City software company partners with US tech company

Permission Click, the Winnipeg-based software company launched in 2013 whose platform allows teachers to create digital permissions for field trips and all forms of communication between teachers and students and their parents, has been acquired by the tech company US-based global, Intrado.

Founded by Chris Johnson, one of North Forge’s four founders, the company has grown steadily – Permission Click now has over a million users – doubling sales every year. But the challenge of breaking into the notoriously difficult education space has prevented sales from growing even faster than they could have.

In fact, last year Permission Click partnered with Intrado – a company active in many areas of the digital market, particularly around critical services like 911 emergency networks – to leverage the sales force of the largest company in the school sector.

Intrado has a service called SchoolMessenger which also provides a digital communication platform between schools and parents.

This partnership went so well that both parties decided it made sense to fully integrate and Intrado acquired Permission Click.

Johnson, a former principal shareholder, and his team of 18 Permission Click employees will all remain with Intrado and the company will continue to develop the software platform and continue to operate in Winnipeg.

No financial details of the deal were disclosed, but Johnson said “it was sold at a strong multiple” with additional incentives for Johnson and his team if sales hit certain thresholds.

Intrado, which has a dominant market share in the US education space, called Permission Click in its press release an “education technology pioneer” and Vik Krishnan, chief executive of its Digital Workflows business, said adding its “powerful tool” to Intrado’s solutions will advance “our leadership in the education market.”

He added. “We are thrilled to add Permission Click and its exceptional team to our SchoolMessenger business to expand our suite of solutions and provide a powerful tool for forms and workflow automation, policy compliance and risk management. This acquisition further strengthens our leadership position in communications, workflow automation and security in the K-12 education market and beyond.”

With the sale, Permission Click becomes the model for other Winnipeg tech entrepreneurs looking for an example of a business starting with little or no staff resources and becoming an international success.

The company was actually born out of a Ramp Up Weekend event, a startup competition that brings teams together on an ad-hoc basis over a weekend where business ideas are pitched, teams trained, and market research baseline and proof of concept are quickly undertaken.

The company’s first office was at the current site of the North Forge Manufacturing Laboratory (then called AscentWorks).

Curwin Friesen, outgoing Chairman of Permission Click’s Board of Directors (and an investor in the company) said, “This shows that a Manitoba startup can create world-class software that can grab the attention of one of dominant players in the world.

Johnson, 39, has been a prominent leader in the startup ecosystem for several years while engaged in all the heavy lifting that comes with building a business.

In addition to being involved in the development of the product, Johnson was also the company’s sole salesperson.

“I had just gotten approval from our board of directors for a huge expense to grow our own sales organization. We were going to hire a team of 10 people and really get started,” he said.

Almost simultaneously, they had entered into a commercial representation agreement with Intrado.

“By the time we met Intrado, they had some quick sales and I went straight back to the board and said, ‘No, we have to go the reseller route,'” Johnson said. “Then it all happened so quickly, within a few months. They just saw a good thing and so did we. It was perfect.”

Johnson said it was both frustrating and satisfying to see Intrado making sales to the same schools that Permission Click had failed in the past due to Intrado’s existing relationship with schools and school divisions.

Johnson said that although many have asked him about his “exit plan” – to monetize founders’ equity through a sale or an initial public offering – he has always said he doesn’t. didn’t, opting instead to take a more cautious approach focused on product development rather than rapidly increasing revenue.

“Investors say you have to target who we want to sell to,” Johnson said. “We didn’t do any of that. We focused on building something great and we were relying on someone to find it.”

He said the scrutiny process by a multi-billion dollar company as part of the due diligence process was something he was not mentally prepared for.

“We would have three people in our team and they had 60 people in the (online) meeting,” he said.

But Johnson said it was a “deeply satisfying result,” particularly in terms of promoting Winnipeg as a place that can support tech startups.

“It can happen in Winnipeg,” he said. “You can raise millions of dollars, hire international talent, bring in multi-billion dollar customers to buy your products, sell long-term contracts for software as a service, all from your garage in Winnipeg. It can happen.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Martin Cash
Journalist

Martin Cash has written a column and business news for the Free Press since 1989. During those years he wrote through a number of economic cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) of the fortunes of many local businesses .

Read the full biography