They were the ideal client, until they made one little mistake.
A staffing firm gets hacked – and faces disaster
They were the ideal client. They’re a staffing firm, family run, very successful. They had been factoring their accounts receivable with a bank for over five years, with no problems, and with a consistent history of growth.
Then they made one mistake: they got hacked. One wrong click, and suddenly, their business – their life’s work – was on the ropes.
The hackers got into their database and searched their customer records. They found their largest customer, and emailed them from the staffing firm’s email. The hackers then told the customer to send payment for their next invoice – a $400,000 total – to an account under the hackers’ control.
That was bad enough – but not, in the grand scheme of things, enough to sink the staffing firm. But then their bank called. Not only was the bank firing them, but they threatened to sue the customer – in 14 days – if the staffing firm couldn’t come up with the missing $400,000. In one moment, one wrong click, both the staffing firm and their customer faced an existential threat.
Enter Dare Capital.
When we started talking about launching a business together, my co-founder Debra and I agreed on one big thing: Balance sheets and FICO scores never tell the whole story. We’ve seen countless companies who made much worse mistakes recover, grow, and succeed – if they find the right financing partner.
In many respects, this staffing firm is a dream client for us. They have a very strong track record; we love working with family run businesses; they’re in a growth business with ever-growing opportunity; and in five years, the only issue they’ve had was not due to bad management, or bad fundamentals, or a sinking business – it was just one wrong click with disastrous, but not fatal, consequences.
(Side note: If you don’t already, please turn on two-step verification on your email system and any software that contains your client list. This could happen to anyone.)
Since we’re flexible, nimble, and love a challenge, we were able to put together a funding deal for this staffing firm in under a week, with a stretch loan for the $400,000 and a factoring deal for their accounts receivables. The client is thrilled, the bank is paid, the hack was stopped, and no lawsuit is pending against the client’s most important customer.
I’d call it a happy ending, but this story isn’t over yet: we hope this client will be with us for many years to come.
