Founded in 2003 by Clark and Xan Charbonnet, Biblionix is the creator of Apollo, a cloud-native integrated library system (ILS) for smaller public libraries, and Artemis, a companion ILS for K-12 school libraries. Apollo and Artemis serve nearly 1,000 libraries and schools across North America, delivering robust solutions and exceptional customer service.

The acquisition marks Soutron Global’s third add-on since 2024, following MINISIS (2024) and Auto-Graphics (2025), and further scales the combined platform, which now serves more than 7,000 US public libraries alongside a growing base of archives, museums, and knowledge institutions across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand.

The acquisition of Biblionix is another meaningful step in the buy-and-build strategy we’ve been executing since backing Soutron. Apollo and Artemis are exactly the kind of durable, high-retention, customer-first products we look for — and they fit naturally into the platform Brad and the team are building.

-Jay Vasantharajah, Managing Partner of Atlasview Equity Partners

Smaller public libraries are the heart of their communities, and they deserve technology that was built specifically for them. Apollo has earned extraordinary trust, and we are committed to building on that reputation while accelerating the product innovation their customers have been asking for. To Biblionix customers: the products you love aren’t going anywhere. What is changing is the investment behind them.

-Brad Frasher, CEO of Soutron Global

Joining Soutron Global is the natural next chapter. Our customers gain the resources, product investment, and long-term stability, while keeping the personal service and purpose-built approach they’ve trusted Apollo and Artemis for. This is a win for our clients, our team, and the communities their libraries serve.

-Clark Charbonnet, Co-Founder of Biblionix

As part of our buy-and-build strategy, Atlasview continues to seek add-on acquisitions in the library, archive, and knowledge management niches for Soutron. If you have or know of any opportunities, please contact us.

About Biblionix

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Biblionix builds Apollo, a web-based integrated library system for smaller public libraries, and Artemis, an ILS for K-12 school libraries. Both products are recognized for ease of use, transparent pricing, and highly responsive customer service, with a customer base among the most loyal in the industry.

About Soutron Global

Soutron Global is a leader in the library, archive, and knowledge management software vertical, serving thousands of institutions worldwide. With over 30 years of operating history, Soutron has a strong reputation for its world-class products and excellence in client service and support.

About Atlasview Equity Partners

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Founded in 1937 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Howard has supplied the U.S. oilfield for nearly nine decades. It operates ten locations across eight producing basins, serving more than 1,000 active customers across the energy and industrial sectors. Howard supplies workover rig operators and well service companies with the products their fleets consume every day: wire rope, slings, shackles and load-bearing hardware, API-rated hoisting equipment, and high-frequency consumables ranging from gloves and abrasives to lubricants and fittings. In-house repair, inspection, recertification and load-testing capabilities, performed to API, OSHA and ASME standards, and the distribution of equipment into commercial solar projects round out the Howard Supply platform today.

Paul Jeffries, Howard’s Chief Executive Officer, will continue to lead the business. Under new ownership, Howard will extend its product offering and distribution reach, further scale its private-label program, invest behind its repair and recertification capabilities, and evaluate strategic acquisitions.

“Howard has been taking care of its customers since 1937, and this partnership sets up the strongest chapter in our history,” said Paul Jeffries, Chief Executive Officer of Howard. “Exonas, Atlasview and Brightwood understand what makes this company work: a great team, longstanding customers and an uncompromising standard of safety and reliability. With their backing, we will invest in our people, grow what we offer and keep earning our customers’ trust.”

“Howard is exactly the type of business we look to back: a defensible franchise with multiple levers for value creation,” said Jay Vasantharajah, Founder and Managing Partner of Atlasview Equity Partners. “We are excited to partner with Exonas, Brightwood and the Howard team, as the Company enters its next phase of growth.”

“Howard is the definitive leader in its markets, with a reputation for quality and reliability built over 89 years,” said Dino Sawaya, Managing Partner and Founder of Exonas Capital. “We are excited to partner with Paul Jeffries and the entire Howard team to continue building a leading platform through organic growth and disciplined acquisitions.”

“We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Exonas through our second investment together, and to partner with Atlasview for the first time,” said Sengal Selassie, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Brightwood. “Howard’s long operating history, entrenched market position and durable, non-discretionary demand profile make it a natural fit for our approach to supporting middle-market businesses, and we look forward to backing the Company’s next chapter.”

About Howard Supply Company

Founded in 1937, Howard Supply Company is a leading distributor of maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products, equipment and associated services to customers across the U.S. energy and industrial sectors. From ten locations across eight producing basins, Howard supplies wire rope, slings, shackles, hoisting equipment and related safety-critical hardware to workover rig operators and well service companies, supported by in-house repair, inspection, recertification and load-testing capabilities performed to API, OSHA and ASME standards. Howard is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. For more information, visit www.howard-supply.com.

About Atlasview Equity Partners

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders. For more information, visit www.atlasviewequity.com.

About Exonas Capital

Exonas Capital is a Darien, Connecticut based investment firm identifying, executing and managing private equity investments in the lower and middle markets. Exonas seeks to invest in unique high-quality businesses straddling strategic, operational or financial crossroads that are capable of generating strong investor returns through the execution of value creation initiatives that are uncorrelated with the prevailing economic environment. The firm is founded on an unwavering commitment to intellectual honesty and rigor, alignment of interest, straight dealing and a desire to have fun. For more information, visit www.exonascapital.com.

