Smith notes that enterprise software is a 95% gross margin business
Robert F. Smith · Private Equity Masters 3: Robert F. Smith – Vista Equity Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.202) · Jul 5, 2021 · at 9:59
Robert F. Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners, explains to Ted Seides the structural economic advantages of enterprise software.
0:00 / 0:05exact quote · 5.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“One of which is, if you really think about it, it's a business, it's a 95% gross margin business at the end of the day.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Robert F. Smith
Vista portfolio companies deliver average customer ROI exceeding 600%
“And today, the average ROI, return on investment, of the products that we sell to our customers, so this is the customer's benefit, is over 600%.”
Traditional 10-year private equity fund lifecycles misfit enterprise software durability
“The construct of our industry is one of invest over five years, return over that next five, and so that's kind of, it was built 30 years ago. I don't think that model really applies specifically to enterprise software.”
Major Asian economies currently lack defined enterprise software industry layers
“Four of the largest economies in the world actually don't have defined enterprise software layers. That's China. It's Japan. It is India and the Asian Peninsula. They don't have defined enterprise software. They have some enterprise software companies, or ente…”
Vista has likely executed more cloud migrations than any global institution
“And so I think we've done more of those migrations than probably any institution on the planet today.”
Vista's operational reputation yields proprietary, off-market enterprise software deals
“And so that leads to a really interesting deal dynamic for us, which is we get a number of deals that no one ever sees. Because executives will come to us and say, hey, I saw what you did with Jamf, and Ping, and et cetera, and just spectacular performance.”