What Does Sampford Stand For?

Stanford? Samford?....Oh Sampford! What does it stand for?

That’s a typical reaction we receive when introducing our firm for the first time to someone. The name stands out, and we’re well aware of it. In fact, we named the firm Sampford Advisors for a reason.

Let us explain.

Great Sampford is a village in the north-west of the English county of Essex, in England. The population of Sampford is around 500 – definitely quieter than Dundas square in Toronto.

In fact, these houses are probably the tallest “high rises” you’ll find:

So what’s the connection?

Sampford Advisors was founded almost three years ago by Ed Bryant – who was born in Great Sampford. That’s where the names comes from!

On a more serious note, many of the values we embrace at the firm are values that relate to how the firm got started and where its humble beginnings stemmed from.

Sampford is about:

•       Respecting people “putting clients first”

•       Cherishing ones home “treating companies we advise like they’re our own”

•       Operating with integrity “100% hard & honest work”

We understand that selling a technology business is a very difficult decision, one that’s also very personal. As an entrepreneur, you don’t treat your company like a 9 to 5 job, you treat it like it’s your baby!

That’s why we take pride in highlighting where we come from and why our “roots” are so important to us – because it’s the lessons one learns early on in life that transition into how one operates in business.

In addition to this, we wanted our brand to represent entrepreneurship. We call ourselves investment bankers, with entrepreneurial DNA – not just by name, but by action.

If you look at our founding history, you can see entrepreneurial traces across the board. In fact, one of the main reasons Sampford Advisors was created was because we realized that the Canadian M&A for mid-market technology companies was underserved. 

Ed Bryant, who founded the firm, held a CFO position at a technology company in Ottawa. Having worked on Wall St. prior to that for several years, he was familiar with how active the tech M&A scene was in the US and how different the landscape was in Canada. This was the spark needed to embark on what has since become a well-established firm.

Fast-forwarding to today, Sampford Advisors has become the #1 mid-market firm in Canada, having completed more deals than any other firm and worked with great Canadian technology companies on either their buyside or sellside mandates.

In just the past month, we announced 3 transactions we’ve worked on; Solufy’s sale to Prometheus Group, DataSplice’s sale to Prometheus Group, and Martello’s acquisition of Savision - making that 11 deals in total since inception.

We’re often asked what makes our firm stand out, and why we’ve been able to be successful in a short period of time. Instead of answering that ourselves, there’s a great testimonial from one of the founders of a company we helped advise, Bernie Aho, an Investor and Director of ConceptShare (which was sold to Deltek) who said “Ed and his team were exceptional, like Navy Seals, with expert professional precision, execution and guidance.”

What sets us apart is:

·       Our focus on mid-market M&A

·       Our commitment to Canada

·       Our experience with technology, media, and telecommunications companies

We treat every client like a friend, every business like a home, and every sale like our own. We’re here to listen to you, help where we can add value, and advise when we see an opportunity.

Hopefully that explains the meaning behind our name and the value behind our brand. It’s Sampford, not Stanford! 😊