About Brightwood Capital Advisors

Brightwood Capital Advisors, LLC is a private credit firm with a long-standing track record of investing in middle-market businesses. Brightwood specializes in providing senior debt capital primarily to U.S. businesses with $5-$75 million of EBITDA. Brightwood partners with non-sponsored businesses as well as private equity sponsors to provide customized financing solutions for directly originated investments. Founded in 2010, Brightwood is a minority-owned firm headquartered in New York City. For more information, please visit: www.brightwoodlp.com.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• 2025 Recap - Year in Review

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe, and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, industrial/business services, value-added distributors

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

2025 Recap - Year in Review

As we close out 2025, we wanted to briefly reflect on the year and a few themes that defined our work at Atlasview.

Market Activity

The market environment in 2025 was volatile, shaped by political uncertainty, regime change, and shifting trade and tariff dynamics. These factors created hesitation across buyers and sellers alike, and overall deal volume tapered as the year progressed.

Despite softer transaction activity, we remained disciplined on valuation and business quality, prioritizing patience over pace. At the same time, credit markets remained strong and generally favorable, providing ample financing capacity for well-structured deals with durable fundamentals.

2025 reinforced a core belief for us: great investing is about selectivity, not volume. We reviewed many opportunities but remained disciplined on valuation, structure, and business quality - continuing to focus on stable, non-cyclical markets, recurring revenue, and durable moats.

Portfolio Progress

Across the portfolio, we remained focused on fundamentals and long-term value creation. We worked closely with management teams at the ground level - providing capital, strategic guidance, and operational support to help execute both organic initiatives and disciplined M&A. Some portco highlights below…

At Soutron, 2025 was a year of meaningful progress and execution. We completed the integration of the MINISIS add-on acquired in late 2024 and successfully closed the Auto-Graphics take-private acquisition. We also made several key leadership hires, including Brad Frasher as CEO (joining from Rubicon-backed Aline) and Raajan Mangat as COO (joining from Enghouse Systems). Despite broader volatility in software markets and persistent negative headlines around AI, Soutron achieved a record year of revenue and profitability.

At PureFilters, the focus was squarely on organic growth. We added key headcount and strategic partners to continue building a strong operating team, expanded our supplier base by onboarding several new brands, and broadened our end markets. Despite softness in the HVAC market and tariff-related headwinds, PureFilters closed the year with record revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA.

Looking Ahead

As we head into 2026, our focus remains unchanged:

• Invest in businesses with deep, durable moats built to endure

• Partner with high-quality founders and management teams

• Create value through operational excellence and disciplined M&A

We’re grateful to the founders, intermediaries, and partners who engaged with us throughout the year. If you’re a business owner considering next steps, or an intermediary with a thoughtful opportunity, we’d love to connect - so please feel free to reach out.

Wishing everyone a prosperous 2026, onwards and upwards!

Popular Posts From The Year

Below are some of the most popular posts from the Atlasview blog in 2025:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Longtime CEO and industry veteran Tony Saadat will retire from day-to-day operations and transition to an advisory role, where he will continue to support the company and its leadership team.

“Soutron has grown significantly since our initial acquisition, and today’s leadership transition positions the company for its next chapter,” said Jay Vasantharajah, Managing Partner at Atlasview, co-owner of Soutron. “Brad brings a proven track record of scaling software platforms, disciplined operational excellence, and a customer-first mindset. We’re excited to partner with him to accelerate product innovation and global expansion while preserving the service culture Tony and the team built.”

The leadership change follows a period of meaningful expansion for Soutron. In 2025, the company completed the acquisition and integration of Auto-Graphics, a prominent library automation provider, and in 2024 acquired MINISIS, a leading archival and collections management platform. These acquisitions broaden Soutron’s product portfolio and reinforce its position as a global leader in knowledge and information management.

Mr. Frasher most recently served as Chairman and CEO of Aline, a private-equity–backed vertical market software platform for senior living that he built by combining Enquire, Sherpa, and Glennis Solutions, followed by several add-on acquisitions. Prior to Aline, he was CEO of Glennis Solutions, where he transformed an internally developed property-management system into a multi-product SaaS enterprise, achieving triple-digit ARR growth, international expansion, multiple innovation awards, and a successful private-equity exit.

“It has been the privilege of my career to lead Soutron,” said Tony Saadat. “With Brad’s leadership and the support of Atlasview, Soutron is well-positioned to continue innovating for our clients. I look forward to supporting a smooth transition in an advisory capacity.”

As part of its buy-and-build strategy, Atlasview continues to seek add-on acquisitions in the library, archive, and knowledge management niches for Soutron. If you have or know of any opportunities, please reach out.

About Soutron Global

Soutron Global is a leading provider of library, archive, and knowledge management software used by corporations, government agencies, law firms, and academic institutions worldwide. Its flexible, secure platform enables organizations to manage, preserve, and deliver information assets with confidence. Recent acquisitions of Auto-Graphics and MINISIS have expanded the company’s product offerings and strengthened its global market position.

About Atlasview Equity Partners

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that partners with founder-owned businesses in the lower middle market to transform them into category leaders. We focus on companies with defensible moats and multiple value-creation levers, aiming to deliver asymmetric returns. Atlasview works closely with management to execute both organic initiatives and disciplined M&A to build durable, market-leading platforms.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Prisoner’s Dilemma: Capex Edition

• Atlasview Featured in Axial’s Mid-Year Pulse Check

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Please subscribe, and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate it if you would share it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder: Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, value-added distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1.5m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Prisoner's Dilemma: Capex Edition

One of the most powerful investing frameworks is capital cycle theory, which explains how industries swing between periods of under- and over-investment.

