Hastings was my first private equity experience, and it was outstanding. In fact, I don’t think of Hastings as private equity, but personal equity. The progress they enabled really changed the course of our business. They preserved what was working while helping us solve mission-critical problems of all kinds. And they gave us access to resources and talent we never thought we’d have.

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They helped with our acquisition, which closed in 2008—right as the market crashed. It couldn’t have been a worse time. It was scary. But Hastings stayed the course.

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In 2009, I went to a board meeting to discuss our online effort, and the need for ecommerce. Due to the crash, we really didn’t have the money to invest in an overhaul of our digital presence, but we also didn’t have the luxury of waiting. We ended up suspending the payment of the management fee so that we could invest in our website. Now QAA.com has over 25,000 visits per month, and our search engine rankings are in the top three for 98% of our products. We have Hastings to thank for that.

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Hastings created lasting value that we’re still seeing over a decade

later. Their investment in our team is still paying dividends, and the amount of enterprise value that was created could directly be

attributed through our website. We’re now owned by Hartzell Propeller of Tailwind Technologies—which built the first propeller for the Wright Brothers in 1917. I feel like this business, which I’ve put so much of my life into, is finally able to live up to its true potential.