Case Studies●

About Us

CapitalLinkUSA specializes in owner-managed, privately-held companies poised for their next growth level.

Stefania Aulicino is a serial entrepreneur who also spent 15 years on Wall Street to learn how to get cash and keep control. She formed CapitalLinkUSA in 1988 to share that knowledge  with fellow business builders and has raised over $125 million for clients.

She created and directed the Mind Your Own Business Program for CEOs, sponsored by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, her alma mater.

She has been featured in the press, including The Financial Times of London and Crain’s. Stefania has spoken at the Inc. 500 and other leading CEO forums including Vistage, the world’s largest CEO organization.

Stefania is the author of Cash and Control—You Can Have Both, An Unconventional Process for Finding Money to Grow Your Business. 

Most entrepreneurs look back on their company's history and regret their ability, at these times, to fully understand the complexities of their growth strategy as it related to their possibilities. As a result they underestimated the potential value of their business, and made many uninformed choices. Don't become another statistic.

Stefania Aulicino’s role as the Entrepreneur’s Advocate is a unique blend of her own experiences as an entrepreneur and her insights as a Wall Street “insider,” packaged into a proven methodology, so you can make the right decisions with confidence.

CapitalLinkUSA, founded 20 years ago as a resource for business builders, remains unique in the following ways:

• Innovator in the narrowly focused marketplace of owner-managed businesses with critical focus on the discovery of growth possibilities and execution of funding strategies which dramatically enhance the value of your ownership interest;
  
• Commitment to deliver growth capital which shares your vision and wants you in control;
  
• Shares its success oriented reputation and dynamic network of working relationships with more than 3,000 institutional growth capital investors.
  
• Concentrates on companies still majority owned by its operating principals poised for their next growth level.
  
• Expertise to address the challenges inherent in the first and subsequent rounds of professional private equity financing;
  
• Developed the CapitalLinkUSA Cash and Control System™ , a powerful set of tools and market-proven methodology which empowers business builders to make confident decisions to achieve the full potential of their growth opportunities through broad based financial market knowledge and multiple funding alternatives.

Over the last 20 years, 95% of CapitalLinkUSA's clients have discovered a future much bigger, safer and more profitable than originally envisioned and closed financing deals with better terms than previously offered.

CapitalLinkUSA speaks directly to your priorities and issues:

1. Positions you to be a confident decision maker, based on real growth choices and Financial Market Intelligence of solutions to lower the risk of fast, profitable growth to build shareholder value and capture your company's full potential.

2. Secures the right capital for you, defined as the investor(s) which shares your vision, wants you in control of your company's destiny and manifests their appreciation of your team's accomplishments with the highest valuation.

3. Delivers the lowest total cost to fund your growth.

4. Manifests bottom line results in "entrepreneurial time": with speed and urgency, based on a shared commitment to your goals

Founded by fellow entrepreneur Stefania Aulicino in 1988, CapitalLinkUSA is a resource for business builders. Clients come to rely on us as their most important point of contact for all of their corporate growth issues.

Here's what people have said about CapitalLinkUSA:

"Advocate, not Agent"

"Corporate mentor"

"Capital which shares YOUR vision"

"Investors who want YOU in CONTROL"

"One-Stop-Shopping for prestigious venture capital"

"Turnkey approach with Bottom Line results"

"Bridge between the Business Visionary and the Financial Community"

“I don’t know anyone who works as hard for their clients as Stefania at Capital Link”. George Spencer, Managing Director Adams Street Partners, Chicago

Our clients list and our list of investors speak for themselves.

The CapitalLinkUSA Difference

“I thought I knew what I had. I didn't.
I perceived that attracting resources for my growth would be hard. It wasn't.
I thought I'd hate the process and the people. I didn't. I developed a network of friends.
I thought I'd hate sharing my company. Now I can't wait to share more of an even bigger company.
I thought it would be expensive. It was the best money I ever spent. The return is automatic and many fold.
I thought you plan, execute, then accept whatever you are offered. I discovered I had choices and control.

Are you ready to fulfill the potential of your dream? All it takes is a willingness to learn about your business, the financial markets and yourself, and the guidance of a unique company, CapitalLinkUSA."