When an industry experiences an influx of capital, companies feel pressure to spend aggressively on new capacity or capabilities. Incumbents, fearing loss of market share, match each other’s spending.

The result: discretionary growth capex (originally intended to attract new customers) morphs into mandatory maintenance capex (required just to retain existing ones). Ultimately, this erodes investor returns.

We’ve seen this dynamic play out time and again across several industries, particularly technology and the physical infrastructure that powers it. Examples include

• Escalating R&D spend on new software features and functionalities

• The bar for AI computing power accelerating

• Data center capacity continually increasing

• Telecom infrastructure going through frequent upgrades

The key insight: when everyone invests heavily at the same time, investors lose.

For investors, the lesson is twofold:

1. Be wary of industries recently flush with capital — they often signal future poor returns.

2. Favour businesses where growth capex is truly discretionary, not the bare minimum required to maintain competitiveness.

At Atlasview, we seek out companies operating in industries or niches that have avoided massive inflows of institutional capital—businesses better positioned to sustain attractive returns over the long run.

Featured in Axial’s Mid-Year Pulse Check

Our Principal, Ryan Khan, was featured in Axial’s Mid-Year Pulse Check. Axial conducted a sentiment survey among ~40 active dealmakers from both the buy side and the sell side. The survey revealed a cautiously optimistic tone.

Check out the full article and survey results here: https://www.axial.net/forum/mid-year-pulse-check-lmm-dealmakers-weigh-in-on-2h-2025/

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Large TAMs are Overrated

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe, and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, value-added distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1.5m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Large TAMs are Overrated

One of the most overrated metrics is Total Addressable Market (TAM). Large TAMs have established competitors, are saturated with capital, and have a constant supply of new entrants. This results in low returns on invested capital for most businesses in the market.

At Atlasview, we love businesses that dominate niche markets with sustained demand. Typically, these smaller markets are overlooked and undersupplied with capital. And often, these businesses have a high degree of pricing power, resulting in fantastic returns on invested capital.

Here are some ways in which small businesses can achieve a very high market share:

1. Localization – geography can be a moat, especially if you sell physical goods. Larger national players may not be able to economically justify entering a small local geography to compete, and small geos naturally deter new entrants.

2. Verticalization – hyper-specializing in a single vertical can eliminate direct competition. Solutions, especially if iterated over time, become so tailored to the vertical’s specific nuances that generic competitors are no longer comparable alternatives.

3. Specialization – skillset/knowledge of a solution to a niche problem with acute demand. Sometimes, there are even required certifications or regulatory barriers to entry.

Since these businesses already have a majority share in their market, we pursue growth primarily through strategic M&A into adjacent markets. We seek to expand in concentric circles, which involves:

• Leveraging Existing Competitive Advantages: We ensure incremental growth builds upon existing strengths without diluting the core attributes that created success initially.

• Deepening Vertical Penetration: We aim for comprehensive penetration within a vertical by acquiring complementary products and services that serve the same customer base.

By first dominating a targeted niche and then strategically expanding via acquisitions, Atlasview builds a sustainable pathway toward long-term profitable growth.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Our Investment Criteria

• Evaluate Pricing Power

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe, and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, value-added distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1.5m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Evaluating Pricing Power

At Atlasview, we highly value businesses that can consistently raise prices without losing customers. Pricing power is a critical indicator we assess when evaluating new investment opportunities. As the Oracle of Omaha best put it:

We often find that many businesses, particularly owner-operated ones, haven’t priced their products/services to reflect their true value. Price optimization is one of the first value-creation levers we pull post-acquisition. It’s one of the fastest and most effective ways to grow revenue and improve profitability and cash flow, which ultimately increases enterprise value.

Here are five key elements we look for to determine if a business has pricing power:

1 - Product or Service is Mission-Critical

A mission-critical product or service is integral to customers' essential operations or daily activities. When customers heavily depend on your offering, they become more accepting of price increases.

2 - Switching Costs Are High

Products or services with significant switching costs impose substantial expenses, time commitments, operational risks, or inconvenience on customers seeking alternatives. These high barriers discourage customers from switching, thus granting businesses more leeway in raising prices.

3 - Price Represents Low Share of Customer Wallet

When a product or service represents a low share of the customer's wallet, it means the cost is relatively small compared to the customer’s overall budget. Additionally, the smaller the contract or order value, the less likely it will be negotiated or put through an RFP process. This allows the business to raise prices without much adverse reaction.

Bonus points: the customers have large & growing wallets!

4 - Value is More Important Than Price

The value a customer derives from the product or service is far greater than the price they pay for it. This makes customers far less sensitive to price increases since there would remain a large delta between the value received and the price paid, even after the increase.

5 - Little to No Alternatives

The product/service is specialized to a specific niche, and there are very few, or no, comparable alternatives. Such niches rarely attract significant outside competition or capital influx from ambitious start-ups, thereby bolstering pricing power. This is one of the primary reasons we are particularly attracted to niche vertical businesses.

