From Side Project to Success:

How an educational staffing project turned into a multi-million dollar success and eventual exit

“If you do the right thing, everything else falls into place."

Hector and Dianne Valentin didn’t intend to start a business connecting schools with therapists, medical professionals, and special education service providers. But life doesn’t always go as planned! What started as a side project turned into a multi-million dollar staffing company which they recently sold to comfortably retire. We sat down with Hector and Dianne to learn more about their remarkable story growing EdLogical Group and how a side project turned into a successful career and M&A sale.

Surviving Hardship

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Hector Valentin was facing quite a few life challenges. Over the course of several years, he had two brain surgeries which affected his speech permanently and left him unable to do much but recover.

“The doctors said, it was either survive with your speech affected, or die,” said Valentin. “And I chose the speech!”

It was a tough couple of years until he moved to California around 2005 and met his wife, Dianne. Dianne was a licensed and credentialed School Psychologist servicing districts and charter schools. She was primarily working with at-risk, incarcerated, and special education students.

That’s where the spark of EdLogical began.

A Side Project

Hector and Dianne noticed a need for other professionals at the Charter Schools /Districts she was working with at the time. Many schools needed good speech pathologists, school psychologists, nurses, occupational therapist and more. Because Dianne was known and trusted in the tight Charter School community/Districts, they wanted her opinion on hiring others.

“Around 2010, they were asking Dianne, can you help me find a speech therapist or can you help us find an occupational therapist? We thought, we will do this as a side project to make a house down payment and then call it a day.”

Hector and Dianne started EdLogical Group and hired two speech pathologists working with nine schools across Southern California. As both were still working full time, they didn’t set out to start a new business and make it grow. But one thing leads to another, and EdLogical started to expand.

More Growth, More Payroll

A school district approached EdLogical and asked them to put a proposal together. Hector didn’t have high expectations but submitted a bid anyway and ended up winning the contract. Suddenly, two employees turned into 8.

Hector thought at the time, “How am I going to pay these people? With our original two, they were okay with getting paid when the schools paid us. But most people are going to want to be paid weekly. I took out a loan against my 401k and was drawing about 80k a week to make payroll and cycling the money back in. That worked for a while, but when we went from 6 employees to 12, payroll shot up to $25k a week. It’s at this time I knew I needed an outside partner for cash flow help.”

Hector had been aware of Advance Partners since the late 90s and finally gave them a call around 2011. He talked to Gary Paparizos, the Business Development Manager of the West Coast. Gary was intrigued by the business and asked for a business proposal.

Hector told him, “Look, we’re just starting out, I don’t really have that.” But Gary encouraged Hector to put something together. Five days later, EdLogical was approved for funding.

Seizing Opportunities

Around 2014, the Valentins faced a decision. As EdLogical was getting more recognition in the industry, the side business was picking up steam – which meant long hours and lots of work for the two.

Hector said, “I asked Dianne, do you want to call it a day? It was a lot of work alongside our regular jobs. But we decided to double down on EdLogical instead. Dianne retired early and I left my logistics job in 2016 to focus on staffing full time.”

Over the next six years, EdLogical grew from 12 employees and schools to 40+ employees across 40 schools, taking in revenue of about $2.5 million. But it’s when the pandemic hit that business really took off.

“In 2020, they are saying that the schools are going to close. I start researching online and Zoom services,” said Valentin. “This put us way ahead of the game, to be able to offer virtual services. We jumped to 66 employees. In 2021, schools went virtual and hybrid and back in person. And all the sudden, the schools are asking for school nurses, medical assistants, nurses for COVID testing, etc. We put 22 people to work in Pasadena, another district reached out for more medical staff. We went from 65 to 130 employees.”

What It's Really All About

Hector and Dianne were proud that EdLogical was getting recognized in the industry for doing great work, hitting the Inc. 5000 list - which recognizes the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the US - three years in a row. But what they were most proud of is the work they did to support kids.

Per Dianne and Hector: “At the end of the day, the kids have always been more important than the revenue. Their needs were what drove us and keep us going. Running a business is not easy, especially when dealing with kids who might be dealing with emotional/learning disabilities etc. What happens if a provider doesn’t show up? We also wanted to make sure the kids have a relationship with all the providers. You can’t build a relationship if it’s a new person every week, as some staffing companies do. We focused on making sure the provider was there a whole school year. It’s not about the money, it’s about helping kids. Our company ethics and morals were extremely important. If you do the right dthing, everything else falls into place.”

Looking to Exit

As the company grew to new heights, the Valentins began to focus on an exit strategy to sell the business. After many years of hard work and determination, they agreed that it was time to start a new chapter together. In 2020 to 2023, they were approached by many prospective buyers but weren’t finding the right fit.

“We turned down a lot of them. Some didn’t have the same ethics as us. It was more of a numbers game, etc. Our focus has always been on providing services for the kids, so that had to stay our top priority. Our employees have been with us since day one, or many years of a relationship. We knew we had to do right by them. We needed the right company to get the right package for our employees who we care about deeply.”

In October of 2022, Hector fand Dianne finally found the right match with Point Quest Group, an education and pediatric therapies company based in California.

“It was a good relationship. Right from the start, we felt like we kind of mirrored each other in our ethics. At the end of the day, an acquisition or sale is about relationships you build. Obviously, it’s important to get a good price, and that the company provides great services for students. When we sold in May 2023, the company was valued at over $6.3 million.”

Hector and Diane are semi-retired now, and the future is open to new possibilities. But what they are most excited for is being able to take a nonworking vacation with their family for the first time. The Valentins plan to purchase a RV and travel the country.

A Successful Partnership

Hector and Dianne credit Advance Partners with being a key to their success because of cash flow.

“Our relationship has always been great. If you are looking to start your business, work with Advance. You can try to borrow money, but you’ll still be paying interest. With Advance, you have a lot of freedom, they’re not beating you down every 30 days for payment. You’re not worried about making payroll. It’s been a big key to our success.”

Thank you, Hector and Dianne Valentin for speaking to us about your inspiring story!

We wish you nothing but the best in whatever the future holds. Learn more about EdLogical Group at edlogicalpqg.com/.

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