January 2022 Roundup: BluWave Client Insights

BluWave works with over 500 PE funds from around the globe as well as their portfolio companies and proactive independent companies, connecting them with pre-vetted, best-in-class, third-party service providers across a variety of resource and functional areas. From information technology and manufacturing to healthcare, consumer goods, and beyond, our clients are expert business builders. In other words, they have their heads in the game and their hands on the pulse of news and insights you can use.

Check out the latest, curated collection of reports, insights, and musings from a handful of our PE fund clients on everything from community building across your portfolio, expected surprises for 2022, operational due diligence, and go-to-market strategies.

On the latest episode of The Private Equity Funcast, Jim, Cici, and Jimmy discuss their approach to building community within their portfolio. They share what has worked and what hasn’t for them, why community building is beneficial, and how they’ve seen their efforts have a positive impact across the companies within their portfolio.

Listen to the podcast >>>

Byron Wien and Joe Zidle share the unexpected, yet probable events that they think could shape the political, economic, and financial landscape in 2022. Some of the surprises they expect include persistent inflation becoming a dominant theme, group meetings and conventions returning to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, and ESG evolving beyond corporate policy statements including government-enforced regulatory standards.

Read more >>>

Susan Clark, Managing Director and Head of Technology Value Creation at Sun Capital, joins several other private equity leaders on a Privcap Media podcast on best practices for operational due diligence ahead of PE investments. Susan shares what she looks for in ops diligence and how it helps create a go-forward plan post-close.

Listen to the episode >>>

TCV’s Amol speaks with Trulioo’s CEO, Steve Munford, about how Trulioo’s customer base is integral to how they prioritize go-to-market channels on the Growth Journeys podcast. In addition to discussing GTM strategies, they also discuss tips and best practices for preserving culture across a rapidly growing multinational organization.

Read more >>>

 

If you are in need of resources that can proactively help you with ESG, provide the specialized operational diligence you need, or help with your GTM and growth strategies, we can quickly connect you to the PE-grade, pre-vetted, exact-fit ones you need. Give us a shout.

Read what some of our clients had to say last month.

Why BluWave was built with deal quarterbacks in mind

As a deal quarterback in private equity, Sean Mooney often struggled with getting connected to the PE-grade, specialized resources he needed to drive differential success. Sean found himself spending lots of time searching for providers on google and calling friends in search of an exact-fit service provider. This made the diligence process time-consuming and stressful. It also left only a small amount of time for the other things that matter. In order to combat this pressing issue, Sean came up with the idea for BluWave. In fact, Sean created BluWave specifically with deal quarterbacks in mind and is someone who did the job himself. Now, BluWave helps deal quarterbacks get time back in their day and gives them confidence in the third-party resources that they are utilizing.

We are here to provide deal quarterbacks with the exact-fit, private equity grade service provider they need, exactly when they need them.

Learn more about how BluWave can help deal QBs specifically in both due diligence and value creation.

If you are a deal quarterback that struggles with due diligence or value creation, we would be happy to connect with you and provide for the need you have, just contact us here.

How BluWave facilitates due diligence for deal QBs

BluWave founder and CEO, Sean Mooney, recently shared his personal experiences as a private equity deal quarterback and how that led to him founding BluWave. Sean learned through his own experiences that due diligence for deal QBs is a flawed process. He found there are far too many generalist providers that don’t quite fit the bill for the specialized needs they are trying to solve. After spending far too much time during the vetting process, Sean realized there must be another way.

In this video, he highlights the difficulties he used to face in the due diligence process including:

  • The speed required to win deals as a private equity deal QB
  • Common struggles from his experience as a deal QB
  • The unique advantages BluWave offers

Sean references BluWave as the tool that could have helped him win as a deal QB. Now, BluWave helps over 550 of the top private equity firms in the world win every day, starting with the due diligence process. We facilitate due diligence for deal QBs by connecting them with the exact-fit, PE-grade resources they need exactly when they need them.

Do you share some of Sean’s frustrations with the diligence process? Contact us to get started.

How we did it: Critical VoC Provider

An investment principal at a PE fund came to us with a critical need for Voice of Customer research on a target they had an LOI on in the staffing and recruiting industry. Expecting to get full exclusivity on the target in the next two weeks, they were urgently seeking someone who would quickly be able to perform primary and secondary research on the staffing industry in order to gauge its scope, size, and key players. They were specifically looking for a firm that could go to staffing firms and potential new clients to gather the research, and then synthesize it into usable insights. We quickly worked to understand the key criteria of their need and then leveraged our data and human ingenuity to match them with two select pre-vetted VoC providers. The client selected their ideal choice and were able to gain the customer insights they needed without wasting time or cost.

Read the full case study.

Have a VoC, other diligence, or even value creation need we can help with? Contact us here and our team will begin helping you within 24 hours.

How we did it: Immediate CDD advisor with software experience to assess potential target for PE VP

A PE fund vice president came to us with a critical need for a commercial due diligence provider that could complete a proactive market study for an asset that they expected to come to market in the next month. With their go-to providers at capacity, no access to the company’s information, and a desire to understand the major players in the IT management software market before the target went to market, the fund was in critical need of an available provider that could perform a full market study in the next week. We promptly worked to understand the client’s exact market study needs and were then able to introduce them to two exact-fit commercial due diligence providers within 24 hours. The client selected their ideal choice that had specific experience in proactively assessing industry attractiveness and was able to quickly gain the market knowledge they needed to confidently assess whether or not the potential target was something they wanted to continue pursuing.

Do you have a similar need or any other specific need we can help you with? Contact us here and we will be happy to help you.

Read the full case study here.

Video: Q2 Insights Overview

Every quarter our team analyzes the projects we work on with our 500+ PE fund clients to get a bird’s eye view of the market. In this video, our leadership team shares the trends we are seeing across due diligence and value creation. Watch the video below to learn more.

 

If you would like to get a copy of the report, reach out directly to your BluWave contact or our team at insights@bluewave.net and we’ll be happy to assist.

 

REDIRECTED Bolster your network with specialized due diligence experts

One of the most challenging things about running a business, particularly in an ever-changing economic environment, is quickly finding the right-fit resources to effectively provide high-value solutions. If you’re an upmarket fund, it’s easier to tap into big groups and their A-teams because budgets allow for this spend.

But if you’re sitting squarely in the middle market, you may be better off sourcing niche, specialized individuals, or small groups who understand the nuances associated with portfolio companies of that size. This does not mean you won’t get A-players. In fact, the opposite is true. Service providers who are built for the middle market aren’t generalists: they have specific functional and resource-area expertise and come with decades of experience.

What does this look like in practice? 

Below are two examples of middle-market funds that worked with BluWave to identify specialized due diligence groups.

If you want to learn more about how we did it, and if we can provide resources for your fund or portfolio company, please get in touch!

Q1 2021 Private Equity Insights Overview

Working with over 500 of the world’s top private equity firms gives us insight into what the industry is focusing on. Every quarter our team analyzes the projects we work on with our PE fund clients to get a bird’s eye view of the market. We analyze behaviors across the large variety of clients that we work with on a daily basis and synthesize the data into a comprehensive private equity industry report. You can access the valuable data in this report such as the following:

diligence vs value creation 2021

If you would like to get a copy of the report, reach out directly to your BluWave contact or our team at insights@bluewave.net and we’ll be happy to assist.