Strong-Bridge Consulting and Envision Business Consulting recently announced they would combine, through a majority investment by Bow River Capital, to form a new company with a wider geographic footprint and offering expanded capabilities to clients. Consulting sat down with Ken Simpson, co-founder and partner of Strong-Bridge to talk about how Envision was selected for the partnership, how the companies' cultural alignment sealed the deal, and talk about possible future growth through acquisition for the Seattle-based firm.
Consulting: What was the impetus behind the partnership with Envision?
Simpson: In 2015, Strong-Bridge became engaged with an equity partner called Bow River Capital. Since then, we spent time together looking at options for both organic growth as well as growth through mergers and acquisitions. Over that period we looked at well over 25 companies that could be potential partners for us to grow through the transaction side. Through that process we were able to identify a few potential fits, but it's an extremely important decision, almost like you're getting married in a business sense. Over time we narrowed it down to Envision as our last really strong option we felt great about.
