Focus, Expertise, and Shared Values Fuel This Founder-Friendly Firm

Vista Equity Partners is a growth specialist for enterprise software firms.

As a founder himself, Robert F. Smith appreciates A when enterprise software entrepreneurs have a crystalized vision about what the market wants and how to provide it. These founders connect the dots between their products and market gaps when no one else sees it. What they may need, though, is help building the company.

"We are growth specialists," says Smith, founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. "Part of what we do is understand the vision of where the founder and the management team are going." Companies come to Vista for several reasons. Vista helps organizations accelerate the journey of innovating products, building out an efficient and effective organizational team and structure, and implementing best practices. Vista also provides near certainty. "Founders view us as a highly reliable partner that can create returns if they sell their business or stake to someone else. The math works," Smith says.