Lorne Groe Email & Phone Number

Ann Arbor, Mi, Us

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Us

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Us

I was originally brought in by the board as an advisor to the co-founder and CEO, and joined post-Seed as employee number twelve. My role centered around leading the SaaS product market analysis and development (converting from an open-source data model), forming and executing on an early-stage go-to-market strategy, and building out the business operations and financial infrastructure. I also oversaw product pricing and packaging, and built and managed post-sales customer experience including implementation, integrations, training, documentation, and technical support. In addition, I managed the company’s legal and regulatory functions.In early 2021 I stepped into the role of interim-CEO during a transitional period for the company. One of my proudest achievements, within my time at Censys, was my partnership with the VP of People to build the best possible team and company culture. Central to my mission and values as a company leader and executive is my commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Championing the formation of a DE&I Committee along with several ERG groups and training were a top priority during my tenure as CEO, and culminated in 31 DE&I events throughout 2021. Gender equity in the tech industry was one of my highest consideration in building out company culture. During my leadership period Censys led the cyber security industry in female employee representation, with 41% of companywide and 37% of technical specific roles filled by women in 2021. During my time at Censys, I led three venture rounds (Seed 2, Series A, and Series B), raising over $60 million in funding. This included negotiating a partnership with In-Q-Tel for financing and product/business development for the Fed/Gov sector. Scale Ventures Benchmarking ranked Censys’ 2021 results in the top quartile of over 300 private SaaS companies of similar size (ARR) in terms of: Y/Y Ending ARR Growth, New ARR Growth, Gross & Net Sales Efficiency, and Gross & Net Retention.

Ann Arbor, Mi, Us

ENTR 409 - Intro to Venture Capital (Fall '16 - Fall '19)FIN/ES 329 / 629 - Financing Technology Commercialization (Fall ‘17 - Spring ‘20)Judge for the Alan Gelband Private Equity Award competition (Dec-19)Guest speaker - Venture Capital Practicum (Jul-19)

Ann Arbor, Mi, Us

​​I joined DeepField post-Seed, with the goal of merging its fast-innovation culture with a highly strategic and metric-driven business model. A central aspect of my leadership mission was investing in a culture of innovation and urgency. In the spirit of the company motto “run fast with scissors,” I wanted to ensure our infrastructure gave our product and engineering teams the freedom to work unencumbered. As a company looking to solve hard problems, we understood the importance of creating an environment where individuals seeking to attack those problems could thrive. To achieve this, I focused my efforts on building a people team who prioritized not only hiring the best candidates, but ensuring employees were positioned for success upon joining the company. I developed a go-to-market strategy and oversaw product pricing and packaging following the first customer win. We developed an aggressive customer-driven product roadmap to take advantage of the green field market with a direct MEDDIC process that yielded a high POC conversion. Under my leadership, we implemented Salesforce CPQ and Hubspot with an outbound marketing motion and expanded the business into EMEA (sales, engineering, and support). As the sales teams grew, a dedicated VP of Sales was brought in so I could focus on building out the alliance, marketplace, channel, and government businesses. The financial aspect of operations was structured by managing burn and tracking to standard SaaS metrics. I built the post-sales support infrastructure by developing account management, tech support, and professional services teams dedicated to customer retention and growth. Additionally, I oversaw the early legal aspects of the business including sales contracts, HR, and patents. I also managed our investors, board meetings, and cap table. Over my four years, I led our Series A and B fundraising and through to the company acquisition by Nokia in 2017.

Livonia, Michigan, Us

I led the business transformation of Valassis via an aggressive acquisition and restructuring strategy. When I came to Valasis the business was faltering - revenue, margins, and market capitalization were all declining. I devised and successfully executed a strategy of using acquisitions to add new product capabilities, enter new markets, and diversify the customer base. This transformation also took the form of creating efficiencies in the operations through acquisition synergies, business restructuring, and digital transformation. This transformation resulted in an increase in the value of Valassis by over 3x.*Grew EPS from $1.10 to $2.74, and EBITDA from $148 million to $317 million, primarily through acquisition revenue and expense synergies*Achieved over $41 million in additional restructuring cost savings*Completed seven acquisitions totaling $1.4 billion, and three divestitures of underperforming units*Completed two cross-border transactions, including a strategic Chinese JV*Led $1.3 billion in debt financingAcquired by MacAndrews & Forbes

Dallas, Tx, Us

Promoted to integrate three acquisitions with full P&L responsibility and charged with improving: revenue growth, client retention, and margins. Provided leadership, strategy, execution and integration where senior management team had been transitioned out. Established processes and metrics to track operating and financial performance improvements.Cut operating costs by over 20% and achieved substantially higher margins. Integrated the back-end of the business (people, processes and software) with existing corporate infrastructure including data center, data management, data processing and billing.Increased annual revenue by 37% and client retention to 98%. Expanded product line through cross-selling and newly developed service offerings. Built a top-flight account management team and implemented a customer satisfaction process. Re-tooled the sales force and made the marketing spend more effective.

Dallas, Tx, Us

Recruited to oversee all finance and corporate development activities. Subsequently assumed responsibility for investor relations. Managed all aspects of acquisitions including valuation, ROI calculation, financing, due diligence, structuring/negotiation and integration. Moderated regular business unit strategy sessions that produced a comprehensive written road map and acquisition, joint venture and partnering plan. Evaluated proposed acquisitions, divestitures and major capital expenditures (including financing alternatives) - developed financial models, recommendations and integration plans. Member of the team that implemented Sarbanes-Oxley. Reduced annual interest expense by $4 million and loosened debt covenants. Twice recapitalized the company’s debt and equity structure and secured two upgrades from Moody’s and S&P. Negotiated substantially less stringent debt covenants, and prepared all debt compliance reports.Developed and maintained monthly pro forma income statements for each business unit, a roll-up financial model for the entire company (on a monthly and annual basis) and a five-year forecast model for the company. Began providing financial guidance to Wall St. and secured equity analyst coverage. Created an investor relations presentation and personally presented to institutional investor and at equity conferences.Created, through four acquisitions, the industry’s largest and leading email retention platform and successfully integrated them to be the only vendor chosen by both Forrest and Jupiter Research as the industry’s leading technology solution.

San Francisco, California, Us

Recruited to expand the technology investment banking business. Led the Enterprise Software Group since 2000, and was responsible developing and executing a business development strategy, identifying and winning key assignments and managing a five-person execution team. Managed the Van Kasper Venture Fund II, negotiated term sheets and represented the fund on two boards. Member of the fairness opinion committee. Executed 20 transactions, of which nine were personally sourced, producing over $9 million in revenue. Completed five venture investments and closed VKVFII with a 28% annualized ROE. Developed and led a financial analyst training program with standardized templates and processes.

San Francisco, California, Us

Joined the Japan Technology Group and worked with Japanese technology companies to make venture investments in emerging U.S. technology firms. Facilitated divestitures and spin-offs of Japanese owned U.S. technology assets. Completed eight joint ventures between Japanese and U.S. companies. Managed four spin-off IPOs and divestitures of U.S. technology assets from Japanese companies.

Boutique investment bank specializing in private placements for consumer product companies. Responsible for all due diligence, document preparation, valuation analysis and financial modeling. Developed a standardized prospectus template for new Regulation A offering process approved by the SEC and a majority of state regulatory agencies and adopted by most industry participants.

Us

Bs, Economics

Certification - Conscious Capitalism

Nexus Cybersecurity Professional Bootcamp, Cyber/Computer Forensics And Counterterrorism