While it is uncommon for a business to possess all these characteristics simultaneously, having even a couple can substantially enhance its pricing power and attractiveness as an investment.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Money Costs Money - How Growth Can Destroy Value

• Warren Buffett on Cost of Capital

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe, and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate it if you share it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before jumping into this issue, a quick reminder is that Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, value-added distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1.5m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us or an intermediary with a deal to share, please contact us!

Money Costs Money - How Growth Can Destroy Value

We all understand the obvious ways that growth can destroy value—unprofitable business models, negative gross margins, or scaling something that was never economically viable in the first place.

But even profitable growth can destroy value.

This happens when the capital invested in a growth initiative generates incremental profit that fails to exceed the business’s cost of capital. Many business owners never stop to consider this before launching new projects. Yet the cost of capital is fundamental—it’s the financial DNA of your business. It dictates the direction you take, the initiatives you pursue, and ultimately, the value you create (or destroy).

Cost of capital has two components: debt and equity. Let’s take a look at each.

Cost of Debt Capital

The cost of debt is simply the interest a company pays to borrow money. Whether it’s a term loan, line of credit, or other facility, the cost is spelled out in the loan agreement upfront.

Because the lender specifies the rate upfront, management can calculate the exact dollar outlay: an 8 percent interest rate means that every $1 million of debt will cost about $80,000 in annual interest. Any growth initiative that cannot earn more than this 8 percent hurdle will erode, rather than add to, the firm’s value.

Cost of Equity Capital

Unlike debt, equity capital may or may not have an explicit cost associated with it. However, equity capital is far more expensive than debt capital. Owners—whether founders, minority investors, or private-equity sponsors—accept the greatest risk and therefore demand a higher return than lenders do.

The expected return in private equity investments typically falls between 15 and 25 percent. If a proposed project or growth initiative cannot realistically deliver at least this level of return, it fails to compensate equity holders for the risk they take and should be rejected, regardless of whether it still looks “profitable” in simple accounting terms.

Warren Buffett on Cost of Capital

In a classic Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett explains how he assigns a cost to the capital he provides to his subsidiaries.

Buffett understands that his equity has a high opportunity cost. That’s why he charges his businesses a real, measurable cost of capital. It forces managers to think twice. Turning the "soft" expectation of return into a "hard" financial cost makes capital allocation more disciplined—and helps prevent capital from being misused.

Concluding Thoughts

Disciplined capital allocation starts with this question: Will the cash flows from this initiative exceed our cost of capital?

Debt sets the minimum return every dollar must meet. Equity sets the hurdle you need to clear to create value. If an initiative can't beat both, it destroys value—regardless of whether revenue grows or operating profit rises.

The best businesses rigorously evaluate every dollar of growth investment through this lens. If the math doesn’t work, they don’t chase the growth. They return the capital.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on our simple and transparent process. This streamlined process enables us to move quickly and get you answers quickly.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Founded in 1950, Auto-Graphics has grown to become the largest provider of ILL software systems in North America. Its platform supports more than 6,000 libraries across state-wide public, academic, K–12, consortia, and special library systems.

The acquisition underscores Atlasview’s commitment to scaling Soutron Global through strategic M&A as it builds a category-leading platform in library and knowledge management software.

The acquisition of Auto-Graphics by Soutron Global represents a transformative step in our buy-and-build strategy. By integrating Auto-Graphics, Soutron solidifies its standing as an industry leader in the library and knowledge management vertical.

-Jay Vasantharajah, Managing Partner of Atlasview Equity Partners

Investing in Soutron Global's expansion through the acquisition of Auto-Graphics, aligns with our vision of supporting companies that drive industry innovation. We are confident in their leadership and know that this partnership will yield significant benefits for all stakeholders.

-Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Equity Partners

The addition of Auto-Graphics into the Soutron family strengthens our ability to deliver advanced, customizable information management solutions. This acquisition, along with our recent integration of MINISIS, expands our capabilities and brings greater flexibility, efficiency and innovation to our clients worldwide

-Tony Saadat, CEO of Soutron Global

Joining forces with Soutron Global is a natural fit for Auto-Graphics. Our shared commitment to exceeding client expectations will drive the development of new solutions that meet the evolving needs of our industry. Together, we are poised to deliver more value to our clients and the larger information management community.

-Paul Cope, President of Auto-Graphics

As part of our buy-and-build strategy, Atlasview continues to seek add-on acquisitions in the library, archive, and knowledge management niches for Soutron. If you have or know of any opportunities, please contact us.

About Auto-Graphics

Auto-Graphics, Inc. has been an industry leader in library management and resource-sharing software for over 50 years. Auto-Graphics was the first to provide Cloud-based library resource-sharing solutions. The company’s fully integrated suite of library software products is used in over 6,000 state-wide public and academic libraries throughout North America.

About Soutron Global

Soutron Global is a leader in the library, archive, and knowledge management software vertical, serving hundreds of clients worldwide. With over 30 years of operating history, Soutron has a strong reputation for its world-class products and excellence in client service and support.

About Atlasview Equity Partners

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Atlasview Discusses Cross-Border Deals in The Earnout Magazine

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, specialty distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1.5m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Atlasview Discusses Cross-Border Deals in The Earnout Magazine

At Atlasview Equity Partners, we have extensive experience investing across borders, particularly between the US and Canada. Despite ongoing trade tensions and tariff discussions, we remain strong believers in the value of cross-border deals. The US and Canada share deep economic ties, and we expect this partnership to remain strong for years to come. Periods of uncertainty often create opportunities for shrewd investors. When fear and perceived risk rise, so do chances to find great businesses at attractive valuations.

