Today’s guest is Lance Fenton, a Partner at Serent Capital, a private equity fund investing in bootstrapped vertical market software businesses. In this episode, Lance breaks down Serent’s software investment thesis, how it evolved over time, and how they think about sourcing, returns, hold period, and the future prospects of these niche businesses.

Lance shares how Serent approaches value creation, the importance of high gross retention, the role of pricing optimization, and how they are responding to AI’s arrival as a threat and opportunity across their portfolio. Lance shares an unusually transparent and candid look at Serent’s direct sourcing model, why they prioritize long-term relationships with founders, and what makes an investment business truly great over decades of success.

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Masters in Small Business M&A (sign up for podcast drops here) is produced by its host Peter Lehrman and the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially explore growth capital and exit transactions with top-ranked lower middle market M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

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