesse Keller at MediaRadar
• Dmitry Buterin at Wild Apricot
• Jake Harrington and Tom Harrington at On-Site
• Jeff Swearingen at SecureLink
• Graham Smith-Bernal at Opus 2
• Mike Owens and Mike Eggermont at Absorb Software
• Christopher Bond at Thinkbox Software
• Brian Taylor and Greg Estep at Scenario Learning
• Jim Richardson at NaturalPoint
• Chris Mettler at CompareCards
• Kevin McAliley at Think Through Learning
• Ralph Yanello and Preston Clark at LawRoom
• Robert Bowman at Bowman Systems
• Erik Larson at NextAdvisor
• Neal Taparia and Darshan Somashekar at Imagine Easy Solutions
• Alok Kulkarni and Bonny Malik at Cyara
• Hing Poon at Synevoice
• Matt Rogers at SuperSalon
• Dan Siciliano and Brian Taylor at LawLogix
• Mike Ortner at Capterra
• Pablo Buki at Igea Home Healthcare Software
• Seth Rosenthal at Tweak Software
• Scott Lambrecht and Pete Charleston at GolfLogix
• Steven Lam at GoGoVan
• John Graff at ParentLink
• Rob Gough and Mattias Larsson at Eckim
• Jason Guppy, Michael Choi, and Todd McCoy at Axiom
• Don Fornes and Austin Merritt at Software Advice
• Yung Trang at TechBargains
• Chris Haycox, Mark Madson, and Joan Madson at Metrofax
• Rand Nickerson and Mark Treschl at OpinionLab
• Jeremy Ostermiller at Altitude Digital
• Rob Schmidt at QualitySmith
• Scott Coles at ISYS Search Software
• K.B. Teo, Choon Hong Peck, and Seggy Umboh at ThingBuzz
• Tim Whitehorn at ServiceU

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