The Earnout Magazine—a publication dedicated to private equity investors and published by our friends at Sadis & Goldberg—recently featured our insights on why Canada remains a compelling investment destination. We discuss key advantages and how investors can capitalize on cross-border opportunities

Check out the full issue here (our article is pages 37-38): https://issuu.com/sadisgoldberg/docs/the_earnout_magazine_winter_2025

P.s. if you are a US-based investor looking for a Canadian partner to team up with on a Canadian-based deal, feel free to reach out to us (reply to this email).

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Generating Compound Returns

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, specialty distributors

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Generating Compound Returns

To generate compound returns over the long term, a business requires two key components: 1) free cash flow and 2) reinvestment opportunities. At Atlasview, when evaluating a potential platform investment, we prioritize ensuring that both components are present.

Let’s explore each in more detail.

1. Free Cash Flow

Stable and predictable free cash flow de-risks the investment and unshackles the business from being at the mercy of capital markets. It also creates capital allocation optionality to pay out a dividend, pay down debt, or allocate to reinvestment opportunities.

At Atlasview, we prioritize businesses with a long operating history and a proven track record of free cash flow generation. Additionally, we assess whether the cash flow is well-protected against internal and external threats. One of our preferred tools for evaluating these threats is Porter’s Five Forces, discussed in more detail in this post:

Post-acquisition, Atlasview partners closely with management to implement value-add initiatives that enhance free cash flow. Our playbook focuses on driving revenue growth, improving margins, and optimizing working capital. We discuss some of these initiatives in this post:

Of the two components required for compound returns, free cash flow is non-negotiable. Without stable free cash flow, reinvestment opportunities become irrelevant. Once a business meets this critical criterion, we shift our focus to reinvesting that cash flow.

2. Reinvestment Opportunities

Reinvestment opportunities are what allow a business to achieve significant long-term growth. At Atlasview, we favor businesses with clear and compelling reinvestment opportunities and are eager to make follow-on investments post-acquisition to capitalize on them.

In terms of reinvestment into organic growth, it typically focuses on sales/marketing and research/development. We look for initiatives with a clear return on investment (ROI) and a payback period of 12 months or less. We discuss payback period in more detail in this post:

In terms of reinvestment into inorganic growth, Atlasview works closely with management teams to source and execute add-on acquisitions. Growing through M&A is an excellent way to scale a business quickly. Reinvestment via acquisitions can help businesses:

• Acquire new customers or revenue streams

• Expand into new geographies

• Add synergistic product lines

• Bring in top-tier talent

The ultimate goal of reinvestment is to transform businesses into market leaders and deliver outsized returns to shareholders, which often include the management teams we partner with.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

MINISIS unlocks a lot of doors for our platform. It’s a great business that was built with passion for the craft and a high degree of dedication to its customers. We are excited to get MINISIS integrated with Soutron as we continue to execute our buy-and-build strategy.

-Jay Vasantharajah, Managing Partner of Atlasview Equity Partners

We are thrilled to welcome MINISIS and their talented team to the Soutron family. MINISIS’ innovative library, archive, and museum management solutions perfectly complement our own offerings, and together we will be even better positioned to deliver a comprehensive suite of tools for libraries, archives, museums and information centers of all sizes. We’re excited to collaborate with Chris and his team and leverage our combined expertise to drive further growth and innovation in the information management industries we serve.

-Tony Saadat, CEO of Soutron Global

I am incredibly excited about this new chapter for MINISIS. Partnering with Soutron Global opens up tremendous opportunities for growth and collaboration. I look forward to collaborating closely with the Soutron team as we take our combined expertise to new heights and expand our impact in the global information management landscape.

-Chris Burcsik, CEO of MINISIS

As part of our buy-and-build strategy, Atlasview is seeking add-on acquisitions in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for Soutron. If you have or know of any opportunities, please contact us.

About MINISIS

MINISIS is a pioneer in database management systems, powering museums, archives, and libraries globally with its world-class software.

About Soutron Global

Soutron Global is a leader in the library, archive, and knowledge management software vertical, serving hundreds of clients worldwide. With over 30 years of operating history, Soutron has a strong reputation for its world-class products and excellence in client service and support.

About Atlasview Equity Partners

Atlasview Equity Partners is a founder-first private equity firm specializing in acquiring and building businesses in the lower middle market. Atlasview seeks businesses with defensible moats and multiple levers to add significant value to create an asymmetric returns profile. Atlasview works closely with management teams to execute organic and inorganic (M&A) growth initiatives to build businesses into market leaders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Adjusted EBITDA 101

• Recommended Read: The Case For Small Buyouts

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

Atlasview Equity Partners is on the lookout for talented CEOs and experienced operators to drive growth at our portfolio companies. We are seeking professionals with an impressive track record and an abundance of ambition. If you're eager to leverage your leadership skills, build a lower-mid market business into a market leader, and generate significant personal wealth, we want to hear from you.

Join Atlasview’s CEO/Operator Network

By joining our exclusive list of top-tier candidates, you'll be the first to know about exciting CEO and operator opportunities within our expanding portfolio. We currently have an exciting pipeline of new opportunities, so join our network ASAP.

