Must Read | New World Order Halama and OrderMyGear CEO Leonid Rozkin, negotiated down to the eleventh hour, with even top leadership like Ignacek-Sutton, Goodwin and Kaplan often out of the loop on whether the deal would even happen. (Halama now sits on the OrderMyGear board.) With the deal final, there are 4,000 combined clients. About 600 came from BrightStores, many of those large distributors that will soon gain access to the innovative features, such as pop-up shops, that OMG has to offer. And for as much as Kaplan is doing his level best to preach patience with the integration, he will admit that there are things that they can do at OMG that will “turn BrightStores on its head.” Goodwin puts it a little more boldly. “They’re already on fire now. We’re just going to be putting gas on the fire,” she says. Kaplan adds, “We’ve got a very robust sales and marketing engine.” Technology platforms exist to enable clients to do more. BrightStores has always done that “nimbly,” as Ignacek-Sutton says, doing what they can with the resources they have and working within what their clients can handle. Now it’s OMG’s turn to enable their new acquisition to do more. They want to give BrightStores employees the opportunity to say “yes” to more things. “Dan [Halama] has been passionately concerned with the future of BrightStores,” Ignacek-Sutton says. “I think it’s a relief to know that we’re now partnering with a company that can help us get to the next step.” OMGMaking Moves OrderMyGear has grown in business and in size over recent years. 2008 – Founded by Kent McKeaigg and James Skidmore. 2018 – Received investment from private equity backer Susquehanna Growth Equity to fund expansion. 2018 – Dave Dutch, formerly of PayLease, appointed CEO. 2021 – Leonid Rozkin promoted to CEO; Dutch stays on as executive chairman. 2022 – Acquires competitor BrightStores. 74 • JANUARY 2023 • PPAI
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