Linda Nash, who with Teresa DiMarco has formed River Crossing Advisors, has started four ventures since stepping down as CEO of PartnerMD last year.
April 14, 2016 10:30 pm
Just over a year after leaving concierge medicine company PartnerMD, Linda Nash has sprung into her next venture.
She and Teresa DiMarco, who has worked as chief executive officer of several health care companies in Richmond, have launched their latest company, River Crossing Advisors.
This is the fourth company Nash has launched since stepping down as CEO of PartnerMD early last year. She’s also started a consulting company, Linda Nash Ventures; Precision Medical, a physician recruiting firm; and WellcomeMD, another concierge medicine firm.
River Crossing Advisors helps entrepreneurs sell their companies and find good buyers. Nash and DiMarco have experience selling health care companies — Nash sold PartnerMD to Markel Ventures, a subsidiary of the Henrico County-based Markel Corp., in 2011.
“Both of us have done three different exits, and we thought, ‘What’s the common theme here when an entrepreneur is trying to sell a business?’ ” Nash said.
Companies that help entrepreneurs sell their businesses typically do not have operators involved who have experience running a company personally, she said.
“The people I worked with each time I sold my companies … were people that did transactions, and they were very skilled at it, but they weren’t operators,” she said.
The partners launched River Crossing Advisors in the fall to fill that void. Its mission is to look at companies who would like to exit, evaluate whether it’s the right time, help them do some simple things to boost the value of the company and then take them through the exiting process.
Nash pointed out that she and DiMarco are not brokers, so they cannot actually sell the company. They work with brokers instead.
“We stay all the way through the process, helping the client feel comfortable, helping evaluate things, helping translate all the pieces of the deal, which can be very overwhelming if you’ve never sold a business,” she said.
The name River Crossing Advisors is a nod to the River City and to what selling a business usually means for an owner, as they cross into the next phase of life, Nash said.
“Really for clients, especially if this is going to be their only transaction, this is one of the biggest events of their lives,” she said. “It’s going to change how they think about things, how they plan and their life goals.”
Nash and DiMarco are working now with one client, a local dental company that Nash declined to name. They are in discussions with potential clients, she said.
While River Crossing Advisors will work with any type of client, Nash said they have an affinity toward health care companies since she and DiMarco have experience in that industry.
Meanwhile, as she gets her latest idea off the ground, Nash is continuing to grow her three other ventures. WellcomeMD’s first location recently opened in Chicago and she is in the process of opening an office in Florida as well. The company, like PartnerMD, offers concierge medicine. For an extra fee, physicians are available to their patients 24/7 and the care is highly individualized.
Precision Medical also has started strong, she said, with a full-time employee on board and several recruiting searches being conducted for clients.
With River Crossing Advisors, Nash said she is “holding at four” businesses. “It’s definitely never boring,” she said.
SOURCE: http://www.richmond.com/business/article_da1f9f95-d061-5698-9c69-73513a9cf641.html
