The decision on how best to drive the next stage in a company’s evolution can be a deeply personal one. Serent was founded to help companies successfully navigate the transition from a successful entrepreneurial venture to an at-scale enterprise and we have built our operating model to help achieve this. We pride ourselves on being the best stewards of the business that you have built and the employees that you have hired and developed.

We also work closely with owners to carefully craft our investment to meet his or her goals. While we ideally look for management team continuity, our business model of operational involvement leaves us unusually well prepared to contemplate transactions where a founder is looking to exit the business. Our goal is to work together to create something that both you and Serent will be proud to point to ten years from now.

Our focus on business building is the distinguishing attribute of Serent’s operating model and we can assist our portfolio companies in building their businesses in several ways, including:

• Building management teams. Strong management is the single most important ingredient in building a world-class company. Serent assists CEOs by working collaboratively to assess how the organization's needs are evolving, and by playing an active role in the sourcing and qualifying of potential new executives.
• Growing revenue. The key to continued growth is first rate execution against sales opportunities. Serent has significant direct experience in designing, refining, and implementing sales and marketing plans.
• Operational planning. As businesses grow, management, planning, and review processes often need to change to allow for expanded and distributed management teams. The Serent team has considerable experience in helping growth companies address these challenges.
• Strategic decision making. Serent has a deep understanding of and experience in the development of strategies for companies ranging from Fortune 100 to those at the start-up stage.
• Financing. Managing cash can create ongoing stress within growing companies. Serent provides capital and expertise to relieve this stress and provide capital for growth.

Serent’s strategy is to be the first professional investor in profitable services companies, and to help those companies drive revenue growth. We pride ourselves on being value-added investors for successful entrepreneurial businesses, and we work closely with owners to help those businesses achieve the next step in their evolution.

Companies that are a good fit for Serent will typically share the following characteristics:

• Annual revenues of $5 million to $100 million
• Gross margins over 40% (which signals differentiation)
• Operating margins over 10% (which signals a healthy franchise of appropriate scale)
• Returns on equity over 20% (which signals asset-light, intellectual property-heavy business)
• Growth potential of over 10% with the potential to grow two to three times that fast
• Enterprise value of $10 million to $100 million

We look to make significant investments and can demonstrate flexibility in meeting your needs. We are able to structure transactions to meet the needs of business owners in many different circumstances, including complete buy-outs, recapitalizations, roll-overs of a portion of existing equity, and growth equity investments.

We can quickly assess whether we are interested in investigating a business further and promise to respond promptly to any inquiries.

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