- Wayne McFarland, CEO of Landmark Industries, Inc. of Illinois

CapitalLinkUSA offers a safe-harbor from your worst fears because it understands the entrepreneur’s perspective and knows what drives visionary success. Founded on entrepreneurial principles by an entrepreneur with experience in business ownership and corporate finance (commercial banking, corporate finance, venture capital and investment banking) CapitalLinkUSA is uniquely situated to see each situation and opportunity through the eyes of the entrepreneur and the funding community.CapitalLinkUSA is unique in the marketplace -- not by accident, but by design.

A Distinctive Objective

CapitalLinkUSA is committed to preserving management control, under which you - the business owner - continue to direct your company's destiny and reap the benefits of the future success of the company you create. CapitalLinkUSA focuses on building perceived market value, which it then translates into a useful currency available immediately, to fuel the full growth and profit potential of your Company.

• CapitalLinkUSA’s in-depth focus reaches far beyond a mere financial need
  
• CapitalLinkUSA helps empower the company to realize its greatest growth and profit potential
  
• CapitalLinkUSA specializes in transactions which preserve control for its Client Company

A Pro-Active Position

Capital Link’s vast financial network consists of working relationships with over 3000 potential funding sources, each of which is a window of knowledge through which Client Companies gain objectivity. The Cash And Control System^TM allows Client Companies the opportunity to clearly see themselves through the eyes of the funding community. CapitalLinkUSA, however, remains completely independent and, therefore, completely objective. The Business Owner is CapitalLinkUSA’s client and making their vision real is CapitalLinkUSA’s critical point of focus.

CapitalLinkUSA positions its Client Companies both to see and to understand what the market perceives to be the risks associated with attempting to achieve the Company’s stated strategic growth goals. Client Companies are shown how to use this candid feedback to build their own confidence in the reality and accessibility of their optimum growth strategy. This advance feedback allows the Company to lower the perceived market risks associated with its rapid growth strategy. Hence the likelihood of the overall success of the growth strategy is enhanced. Access to a receptive and communicative market is critical because risk and value are ultimately defined in terms of "reality" as the market perceives it to exist. The Cash And Control System^TM empowers Client Companies to use their newly discovered growth as an economic currency to effectively negotiate maximum value with all interested potential resources (capital and/or human).

A Unique Vantage Point

Founder and President, Stefania Aulicino, is an entrepreneur first, as well as a first-class financier. Besides having founded 3 companies herself, Aulicino has been in the financial market place for over 30 years, serving in various management, financial, entrepreneurial and board level positions. This uniquely places her in the informed position from which she so effectively bridges the risk-gap that characteristically exists between the business owner and the resource marketplace. CapitalLinkUSA is in the action business, and Aulicino is equipped with all the tools necessary to make even the most ambitious vision a reality.

Quite simply, The Cash And Control System^TM provides a strong, stable, well founded and proven bridge between the business owner’s needs and the performance, return, safety and security needs of the resource marketplace.

CapitalLinkUSA is the critical complement to all other financial, professional or consulting firms:

• CPA’s tell you where you are now and where you’ve been
  
• Commercial Bankers extrapolate from your past which limits their ability to provide financing needed for your future potential
  
• Brokers and finders look for commodity dollars - not "smart money" able to empower you to achieve your goals
  
• Investment Bankers tell you what price will clear the market. They are focused on trading value, not building value.
  
• Strategic and financial consultants tell you what your financial needs are but are not accountable either for creating shareholder value or seeing the project through to financial conclusion -- typically such consultants are just paid for their time and provide minimal funding or value-building assistance

The Quantum Leap Zone^TM

CapitalLink USA is an innovator in the marketplace of manager-owned companies, providing a continuous flow of new ideas, practices, and solutions as a critical complement to your other professional resources. Working together, here is where each of your professional resources focus their expertise:

The Cash And Control System^TM is a proprietary method of obtaining the highest valuation and maintaining the greatest amount of control when growing your business.

Tell me how to get started with the specialized services for me.
My company has revenue of:

[less than $3 million];

[$3-30 million];

[over $30 million]

Call the innovator of the Cash And Control System for a complementary analysis: Stefania Aulicino 312/951-6777.