Exa Capital Acquires StaffReady

Selling a company can be a deeply emotional experience. And sometimes sellers second guess their decision to sell, even after they obtain an excellent result from the sale. However, it's important to take away the positives from the experience. According to Corum clients Nancy and John Janzen, it's reassuring to celebrate what you accomplish in the sale and be excited to move forward. The Janzens recently sold StaffReady to Exa Capital, a buy-and-hold acquirer of software companies. They came out of the experience feeling very good about the decision they made to sell, seeing it as an opportunity to celebrate a new season of their life. 

StaffReady

The Janzens co-founded Maplewood Software in 1996 as a custom software development shop. Over time it evolved into a company that specializes in developing software for clinical workforce management, scheduling, and compliance in ancillary medical environments. The company rebranded and introduced a new suite of solutions adding StaffReady Competency and Document Control to StaffReady Scheduling to solve operational and regulatory challenges in healthcare. 

Although StaffReady was successful and had good customer retention, by 2025 the Janzens realized they needed a partner who could help them grow the company further. Also, after leading their company for almost 30 years, they felt it was time for a change. So, they approached Corum.

John Janzen, who through the years had the role of Chief Technology Officer , had attended a Corum event years before. At the time, he and Nancy Janzen, who was the company's CEO, were not ready to sell. John Janzen recalls, "At the time we weren't nearly large enough to sell, it wasn't even a factor." However, the couple started investigating the idea of selling in the future. "We started our research fairly early," says John Janzen. "I read several books. I talked to several people who had sold businesses. We talked to several different brokerages. And after going through a process of review, when the time was right for pursuing an M&A we settled on Corum."

Going to market

The Janzens signed Corum to be their M&A advisor in early 2025. And by May of that year, Corum had the Janzens prepared and took them out to the M&A market. A key element of Corum taking a company to market is its global M&A search process, which relies on the industry's largest and most detailed buyer database in the tech M&A industry. The search process matches software and IT companies with the most fitting potential acquirers. The objective is to create an auction environment in which multiple serious buyers make competitive bids. It’s a process that tends to drive up valuations and improve deal structures for the seller. The process did, in fact, generate offers from four serious buyers, one of them Exa Capital, which was the buyer the Janzens ultimately selected.

A Letter of Interest (LOI) was signed in October 2025 outlining the agreement and the initial deal structure. After going through due diligence, the deal closed in February 2026. Asked why the Janzens chose Exa Capital as the buyer, John Janzen responded, "Exa Capital was a really good fit. They happened to offer the best price. But they also happened to have a culture that would work with us. We're still working with the company because of that."

Cultural fit was especially important to the Janzens. They wanted a partner that would hold and sustainably grow the StaffReady platform rather than flipping it for a quick profit. Exa Capital operates with a "buy-and-hold" permanent ownership model that allows the Janzens to operate their company independently without having to uproot operations or leadership. That approach aligned perfectly with the Janzens' vision of protecting their legacy.

Advice for prospective sellers

Asked what her advice would be to CEOs who are considering selling their company, Nancy Janzen underscored the importance of letting go once the sale is complete. She advised, "I always think there's going to be a few things, or even many things, that the new buyer ends up doing that maybe is not what you would have done. You really are giving up control even if you do become an employee of the new company. Continuing to try to hang on and make it exactly what it was when you were in charge is not wise." She encouraged sellers to," just celebrate this season of life and that you accomplished something tremendous. Be excited moving forward. There's a temptation to second guess your decision. Instead, embrace what's good about that new season instead of looking back."

Life after the deal

Exa Capital's buy-and-hold approach allows the Janzens to continue operating their companies, ensuring their deep industry expertise remains at the helm. In addition, the Janzens are very excited about the new opportunities that Exa Capital offers. Nancy Janzen put it this way: "One of the reasons we sold was that we had reached the edge of our capacity for the size that we were at. So, it's exciting for us to see new opportunities come forward with the staff from the new company. Our staff is very encouraged and excited by other leadership opportunities and the training that they're getting. So, it's validating for us that we made the right decision. And it's really going to be best for our staff, and for us, and for our clients."

As for the future, the Janzens say they have other things in mind that they would like to do, but they add, "right now we're really excited to see how the company is growing in a positive direction.”