Blekicki finds niche as financial matchmaker

BOULDER — Business consultant Ron Blekicki and his firm, Hanover Financial Services, have taken advantage of turmoil in the financial world to grow rapidly in recent years.

From focusing on demands for capital from new social media companies to generating more business in Europe, Blekicki said his Boulder-based company with three employees continues to grow.

Hanover Financial Services’ revenue grew 290 percent, from $385,000 in 2009 to $1.5 million in 2011, good enough for the No. 1 spot on the Boulder County Business Report’s Mercury 100 list of fastest-growing private companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties reporting annual revenue of less than $2 million.

“Being a business consultant is an incredibly competitive space,” Blekicki said. “Banks refuse to lend money to practically anyone, so it’s difficult for some of our competitors to morph with this economy.”

As its competitors languish, Hanover often has been able to pick up more business, Blekicki said. The funding guru said he has more than 25 years of experience working with companies that need debt and equity-funding strategies. As just one example of how Hanover might work in today’s financial world, Blekicki said he might be able to match up a large pension fund with $5 billion to invest and a mandate on investing in renewable energy companies, with a promising start-up renewable energy firm.

“Part of the key to our success is knowing capital sources and clients whom they can help finance,” Blekicki said. “And we have stayed connected to unconventional funding sources.”

Blekicki has an unofficial network around the world of noncontrolling equity-based investors who are willing to take positions in companies and help them grow. He characterizes his consulting help with companies as the “direct opposite” of venture capital investment help, in which investors typically take stakes in companies, sit on company boards, and work with them directly.

Blekicki said Hanover educates clients about opportunities they can take to market themselves on social media sites, and with online advertising and publishing.

In 2011, Hanover was No. 2 on the Mercury 100 list. At that point, Blekicki said he was able to match equity-based investors with clients, taking referrals from investment bankers, hedge funds, private equity groups and similar long-term relationships in the financial industry.

Blekicki said he helped Boulder metalworking company Dynamic Materials Corp. go public, and former Parker oil exploration company Gulfstar Energy Corp. to be acquired.

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