Torrence Harder

MicroFinancial Inc.'s ("www.microfinancial.com") President, Richard Latour, joined the company in 1989. MicroFinancial became profitable on a monthly basis in June of that year. On February 5, 1999, MicroFinancial completed an Initial Public Offering and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as "MFI". In October 2002, the Company ceased funding new originations as a result of its Lenders' decision not to renew the revolving credit facility. Lease funding resumed in 2005. At year-end 2014, Assets totaled $186 million, Cash flow from customers was $141.5 million and Revenues were $64.5 million. On December 15, 2014, Fortress Investment Group LLC acquired MicroFinancial for $147 million.

Remarkably, MicroFinancial made money while over the 24 years the credit authorization equipment it primarily leased went from $500/machine to a free App on an iPhone!

PlasTech Innovations, Inc. ("wvvw.82gowater.com") was started August 5, 2011 when Hobart Ventures LP was formed to back a gentleman's water venture: "82GO". One year later the Company failed to position product on retail store shelves as promised and the venture was terminated with an approximately $1 million loss.

82Go is the only Harder startup to go out of business. Our 15 successes out of 16 starts equates to a 94% success rate. Small Business Administration statistics report that 93% of all small business startups have failed at the ten-year mark. As always, management quality is the most critical factor.

UpToDate, Inc. (fivww.uptodate.com") was founded in 1992, by physician Burton D. Rose, to provide continually updated answers to clinical questions for physicians initially specializing in Nephrology. In 1995 the Company was reorganized to expand into all the specialties constituting Internal Medicine. Over 6,500 physicians now write for their fellow physicians a knowledge base containing the highest quality clinical medical information extant. UpToDate is now offered in over 100 countries. Under Chief Executive Officer Piet Bleyendaal's leadership, revenues increased to $80 million and the Company generated strong positive cash flow. In September 2008, UpToDate was sold to Wolters Kluwer for $435 million.

As a Buddhist, I know pride is not helpful. Even so, I must admit to great pride that today 1.3 million doctors worldwide are helping their fellow human beings using evidence based best practice clinical information provided by UpToDate in medicine.

RentGrow, Inc. ("www.rentgrow.com") was founded in November 1989 to provide revenue enhancement computer services to the residential real estate industry. After years of expensive trial and error focusing on dedicated custom computer credit scoring and applicant selection services, RentGrow turned to providing a broader range of generic, Internet based services to the regional apartment marketplace. Michael J. Lapsley, President, brought stability to the management of the Company in 1998. On February 12, 2010, RentGrow was sold to Yardi Systems, Inc. At the time of sale RentGrow clients managed 640,000 apartment units using their state of the art Internet software.

Lightbridge, Inc. ("www.cybersource.com") developed, marketed and supported a network of integrated products and services that enabled telecommunications carriers to improve their customer acquisition, retention and fraud prevention processes. During the first nine months of 2007, Lightbridge/Authorize.Net sales were approximately $51.7 million. Pamela D. A. Reeve joined Lightbridge as President in 1989, after eleven years with The Boston Consulting Group. On September 27, 1996, Lightbridge completed an Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ listed as "LTBG". The fraud was uncovered by Lightbridge's systems. Over the years, Lightbridge made several acquisitions and changed its name to Authorize.Net. On November 1, 2007, Authorize.Net was acquired by CyberSource at a $662 million valuation. Lightbridge software accounted for 65% of our nation’s cellular telephone customer-acquisitions.

On the day of the Initial Public Offering, six deceased individuals applied for cellular service at one customer carrier in Cincinnati within a three-hour period.

APPEX Corporation served the cellular communications industry with its Cellular Management Information System, Positive Roamer Verification System ("PRV"), Financial Settlement System (FSS") and national call forwarding RoamAmerica ("RA") intercarrier products. By 1990, most U.S. markets had wired their central switches into APPEX'S PRV, FSS or RA systems. In July 1988, Shikhar Ghosh joined APPEX as President, leaving a partnership at Boston Consulting Group. In the June 15, 1990 edition of Business Week, APPEX was ranked in terms of revenue and employment growth as the fastest growing company in the CorpTech database of 30,000 high-technology companies in America. On October 2, 1990, APPEX was sold to the Electronic Data Systems ("EDS") division of General Motors Corporation.

At the closing with EDS we said "We need to sell APPEX because even with a nine month return on investment we are growing too fast and running out of cash. But we don't want to leave the industry." So four software engineers and $150,000 of nascent customer acquisition software was carved out to create Lightbridge.

Harder Pharmaceutical Limited Partnership first purchased its Copley Pharmaceutical interest in July 1985. Sales were $2.6 million. By fiscal year ending January 1991, Copley Pharmaceutical, Inc. produced and sold approximately 75 generic drugs including: electrolytes, antihistamines, vitamins antiinflammatory, antibacterial, cardiac antiarrhythmics, fluorides, central nervous system, laboratory and antipyretic. President Jane Hirsh managed Copley’s growth. On October 12, 1993, Hoechst Celanese Corporation paid $546 million for a 51 percent stake in Copley Pharmaceutical, Inc. Copley’s meteoric success was a direct result of its prowess obtaining FDA sustained release drug application approvals.

Even after increasing Copley’s valuation from $4 million to $1.3 billion in nine years, Harder vowed to never again venture a company where he was unable to pronounce the names of the products.

GWA Information Systems, Inc., founded in 1984, is a software development and Accounts Receivables consulting services company specializing in the debt recovery management marketplace. The primary application was a mature, feature-rich debt collection product. Led by Janice M. Kelliher, the Company successfully adapted its product for use over the Internet and offered unusual connectivity to its customers. In 2000 GWA was sold to ABIT AG, a German software concern.

Incorporated in 1984, Dent-A-Med, Inc. ("HELPCard.com") grew assets to over $150 million in health care credit in all 50 states through the use of custom credit scoring models and specialized credit card financing programs for patients of dentists. In 1993, T. Warren Center, Dent-A-Med's founder, became the Company Chairman and CEO. In December 2006, Harbert Private Equity Partners purchased 65% control of the company.

By offering expertise on the decision to grant credit computer algorithms, Harder helped members of the Walton family create and operate a dental business for their favorite Fayetteville, AR dentist: T. Warren Center.

Ventured in 1983, Business Research Corporation ("www.firstcall.com") was sold to International Thomson Organization on October 10, 1986. The Company’s First Call subsidiary delivers Wall Street research electronically via a satellite network, custom built, worldwide. Today, you can watch First Call earnings reports daily on MSNBC and other networks. Hired from Boston Consulting Group, Andrew G. Mills managed Business Research's spectacular success and subsequently helped roll up Thomson Financial.

Of the Top Ten Institutional Investor research firms, Business Research competed with three: Merrill Lynch partnering with IBM, Paine Webber partnering with Mead Data and the partners of Goldman Sachs going it alone. The other seven firms backed Business Research's winning FirstCall which is still thriving 36 years later!