In 1998, Brian Rigney founded BlueTarp Financial as part of a project while getting his MBA degree. He was a financial analyst at Fleet Bank at the time and kept his day job a year before diving into being an entrepreneur full time. Today, BlueTarp, which provides financial services to the building-materials supply industry, has more than 150 employees and occupies the top two floors of One Monument Square in Portland (though a private company, it last reported revenue of $17.6 million in 2015 when it landed on the Inc. 5,000 list).
Rigney left BlueTarp in 2005 (though he still owns equity) and went on to work at WEX and as the 8th employee at CashStar before his career took him out of state in 2013 and he began working as a turnaround expert for private equity firms (though he’s remained a Portland resident throughout that time).
Now, twenty years after founding BlueTarp, Rigney has returned to the Portland technology scene via an acquisition.
Last summer, Rigney became CEO of CAI Software, a Rhode Island-based company that sells enterprise management and resource planning software to building materials, food processing and precious metals companies (Bristol Seafood on the Portland waterfront is a customer, for example). On the six-month anniversary of his new job, CAI announced that it had acquired Casco Development, a software development in Portland that sells “manufacturing execution system” (or MES) software to manufacturing companies. Its flagship product is called ShopVue. Financial terms of the transaction, which closed on Dec. 7, were not disclosed.
Casco Development is one of those local technology companies that operates under the radar in Portland. It’s 34 years old (founded in 1984) and has never garnered headlines for raising big rounds of investment. Its founder, Richard Deeran, bootstrapped the business without outside capital to a point where it now has a global roster of clients that use its software.
“It’s a niche he’s done an excellent job carving out,” Rigney said, referring to Deeran.
Though it hasn’t received much attention, Rigney said companies like Casco Development and entrepreneurs like Deeran should be celebrated. While he raised several rounds of venture capital while leading BlueTarp as a young entrepreneur, Rigney now sees
“Now that I’ve been around the block, I’d say I’m more in favor of the non-VC backed model,” he said. “A lot of the venture-backed companies get a lot of press, but the real celebration should be around the entrepreneurs like Richard who bootstrap and build very successful companies on their own.”
Rigney now works out of Casco Development’s office on the Portland waterfront. The company currently has about 20 employees, but that will quickly change, he said.
“We’re going to hire,” he said. “We’re looking right away for software implementation consultants who will work with clients, sales leadership; we’re looking for marketing, and we’ll be looking for engineers.”
Deeran, who remains involved in the company he founded 34 years ago, said he was excited by the new chapter in Casco Development’s story.
“[CAI] share so many of the values that have made my company great. This includes a deep respect for employees and customers, a commitment to doing it right and being accountable as well as a thoughtful growth strategy based on having solid products and processes in place. All Casco Development stakeholders should benefit,” Deeran said. “For me personally, this transition is ideal. I’ll do what I love most – working with customers to evolve ShopVue into an even better, quicker-to-implement MES solution.”
