vertical-software
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Amy Huff Spent 29 Years Learning the Software Before Selling the Story
Before she became Xplor Technologies’ chief marketing officer, Amy Huff trained the users, answered the customers and managed the products. Her 29-year route to the C-suite explains why her version of marketing begins unusually close to the work.
CentralReach Turned Autism Care’s Paper Problem Into a $1.65 Billion Operating System
A clinician built a way out of paperwork. Thirteen years later, Roper paid about $1.65 billion for the workflow - and for a lesson in how narrow software becomes essential infrastructure.
York IE Wants to Be the Startup Department You Forgot to Hire
The New Hampshire firm has turned a familiar founder complaint - too many advisers, not enough doers - into a business spanning investment funds, market intelligence and embedded operating teams.
The Quiet Firm Turning Bootstrapped Software Into a $7 Billion Bet
Serent Capital has spent 18 years backing founder-led software companies that never chased venture capital. Now it manages more than $7 billion and just closed the largest fund in its history.
The Firm That Buys Broken Software and Runs It on an AI Playbook
EVA Equity Partners treats software turnarounds like a manufacturing line - a five-phase method, a two-week diligence cycle, and an AI platform trained on two decades of operating enterprise software. Here is how the Austin firm is trying to make growth repeatable.
The Company That Buys Software It Never Plans to Sell
A permanent home for ERP software companies. While private equity flips manufacturing software every four and a half years, Mirador buys the businesses its customers keep for a decade - and keeps them too.
Universe
Universe is an Atlanta-based modern holding company that buys and builds vertical software businesses. Founded in 2021 by Nick Miller and Eric Stromberg, it acquires and incubates niche software products, then deploys capital and infrastructure to grow them into purpose-built tools for specific markets. Its portfolio spans Goldie (business management for solopreneurs in beauty and wellness), Equilab (a training community for equestrians), and Invoke (AI-powered tools for artists and creative teams).