BSU Electronics

That demand for PCBs will continue to grow is probably intuitive to most people as electronic devices have infiltrated modern life. Most people will interact with dozens of PCBs before leaving their house each morning (alarm clock, phone, electric toothbrush, thermostat, coffee grinder, toaster, etc.). While many of those PCBs are assembled abroad at scale, a large portion will reliably be made here in the US. Customers who need strict national security or information security assurances, or those who want deep engineering partnership and rapid turnarounds will often choose domestic partners like BSU Electronics. As policymakers look to reshore some American manufacturing, whether for economic benefits or strategic security, businesses like BSU have a role to play.

I was extremely fortunate to have transition pay from my prior job in consulting, so I didn’t need a salary out the gate. That gave me the flexibility to focus my energy on finding an attractive company first rather than raising capital. Early on, I spent my time on the road visiting factories and building relationships with folks who had been-there-done-that. They introduced me to a range of investors including people in the ETA world.

I met Dylan Rebois a few weeks before going under LOI, and pretty quickly determined that my strategy would be more successful if he were involved, which was instrumental in deciding to go with an ETA investor set. He chewed through everything I sent to him, asked thoughtful questions that either overlapped with what I thought was material or pushed my thinking forward, and was extremely generous with his time. He also has a box of tricks to improve diligence and (as it turns out) running a company.

The downside of running your search “back to front” is that it’s hard to simultaneously evaluate an industry, a deal, a seller, potential advisors or co-searchers, and debt and equity partners. The silver lining is that I got to see which folks kept me going when the going got tough. Those are the investors I chose to surround myself with, and that’s translated into the right support squad for me post-close.

In my prior life I’d served clients who struggled to find a domestic PCB assembler able to provide a quality product on time. It sounds simple but is hard to execute right now, in part because there’s a gap between the rate of onshoring and folks qualified to work in manufacturing. With that in mind, I set out to find a company that had managed to hire and retain an exceptional technical team.

BSU Electronics was clearly impressing its customers, most of whom had been with the business for over a decade, which suggested the company was getting a lot right. They were responding quickly to customer requests, routinely solving tough technical challenges, and consistently delivering assemblies to spec and on time. This is only possible with strong operational controls and a world class team and culture. That gave us the confidence that BSU had an unusually strong foundation upon which we could build a worldclass player.

Finally, there was strong alignment with the sellers’ objectives, and we had their full support throughout the transition. As former CEO Ahmad Chamseddine put it: “We were seeking a new owner who would safeguard the exceptional team we’ve built, with the appetite to continue scaling the company and drive the next phase of growth. It has been really enjoyable to work with Leyla and Andrew, and to see Leyla step seamlessly into the CEO role, enabling me to transition out smoothly!”

We are building a leading electronics contract manufacturer that is a by-word for exceptional quality and service, and a rewarding place to work for manufacturing talent. I’m lucky to have inherited a great foundation and to have the benefit of Andrew, Dylan and Ahmad’s experience and partnership.

That we’re building from a solid foundation gives us a chance to think expansively about how we deepen our service to existing customers and apply BSU’s capabilities to new customers and new industries. At BSU, I’m excited to build in new technology including AI to give our people leverage as we grow, allowing us to focus on solving hard problems and delivering great products to our customers.

We are also fortunate to have ready access to capital through our shareholders, to support both growth and complementary acquisitions.