Top Execs Use Funding for I/T Buyout [ top ]
Published in The Eagle, Vol. 1, Issue 1
January 2004

When Angela Fetterolf began working as a systems engineer in 2000 for CSP, she never imagined she would own the company three years later.

CSP, a provider of database and storage area network services since 1993, was purchased by three of its top executives last summer. Fetterolf joined two other top managers, Chi Lee and Shawn Roberts, as partners in the buyout. Today, Fetterolf serves as CEO, Lee as COO and Roberts as CTO.

The team worked with PFC for the purchase with plans to grow its core services business, enhance its relationships with its customers and partners, and expand into new markets.

By July 2002, the previous owners were in jeopardy with Sun Trust bank and the McShane Group was contracted to assist in turning the company around.

While the prospective buyers were willing to purchase the company, timing was not on their side. The IT market was dwindling and commercial lenders were reluctant to loan to such companies. CSP does a small amount of hardware and software reselling, which can require a large line of credit.

"The McShane Group referred us to PFC which we chose because it was the most flexible lender. The staff worked through our accounts receivable problems with us, and we were able to get the company back on track and generate positive cash flow," says Fetterolf.

Today, CSP has 37 employees. The company's mainstay is business continuance solutions, specializing in data storage. It provides companies with failover and disaster recovery services, so that if a company or agency's information system fail or become inaccessible due to a disaster, the data is stored and accessible elsewhere. An example of such work can be seen as a result of the disaster of 9-11. To avoid data loss, the Pentagon and other Department of Defense sites have secured the services of CSP and its partners to house confidential and essential data at Alternate locations.

CSP's largest client is EMC, a developer of hardware and software. EMC contracts with CSP for senior engineers who are specialized and trained in enterprise storage and network solutions. As such, they implement hardware and software solutions that transfer data from location to location.

"Because of our relationship with EMC, we actually own a data center that models our client's  environments. An added benefit of our data center is the ability to provide training for our client's employees as well as a state-of-the-art lab environment for our employees," says Fetterolf.

As EMC currently represents over half of CSP's business, the company wants to branch out into other areas. With the help of PFC, CSP recently entered into a partnership with VERITAS, using the PFC loan to hire four additional employees to work on the new account.

As a VERITAS partner, CSP can now offer premiere backup and high-availability software solutions that can be used in conjunction with EMC. In addition, CSP provides training for VERITAS customers.

CSP's loan will also be used to expand into new geographic markets in 2004 to become a global competitor. "Expanding the business as any direction requires capital and PFC has allowed us to do that," says Fetterolf. "And, I can now sleep at night knowing we can meet payroll and don't have months of bills in arrears."

Although she has yet to celebrate her first anniversary to the helm, Fetterolf says the business is a success. She adds that success is more than meeting financial goals, small or large as that may be. It is about retaining employees and providing them with continued training. With that, they can remain competitive in the market and stay at the senior level CSP maintains.

"Morale is good," says Fetterolf. "Keeping customers happy is one thing, But keeping your employees happy is more important."

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