Executive Search Success Story: Upgrading the Executive Team for Exit at a Private-Equity-Backed Software Roll-Up

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private equity sponsor and its software platform formed through seven acquisitions with the chief financial, operating, product, and customer leadership that strategic and financial buyers would expect, converting a founder-era management team into an institutional executive bench ahead of a sale process.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had built a vertical software platform through seven acquisitions led by the CEO of the original company, who had proven adept at deals but had surrounded himself with the original team: a controller serving as CFO, an operations leader who had never integrated an acquisition, product leadership from the first business, and no customer leadership across the combined base. With a sale eighteen months away, the sponsor’s bankers advised that buyers would discount the platform for management depth, integration debt, and retention risk. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the exit:

• A founder-era management team unlikely to withstand buyer diligence on depth and scalability
• Finance led by a controller without the capital markets and quality-of-earnings credibility buyers expect
• Seven acquired products and organizations with visible integration debt
• No unified product strategy or roadmap across the acquired portfolio
• Customer retention and net revenue retention below buyer benchmarks with no enterprise customer function
• A sale timeline requiring a credible executive team in place before process launch

Recognizing that exit value depended on a leadership upgrade, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Product Officer, Chief Customer Officer, and VP of Corporate Development & Integration, with incumbent transitions managed respectfully. The sponsor required an executive search partner with deep software and private equity expertise and access to executives who had prepared platforms for sale.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Private Equity Portfolio Company Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving private equity sponsors on exit-readiness leadership upgrades, with a clear understanding of what buyers and bankers scrutinize in management, how to sequence upgrades around a sale timeline, and how to manage incumbent transitions without disrupting the business.

Software Platform Expertise

Our team has extensive experience recruiting executives for software roll-ups, with a clear understanding of integration debt, product consolidation, net revenue retention, and the metrics that drive software valuations.

Banker and Buyer Alignment

Our firm works routinely alongside operating partners and sell-side advisors preparing companies for sale, ensuring executive profiles match the management narrative buyers expect.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Exit-Readiness Review

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor, CEO, and sell-side advisors to review management assessment feedback, financial and retention metrics, integration status, and the sale timeline, defining five executive profiles and a sequenced upgrade plan with incumbent transition paths.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting finance, operating, product, customer, and corporate development executives at private-equity-backed and public software companies who had prepared platforms for and completed sales. Over 440 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of institutionalizing software finance for sale, integrating acquired products and organizations, unifying product strategy, raising net revenue retention, and presenting credibly to buyers. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented exit-readiness plans to the sponsor and CEO, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified integration, retention, and exit outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 440+ software executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning finance, operations, product, customer, and corporate development within seven months.
• Consolidated seven acquired organizations onto common systems within twelve months.
• Raised net revenue retention from 101% to 112%.
• Eliminated the management discount flagged by sell-side advisors.
• Completed the sale above the sponsor’s underwriting with the team retained by the buyer.