Perfectly Aligned Philosophies Drive a Successful Long-Term Relationship

Los Angeles-based Byte has made headlines in the clear dental aligner market since the company was founded in 2017.

Byte first garnered attention by challenging some of the industry’s biggest names head on with plans to market direct-to-consumer at-home invisible dental aligners, then by growing dramatically after launching its product line in 2019, and finally by combining with publicly traded Dentsply Sirona (Nasdaq: XRAY) of Charlotte in a $1.04 billion deal that closed in late 2020, less than four years after being founded. But there was an unusual aspect to Byte’s success story that is less well known – from start up through sale, the company and its entrepreneur owners have been represented by Michigan-based Bodman PLC, one of the Midwest’s leading business law firms.

What led a dynamic California-based startup seeking to build a global brand to rely on Bodman? In a word, trust.

“We have represented Byte’s founders, Blake Johnson and Scott Cohen, for years” said Bodman’s Tim Damschroder, who helped the duo establish Byte and led the legal team that structured and negotiated its sale. “Byte was their fourth successful sale transaction and we served as M&A counsel on all of them. We have built up a great amount of trust along the way. ”

A high level of trust has developed in part because Bodman’s service philosophy is perfectly aligned with Byte’s own customer-focused strategy, which helped foster its explosive growth.

“In many ways it’s a typical Bodman client relationship,” Damschroder added. “Our objective is to earn trust by providing great service and value, while always staying focused on the client’s long-term success. It’s why we have represented many clients for 30, 40, even 50 years or more.”

In addition to Damschroder, the Bodman deal team for the sale of Byte to Dentsply Sirona included Carrie Leahy, Ryan Olson and Ken Powell. The sale closed on December 31, 2020, capping off another busy year which saw Bodman’s M&A team advise on dozens of transactions, many on a national or global scale.