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, specialty distributors

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Adjusted EBITDA 101

Adjusted EBITDA is a commonly used measure of performance for businesses of all sizes and a basis for valuation. There are no clear-cut rules or accounting standards for reported Adjusted EBITDA. As a result, the metric is highly subjective and can be a wide range of numbers, depending on who you ask. So let’s take a closer look at Adjusted EBITDA.

Adjusted EBITDA Refresher

EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, amortization, and depreciation) is a short-cut metric for measuring how much cash earnings a business generates annually. Yet, making those 4 adjustments often isn’t enough to arrive at a business’s economic profits. There often needs to be further adjustments for expenses and or revenues accounted for in EBITDA that are not considered to be “core” or essential to operating the business.

Here are some examples of common EBITDA adjustments:

• One-off events – lawsuits, natural disasters, or anything else that is a one-time event. The adjustment could be to remove the expense from EBITDA.

• Overpaid or underpaid employees – businesses can over or undercompensate employees. The adjustment here would be to use market-rate salaries for key employment positions.

• Personal expenses – many businesses, especially smaller ones, will have the owner’s personal expenses reflected on the P&L. Adding back items such as meals & entertainment, travel, home office, and automobile expenses might make sense. In smaller transactions, it’s common for the owner’s salary to also be added back to EBITDA in full to arrive at “seller discretionary earnings” or SDE.

• Other streams of revenue – businesses that have other streams of revenue that aren’t connected to the core business, consider subtracting it from EBITDA.

• Intercompany transactions – businesses that have multiple entities could have intercompany revenue and expenses that aren’t true economic activity. These should be adjusted for accordingly.

Buyer Best Practices

It’s important to understand what is an acceptable adjustment as a seller (or their advisor) will be incentivized to include as many as possible to improve their EBITDA. As a buyer it is critical to ask yourself “Is this really non-core and or non-reoccurring to the operating business I am buying?” and “Will I not experience the proposed adjusted revenue/expenses under my ownership?”.

Seller Best Practices

As a seller, you know the business better than anyone else so you should know what adjustments make the most sense. Also, keep in mind, that most buyers will perform a quality of earnings analysis (QofE), so you’ll want to ask yourself “Will these adjustments pass scrutiny from a 3rd party QofE provider?”. Being transparent and candid about adjustments upfront is beneficial for all parties involved in the transaction.

If you have any questions about EBITDA adjustments for your business, always feel free to reach out to us. Our team has access to some great resources for anyone who is looking to navigate this metric.

Recommended Read: The Case For Small Buyouts

RCP Advisors published a nice research piece called ​The Case For Small Buyouts​. It’s a great case study on lower-middle market investing and its structural advantages. The team at Atlasview enjoyed the case study, and highly recommend it to all private equity investors.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• 4 Non-Financial Reasons Owners Sell Their Business

• Why Most QofEs Miss 50% of the Work

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

Atlasview Equity Partners is on the lookout for talented CEOs and experienced operators to drive growth at our portfolio companies. We are seeking professionals with an impressive track record and an abundance of ambition. If you're eager to leverage your leadership skills, build a lower-mid market business into a market leader, and generate significant personal wealth, we want to hear from you.

Join Atlasview’s CEO/Operator Network

By joining our exclusive list of top-tier candidates, you'll be the first to know about exciting CEO and operator opportunities within our expanding portfolio. We currently have an exciting pipeline of new opportunities, so join our network ASAP.

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, specialty distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches for our portco Soutron Global and HVAC distributors for our portco PureFilters.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

4 Non-Financial Reasons Owners Sell

As a buyer of owner-operator businesses, Atlasview has encountered all kinds of reasons why owners look to sell their businesses. Sometimes it’s financially driven - business owners are looking for a well-deserved payday and want to diversify their net worth. But sometimes, the reason for the sale has little to do with money.

Here are 4 common non-financial reasons owners look to sell their perfectly healthy business:

#1 - Retirement – children don’t want the business, there is no internal succession plan, and eventually the owner wants to stop working full-time to enjoy retirement with their family. Finding a replacement CEO is no easy task and this is something Atlasview can certainly spearhead. We tap into our extensive CEO/Operator Network and utilize our bench of experienced recruiters to find the perfect fit, both strategically and culturally, to ensure a smooth transition.

#2 - Partner Dispute - the business has more than one owner and the owners have differences in strategy, preferences, or work style. A dispute could catalyze the sale of all or some of the business. Atlasview has experience with situations like this and can come up with a creative structure to ensure all parties win.

#3 - Burnout – running a small business is no walk in the park. Many owners, who often wear multiple hats, run out of energy to continue dealing with employees, customers, and or general operations. Atlasview has a proven playbook to streamline operations post-acquisition. With help from our operating partners, we look to alleviate bottlenecks the business may be experiencing.

#4 - Tragedy – adverse health/marital/family situations could catalyze a sale, as the owner needs the liquidity (and free time) for personal reasons. In sensitive situations like this, Atlasview is more than happy to execute a discreet and fully confidential transaction. We have deep respect for business owners who have built a successful business and vow to protect their legacy as the new owners.

None of these reasons have much to do with money or the owner’s confidence in the business. It’s always an important distinction for us, to separate between the quality of the business and the owner’s reason for selling. If you’d like to start the conversation about selling your business, always feel free to reach out to us.

