Research Outline

Vista Private Equity

Goals

To identify 1. The business model of Vista Private Equity's consulting group and how they are funded (i.e. if they charge the portfolio companies and if they are they funded entirely by Vista Private Equity) 2. To identify their best practices (i.e. how do they help grow the businesses they invest in and if they take majority stakes in the businesses)

Early Findings

Vista Consulting Group

  • Vista Consulting Group (“VCG”) is a "private company and the operating and consulting arm of Vista Equity Partners."
  • "VCG drives "value creation through operational excellence, which is a key differentiator in Vista’s success and ability to generate unparalleled returns. The VCG team works in conjunction with the Vista investment professionals and key portfolio company employees to help current and newly acquired businesses strengthen their operations through the implementation of standardized, repeatable and proven processes and methodologies, known as the Vista Best Practices."
  • These operating procedures have "materially improved sales prospects over ~15x, customer satisfaction from 86% to 90%, R&D throughput by 2-3x on average and price increases of up to ~3% annual revenue sweeps at Vista portfolio companies."
  • "Vista portfolio company CEOs that have gone through the process have all expressed the value-add VCG brings," as evidenced by the "growth of revenues and recurring revenues from the initial investment through present day."
  • "Across the portfolio, Vista has a strong and growing stable of Vista-trained executives, and has successfully redeployed over 100 managers who are all experienced in driving the Vista Best Practices into two or more Vista companies, providing additional scalability and the ability to realize value quickly."

Vista Best Practices

  • The Vista Best Practices are kept secret and "are stored on a company server that makes a record every time anyone downloads or prints them. "
  • VCG was created to "centralize the delivery of the Vista Best Practices and have a dedicated team, that provides direct oversight across all portfolios. Additionally, these Vista Best Practices are continually developed and improved upon as portfolio companies that have been through the Vista Best Practices implementation provide feedback on lessons learned."

Investment Profile

  • Vista's "investment size ranges from $20 million to over $10 billion in equity capital."
  • Vista's target investments are "typically profitable and are past the venture stage of their lifecycle."
  • In most cases, "they are the majority shareholder and only outside investor, which allows them to take a differentiated, long-term perspective."

Summary

  • For the initial hour, we tried identifying as much of the requested information as possible. Based on the findings, it appears that Vista Consulting Group is the operating and consulting arm of Vista Equity Partners. Vista Equity Partners is the majority shareholder and only outside investor for the mature/established companies they invest in.
  • Their Vista Best Practices are kept secret and as a private company, they have not publicly disclosed this information.
  • In the course of our research, we also found some of their current portfolio companies, which might be of interest.
  • We also found some insights on Robert F. Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners, which might also be useful.
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