What Growth Equity Really Means

Learn more about our unique approach

Do you have trouble telling one private equity firm from another?

You’re not alone. Much of the work we’ve done with many CEOs and management teams has involved de-mystifying the unfamiliar concepts and jargon that many firms and partners toss around. We would like to take this opportunity to explain our brand of private equity and help you decide whether our firm and our Approach to Building Value (ABV) are the right fit—and the right value-creation vehicle for your company.

Carrick Capital Partners’ ABV is a unique approach to help operationally scale high-growth companies.

The proven success of ABV is a direct result of active collaboration with our portfolio companies throughout our entire relationship together. We have direct experience with the challenges facing CEOs whose companies have achieved early success in the marketplace and now want to build on those early wins to create long-term, sustainable value. We focus our energy and expertise on young, mid-sized companies with proven products and markets, steady revenue improvement, and ample “runway” for growth.

More than just providing financial capital, we infuse our portfolio companies with Growth Capital—the processes, networks, programs, and disciplines that enable companies to scale up rapidly and sustainably. We have a strong operational focus and engage directly and intensively with the CEOs and management teams of our portfolio companies.

Unlike venture capital firms, which tend to spread their investments widely, we maintain a small, concentrated portfolio of companies so we can work closely with the CEO and the executive management team. We feel best qualified to help companies that have plenty of runway ahead of them and a “Value Edge”—our term for the competitive distinction that leads to sustainable growth and separates your company from other competitors and market alternatives.

Identifying top drivers of value for your business

Together with you and your executive team, we leverage our ABV framework and our experience as operators and investors to identify and address the top three to five drivers of value for the business—those key areas that have the biggest impact on spurring growth and creating value. We have the background to help you tackle the myriad of go-to-market challenges that confront almost every company poised for rapid growth. Depending on your company and its unique circumstances our help might include:

  • Assisting in acquiring talent
  • Strengthening the board by recruiting outside directors who are recognized experts in their fields and bring extensive and relevant networks
  • Boosting sales effectiveness
  • Accelerating new-product development
  • Driving efficiencies of scale into your operations.

Our style is not command-and-control but advisory and consultative. We become an extension of, and resource for, you and your management team. Here are just of few of the typical ways we partner with our portfolio companies to accelerate their growth.
Talent and Team Building

We have run countless executive searches and added key executives to every one of our portfolio companies. We work closely with you and your team to map out critical senior hire profiles and, if appropriate, help source, recruit, and interview the strongest candidates.

Scaling Sales

Carrick spends a tremendous amount of time helping our portfolio companies create highly efficient, scalable sales models. We work closely with you to tune your sales organization for optimum performance. We can help you recruit top talent, determine the optimal organization structure and compensation system, evaluate whether to sell through existing channels or go direct, sharpen your value proposition, and judge whether to shift up or down-market.

Building a Board of Directors

Carrick has developed a unique board-building strategy to help companies secure strategic customer relationships, connect with leading industry executives, and capture significant market attention. Central to Carrick’s board building strategy is the addition of relevant industry luminaries to serve as independent directors. These individuals have included CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, recognized policy experts, Nobel laureates, and highly successful tech entrepreneurs.

Technology Enablement

We have a distinctive view of how technology can help scale companies— and not just within the products or services you sell. Technology is key to differentiating you from your competitors, creating “stickiness” with your existing clients, and lowering the unit cost of delivery to improve margins. We have the experience and hands-on skill to apply technology to achieve those three objectives pragmatically and, cost-effectively.

These are, as we say, just a few of the activities that characterize our ABV. If you think your company could benefit from working with a private equity firm like Carrick Capital Partners, please take a moment to complete our Growth Equity Fitness Test. Your answers should give you a solid indication of whether Carrick could be a good partner to help you realize your ambitions for the company you have worked so hard to build. We invite you to hear from our peer group CEOs on their experience with the Carrick brand of Growth Equity in the testimonials and case studies on this site.

The Growth Equity Fitness Test

  1. Do you have a clear and defensible competitive advantage (“value edge”) in the eyes of your target customer base? Can you clearly and succinctly explain your value edge in one page?
  2. Are you interested in creative ways to improve your chances of scaling with quality?
  3. Do you find yourself seeking additional eyes and ears to help you test ideas and warn you of pitfalls as you tackle growth challenges?
  4. Are you wrestling with how to reach new customers who simply don’t know who you are or how you could benefit them?
  5. Are you confused by the range and terms of financial offers from private equity firms and what they mean for you as an owner of your business?

If these questions have given you pause to think and reflect, please contact us to continue the conversation.

We’ll go into further detail about our ABV and the Growth Equity that we can provide to help take your business to the next level. We’ll listen carefully to the story of you and your company, the challenges you’ve overcome, the challenges you still face, and the plans you have for your company’s future.

We will share case studies of how our ABV has benefited the companies in our portfolio, and together we’ll explore how our ABV can help you realize— and maybe even surpass—your ambitions for strong, sustainable growth and value creation.

Carrick Staff
About Carrick Capital Partners
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Who We Are
A firm of enterprise software, SaaS, and technology enabled services investors and operating executives with substantial experience founding, scaling, and optimizing market leading businesses.
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Our Approach
We work with management to identify and improve critical areas of their business - focusing on the priorities that align with our experiences and that will deliver the highest strategic impact in both the short-term and long-run.
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Why We Are Different
We have a concentrated number of companies in our portfolio so that we can build substantial relationships with each management team and ensure our firm’s commitment to each company’s goals.
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