Why Most QofEs Miss 50% of the Work

This is a mandatory watch for all acquirers of small and medium-sized businesses. Elliott Holland of Guardian Due Diligence explains some major pitfalls of standard Quality of Earnings (QofE) reports and common red flags to look out for. We found this video to be very insightful, and Elliott does a fantastic job making the topic of QofE entertaining and humourous!

Check it out below:

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds B2B businesses in the lower middle market. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

• Have An Opportunity For Us?

• Capital Cycle Theory

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Interested in Leading a PE-Backed Company?

Atlasview Equity Partners is on the lookout for talented CEOs and experienced operators to drive growth at our portfolio companies. We are seeking professionals with an impressive track record and an abundance of ambition. If you're eager to leverage your leadership skills, build a lower-mid market business into a market leader, and generate significant personal wealth, we want to hear from you.

Join Atlasview’s CEO/Operator Network

By joining our exclusive list of top-tier candidates, you'll be the first to know about exciting CEO and operator opportunities within our expanding portfolio. We currently have an exciting pipeline of new opportunities, so join our network ASAP.

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds capex-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: vertical software, business services, specialty distributors

• Business Size: minimum $1m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Capital Cycle Theory

Popularized by Marathon Asset Management via the book Capital Returns, Capital Cycle Theory dictates that investor returns are largely impacted by the capital flowing in or out of industries. Being on the right side of capital flows can generate sizeable returns. And being on the wrong side of capital flows can absolutely destroy your returns.

When an industry experiences growth, it will attract excess capital from investors (mostly due to investors over-extrapolating growth). Two main things happen when too much capital flows into an industry:

• Supply increases: the excess capital attracts new competitors to launch

• Capex overspend: businesses spend too much on assets (or even worse, opex)

The combination leads to businesses generating lower ROIC (profitability compresses while capital base increases). The result is that investor returns worsen subsequent to excess capital flows. Conversely, when capital is sucked out of an industry – investor returns will, generally, subsequently improve.

There is no such thing as a “secular growth” industry. Every industry is cyclical from a capital standpoint and some cycles are longer than others. Before investing in a business, we always get an understanding of where the industry stands in the capital cycle. We want to avoid industries that are too saturated in capital or has recently seen a large amount of institutional capital in flow.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Atlasview

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm that acquires and builds capex-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Join Our CEO/Operator Network

• Our Investment Criteria

• Why We Love The Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Join Our CEO/Operator Network

Atlasview Equity Partners is on the lookout for talented CEOs and experienced operators to drive growth at our portfolio companies. We are seeking professionals with an impressive track record and an abundance of ambition. If you're eager to leverage your leadership skills, build a lower-mid market business into a market leader, and generate significant personal wealth, we want to hear from you.

Interested in leading a PE-backed company?

By joining our exclusive list of top-tier candidates, you'll be the first to know about exciting CEO and operator opportunities within our expanding portfolio. We currently have an exciting pipeline of new opportunities, so join our network ASAP.

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, business services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, other asset-light

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Why We Love The Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis

At Atlasview, we are often presented with investment opportunities in industries that we may not be completely familiar with. Decisions need to be made quickly whether to pursue opportunities or not.

For that reason, we love utilizing Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis. It’s a high-level framework to obtain an understanding of a business’s competitive position within an industry. It assesses competitive threats from all major angles.

Here is a quick breakdown of how we approach each of the five forces:

Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

We want to know how powerful the competitors are. Some industries have a winner-take-all dynamic (often the case with horizontal software), and, unless we are looking at the winner, it's best to avoid.

Some Qs we might ask are:

• Why isn't a competitor acquiring this business?

• How much capital have competitors raised?

• How fragmented is the market? Is there an active consolidator?

Threat of New Entrants

We want to know how difficult it is for a new upstart to launch and take market share. Large TAMs inevitably attract new entrants because the end prize is worth the pain of starting up. This is why we typically prefer niche end markets.

Some Qs we might ask are:

• Is there interest from venture capitalists in this industry? Have there been newly funded upstarts?

• How difficult/long is the sales process? Is distribution typically direct or indirect & gated?

• How tailored is the product/service to the niche?

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Suppliers for the types of businesses we look at are usually hosting providers, platforms, and labour. Platforms are ecosystems like Salesforce or Microsoft that the software (or service) could be built on top of. We want to know the strength of the partnership, and whether the business is at the complete mercy of the platform.

Some Qs we might ask are:

• How much of a cut is the platform taking and when was the last time they increased it?

• Could you serve your customers directly, without the platform? Could you partner with other competitive platforms?

• Is there a specialized/skilled labour shortage in this industry?

Threat of Substitute Products

We want to know what the alternatives are to using the business's products and or services.

Some Qs we might ask are:

• Is the product/service a need-to-have or nice-to-have? Is "non-use" an option for its customers?

• Would it make sense for customers to in-source the product/service?

Bargaining Power of Buyers

We want a business that has many customers, as the more spread out the revenue is among them, the less power customers have over the business. Some businesses have indirect relationships with their customers via channel partners, so we need to understand what level of risk and influence the channel partner(s) pose.

Some Qs we might ask are:

• How much revenue does the top 5 customers represent?

• What are the switching costs and risks to customers?

• When was the last time you increased your prices? What happened?

