Tilson, based in Portland, Maine, is a remarkably diverse technology company that builds and maintains fiber and wireless networks, provides data management services, develops software, and streamlines the use of technology in businesses, among other services.
CEO Josh Broder graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont days after 9/11. He was also an ROTC student at the University of Vermont in Burlington, the closest location where he could enroll in the officer training program.
After 9/11, the newly commissioned Broder found himself treading water in Burlington for six months before the U.S. Army could reorganize itself and “figure out what to do with me,” Broder said.
What the Army finally figured out was to send him to Afghanistan as a signal officer, where he built a modern communications network for the soldiers deployed there, earning a Bronze Star in the process.
Not surprisingly, Broder’s 13 months working and risking his life in Afghanistan have served him well in building Tilson into a company that has made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held companies for eight years running. Broder is the largest shareholder in the company.
“He did this for the Army while he was getting shot at around the world,” said Nat Henshaw, managing director of CEI Ventures in Brunswick, Maine, one of Tilson’s early investors. “We figured if people stopped shooting at him he could do a really good job.”
And he has, Henshaw says. When Broder, 40, took the reins in 2009 Tilson had about 10 employees and was doing about $10 million in business. Today, the company has 550 employees – and is adding 20 to 35 people a month, according to Broder – and will surpass $100 million in revenue this year. That’s up from $77 million last year, and $44 million the year before that.
Broder said he has already been notified that Tilson will make the Inc. 5000 list again this year.
“It’s pretty easy to get on the list with a growth spurt, it’s hard to stay on the list,” Broder said.
Broder met Henshaw in 2013 when he was asked to speak to an investor group that included Henshaw as a member. Broder was asked to speak about trends in technology, including the upcoming transition of 4G networks to 5G.
When it came time for Broder to look for his first venture investor, he looked up Henshaw.
“He wound up being the foundational investor,” Broder said.
Not that things went smoothly at first. In January 2014, Tilson’s biggest customer, AT&T, put its entire capital spend on hold to pay for its acquisition of Direct TV. At the time, half of Tilson’s 100 employees were working on AT&T projects.
“We found ourselves the morning after taking $700,000 of investment with half our team on the bench,” Broder remembered.
Broder made three decisions. First, he decided not to lay off anybody, but rather to retrain his idled employees to do something else.
“We felt this was a blip and didn’t want to let great people go,” Broder said. “For us that meant servicing other customers.”
Second, Broder found a community bank – Bangor Savings Bank, now the biggest bank in Maine – “to believe in us so we wouldn’t have problems.”
And third, Broder was determined to get more venture capital.
“We lost approximately $700,000, all the money we raised in 2013,” Broder said. “I went to Nat (Henshaw) with my plan.”
The good news, Broder told Henshaw, was that sunny days were ahead. The bad news was that Tilson had lost $700,000 and needed more money.
“Not only didn’t he grind me into fine powder, he listened to the plan and made a follow-on investment of another $500,000,” Broder said. “We took that money and put it to good use. We built the incredible company you see today. I don’t think a lot of investors would have been so thoughtful, rational and reasonable.”
