Bizness Apps acquired by private equity fund

Andrew Gazdecki, the 29-year-old founder behind San Diego-based Bizness Apps, is selling his 8-year-old technology company to a private equity buyer that is also gifting him with a no-strings-attached $500,000 check for his next venture.

“I’m ready to take a swing at a new company,” said Gazdecki, who lives in Pacific Beach with his wife and plans to remain in town after the sale.

Started in 2010, Bizness Apps makes build-it-yourself mobile app software for small businesses. The company initially raised $100,000 in seed funding, but has since bootstrapped operations.

In the atypical sale, announced Wednesday, Think3, a relatively new Austin-based private equity fund, will take over Gazdecki’s mobile app business, which claims to be profitable and have more than 100,000 paying customers. After a 100-day transition period, Gazdecki will leave his 50-person company in the hands of Think3 CEO Andy Tryba.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed — save for the cash gift, which Gazdecki will use to fund his next, yet-to-be-determined tech idea.

Think3 views its half-a-million-dollar proposition, offered to all of the companies it acquires, as a deal sweetener for young founders looking to break away from their aging companies and start up all over again.

Created earlier this year, Think3’s mission is to buy middle-of-the-road, business-to-business software companies and run them indefinitely, presumably at a profit. The fund also combines resources across all of its portfolio companies — usually from engineering, finance and operations departments — in order to cut costs.

“We take over the company, staff it with our people and run the company from there,” Tryba said.

The strategy also means eventual layoffs for Bizness App’s team, though Tryba said he was unsure of how many staffers would be cut.

Currently, Bizness Apps employs around 35 people at its La Jolla headquarters. The startup’s local office opened two years ago after Gazdecki relocated the business from the Bay Area. At the time, Gazdecki cited the region’s talent pool and lower cost of living as reasons for the relocation. He also promised to create 100 new jobs in town.

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin