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[Andy Hafer] Dynamic Communities came out of one of those needs that didn’t exist in the world. I was a chief information officer for a midsized manufacturing company and we had put in a software package that was brand new to the market. I couldn’t find people who could train on this software. I had to look far and wide.

I found people, pieced together a team and we were successful in training and implementing the software in our company. One thing led to another and I built this company that created this peer to peer sharing of knowledge. And over the 15 years or so that it's been rolling, I feel really good about the people that we've helped.

I knew I needed to make a business transition when I preferred to have different roles other than leading the company, and I knew that we needed growth capital to take it to the next level.

The fact that all the components of a business transition were with the same company was fantastic.

We have a very unique business, and they took a tremendous amount of time to really get to know the industry and what made us valuable to an outside investor. I had the investment banker that knew everything about the tax implications and the estate planning and the wealth management and the commercial banking all sitting at the same table from the same company.

My wealth advisor taught me all about how to raise the capital. She was fantastic at walking me through all the different options that I had, and really, we came out with some of the best conclusions.

As an entrepreneur, you don't realize how much your business and personal life are intermingled. Things are going to change for you. Your emotions are going to change. The things that you want to accomplish in life are going to change.

Since the transaction I've been able to free some time up and do things that I'm a little bit more passionate about. One of the things is to establish a nonprofit organization that builds schools and hospitals in Haiti. I've been able to create scholarships for students at my local university. I really feel like my legacy is in good hands.

Financial confidence means to me that all fronts are taken care of and experts are looking out for my best interest and my family’s best interest. Dynamic Communities and all of the other businesses that it spurred on are my family.

We now have the capital, we have the corporate culture and the right leadership in place that I can play the right role, and it's going to continue to do good things in the world and be effective as a business going forward.

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