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A relationship-centric, growth-minded approach to investment banking and corporate advisory services

Rick Kohr is the CEO and founder of Evergreen Advisors, an investment bank and corporate advisory practice headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. The firm serves the needs of emerging growth and middle-market companies by offering a suite of investment banking and corporate advisory services throughout the various stages of the business lifecycle. They provide innovative and strategic solutions in the areas of Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Business Valuation, and Strategic CFO Advisory.

EDWIN WARFIELD: You were one of the first to get involved in angel funding in the Baltimore–DC region. Tell us about what motivated you back when you first started, as well as the connections you’ve made and the lessons you’ve learned over the years.

RICK KOHR: Angel funding is something that captivated my imagination and attention back in 2001. I started to see these angel funds pop up in Northern Virginia. John May was creating some angel funds in Northern Virginia. There really was nothing outside the DC Beltway in Maryland. I remember sitting down with Dick Story, who was Head of Economic Development for Howard County, and saying, “We ought to have an angel fund here in Maryland. We ought to station here in Columbia.” And he said, “There's another guy that has an interest in doing that—Steve Dubin. So why don't you go hook up with Steve Dubin?”

So, Steve Dubin and I, we meet; we have a power breakfast at the Bagel Bin or someplace over coffee one morning; we're brainstorming about putting an angel fund together, and his network and my network—could we collaborate to raise some monies? Little bit of a different model than some of the angel funds that you see today—and we'll talk about that in a moment—but this was an actual hard fund. And we collaborated on that in 2001, went out, and were ultimately able to bring in 47 investors. The investors committed $100,000 in three tranches to look at companies that we could invest in that are principally here in the region—we violated or rule one time during the course of the process—but I give Steve a lot of credit. I was fortunate to partner with Steve. I learned a lot of things from Steve in the angel funding area. Steve had worked with Suburban Capital and was involved in Martek here—an incredibly successful biotech company that went public a number of years ago_but Steve taught me a number of things about angel investing. You know, one: that companies are going to run out of money; they're going to need to come back two or three times. Two: invest in a management team, not in the business plan; so always an A management team, and a B business plan versus the other way around. I learned a lot.

You know, there was a donut hole back in the 2000s in the angel funding area. I always said you start with chewing gum, duct tape, and shoestring to try to get a company up and running and then you try to get to the angel funds. In the first decade of the 2000s, there really was a lack of capital in the region, and we were able to invest in 11 companies. We had a couple of deaths in the portfolio, we had a number of good successes, and then we had a couple that were significant successes. One company that we sold to Nokia, another one that we sold to Cardtronics, and a third—our best exit—was one that we sold to Dannon Yogurt: it was a baby organic food product that was about a 10x return for us.

You manage an angel fund, and you have 47 investors—very, very bright people. We screen companies. You learn a lot in a fairly short period of time about angel investing. I served on the board of four of those companies. I sold three of those companies, created a really good network from a financing standpoint. I think that's really helped us evolve Evergreen over the last 15, 20 years. We really understand the financing, the growth of a company, the evolution of a company; the stages that it goes through: from startup to early stage to growth stage, to mature enterprise. And we've been able, through our corporate advisory, to help companies in that angel and early stage area while focusing primarily on our growth stage, and more mature companies from an investment banking perspective.

Q. What’s next for Evergreen?

A. 2018 and beyond—we’re going to continue to evolve our business model. Obviously, build our organization to take advantage of a very unique position in the marketplace that we've created. We're not an accounting firm, we're not a pure consulting firm, we're very much focused on relationships and being able to add value strategically, with the financial acumen to be what we hope is the best investment banking firm in the region. I think also to continue to participate as we have in the community. Our key leaders are all involved in different organizations that we think can add value, create momentum in the region. We want to be good citizens from that perspective, and I think it creates an opportunity for all of us down the road.

Connect with Rick on LinkedIn

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Founded in 1969, KatzAbosch is one of the largest CPA and business consulting services in the Mid-Atlantic region. Our mission is to provide the highest quality accounting, tax, financial and management consulting services to our clients. We understand the needs and challenges of our clients and we have made it our obligation to create, grow and protect asset value. The experts at KatzAbosch offer a full service solution while maintaining a tradition of ethics and incorporating the latest technology and unique business practices. Excellence in an industry often begins with how those closest to the company—its clients and employees—feel about it. For these individuals, KatzAbosch is a place where people and businesses excel and prosper. Our advisors can meet all of your service needs including; Audit & Accounting, Business Valuation & Litigation Support, Consulting, Estate Planning & Administration, Financial Institution Services, Forensic Accounting & Fraud Examinations, State and Local Tax (SALT), Taxes & Planning.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

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