Last week, Accela announced a strategic investment from Francisco Partners.   [GovTech Article]

“San Ramon, Calif. (September 6, 2023) – Accela, the trusted provider of cloud solutions at the heart of government, today announced a strategic growth investment from Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology businesses. Berkshire Partners will remain a significant investor with an equal equity holding in Accela. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”

https://www.accela.com/press-releases/accela-advances-momentum-with-new-strategic-investment-from-francisco-partners/

Accela might have been one of the messiest turnarounds I’ve had to do through the insanity of a global pandemic.  I am so proud of what the broader company and specifically the technology teams have been able to accomplish in the time I was at Accela. 

• Responsible for all technical aspects of the business.
• Rebuilt technology organization, resourcing model, and software development lifecycle (SDLC).
• Rearchitected on-premises software product to highly scalable, cost effective, 99.9% uptime, multi-tenant SaaS platform.
• Migrated product out of data centers into public cloud (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services).
• Re-rationalized and defined path out of previously acquired companies and technical debt.
• Rebuilt security & compliance program (SOC2, PCI, GDPR, CCPA, StateRamp, FedRamp)
• Represented the company at industry events and with the media.

Most of my experience is classic high growth, venture capital.  This was my first private equity owned from the start businesses.  I learned a tremendous amount through this process.  Here is a brief list.

• Companies move as fast as their customers move. 
• Remote work can be ok for some businesses but you lose the edge in highly competitive markets. 
• State & Local Government is a vertical all on its own and even very different from Federal
• People, team and culture are priority one in a turnaround.
• Turnarounds are not sexy, but can be fun and fulfilling.
• When in doubt, pick up the phone and connect directly with customers, prospects and your team.
• Most technical debt is manageable but products/platforms over 10+ years are approaching a tipping point requiring larger investment proportion to maintain.
• All private equity is created differently.  It’s hard to generalize across them.  Look at the make up of the portfolios and operating partners to get a glimpse of what they are made of. 
• Private equity cares deeply about risk management, profit and cash flow regardless of what they tell you. 
• Change is absolutely Ok and in many times during a turnaround, required.
• Assumptions at a turnaround can be highly toxic. 

Let me know if you have feedback on any of the above.  I’m excited to see the what the next chapter yields for Accela + Berkshire Partners + Francisco Partners.

Buckle up!