You can score each of the five forces out of 10 to get a (somewhat) objective measure of the opportunity at hand. But even just using this as a general guide will help you streamline your discovery process when presented with an industry that you're unfamiliar with.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Our Investment Criteria

• 5 Value Creation Levers To Increase Revenue

• Book Recommendation - Winning Moves by Dan Cremons

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, business services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, other asset-light

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, archive, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

5 Value Creation Levers To Increase Revenue

As the saying goes, revenue cures all ails. The first value-creation opportunity Atlasview looks for in a business is organic revenue growth. There are often low-hanging fruits to increase the top line without needing to invest additional capital.

Here are the 5 value-creation levers, in order of priority for us:

1) Pricing Optimization

We love businesses that have a high degree of pricing power. Increasing prices is a surefire way to grow revenue, improve margins, profitability, cash flow, and create value.

Beyond simply increasing prices, we often find opportunities to change the pricing logic to better match the value customers get from the product. This might mean tying pricing to usage, cost or time saving, revenue generated, or adding additional fees for various extras.

2) Customer Expansion

Sell existing products to existing customers. It’s always easier to sell to your existing customers. Businesses often have a portfolio of products, but most of their customers use only one or two products. Getting customers to purchase multiple different types of products from you, aka cross-selling, is a fantastic way to increase the share of wallet and the stickiness of customers.

Another form of customer expansion is to get your customers to buy more (or better quality) of what they are already paying for, aka the upsell. Whether it is buying more volume, usage, or a higher tier of product/service, all are ways to increase customer contract value.

3) Market Penetration

Acquire new customers in an existing vertical. We love businesses that focus on a single vertical for many reasons - one of the main reasons is that customer acquisition is far more efficient. If the business has a long history of excellence within a single vertical, this should result in a high sales/marketing ROI.

We look for opportunities to revamp go-to-market initiatives to generate new leads. Initiatives may include cold outbound, search engine optimization, email marketing, and paid advertising.

4) Market Expansion

Expand into new customer verticals. Perhaps there are adjacent verticals that would find significant value in the business’s products. This might make logical sense if a business has already maxed out on its core vertical (where the 3rd point above may not yield any results).

This could also entail geographical expansion. Perhaps there is less competition overseas or in another region, which may result in a great ROI.

5) Product Expansion

Develop new products to offer both existing and new customers. This lever comes with the greatest risk as capital investment is required to develop new products. Not to mention the added risk of uncertainty on whether these new products will sell.

In these scenarios, we look for a level of pre-commitment from existing customers for new product development. As we outline in our approach to organic reinvestment, we want a clear and measurable payback period.

Book Recommendations - Winning Moves by Dan Cremons

These revenue levers were taken from Dan Cremon’s book called Winning Moves. We are a huge fan of this book and the strategies outlined in it, it’s a mandatory reading for all private equity investors.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Our Investment Criteria

• Why We Love Vertical Niche Businesses

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, business services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, other asset-light

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Why We Love Vertical Niche Businesses

At Atlasview, we are huge fans of vertical niche businesses. These are businesses that sell software, services, or products to a single vertical only (such as law firms, credit unions, or physiotherapy clinics).

We believe that an intangible asset forms in a business when all of its customers look identical. We will always favor strategies to gain vertical depth instead of horizontal breadth. After making a platform investment into a vertical, Atlasview looks to expand along the value chain to gain depth within the vertical. We achieve this through both organic expansion and M&A.

Here are some of the benefits a business gains when it picks 1 vertical and goes all in:

1) Increased pricing – vertical specialists can charge more for their products since they should be more tailored to the specific needs of customers within that vertical (more on this in the 3rd point).

2) Cost efficiencies – instead of spreading the sale/marketing dollars thin across a bunch of verticals, you can concentrate them. All of the marketing can be tailored to a single vertical, reaching targets more effectively and driving a much higher conversion rate. This will result in more efficient spend and higher ROI.

3) Enhanced products – you can develop your products in a way that solves problems unique to customers within that vertical. This will make your R&D spend more efficient because you know exactly what you are building and for whom. Products become more tailored to your customers, making competing alternatives unattractive and switch costs high.

4) Barriers to entry – by focusing on a single vertical, the business will gain a “knowledge edge”. The business will know the vertical and understand its customers better than outsiders would – and vice versa, customers would all know and trust the business well. This makes it hard for new entrants to enter the vertical and replicate this.

Combine all this and the result is a business that generates higher profit margins, higher return on invested capital, and is harder to disrupt. Under the right circumstances, vertical specialization can result in a mini-monopoly or at least a dominant market share.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Axial’s 2024 Technology Top 50

• Our Investment Criteria

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Announcement: Atlasview Selected In Axial's 2024 Technology Top 50 List

We are honoured that Atlasview Equity Partners was selected in Axial’s Top 50 Lower Middle Market Technology Investors for 2024. For the full list, check out the full article here.

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, business services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, other asset-light

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.

Thanks for joining us for another edition of Atlasview Insights. We use this newsletter to share our strategies, philosophies, experiences, and lessons we’ve learned along the way. Small bite-sized insights for business owners, dealmakers, and investors.

In this newsletter, we cover: 

• Our Investment Criteria

• Reinvesting Capital in Organic Growth

• Podcast Recommendation - Richard Rainwater

• ICYMI - Popular Previous Issues

• Our Deal Process

Make sure to subscribe and if you enjoy the content, we'd appreciate you sharing it with your network.

Share

Have An Opportunity For Us?

Before we jump into this issue, a quick reminder, Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, business services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. For platform investments, we look for:

• Business Model: software, business services, other asset-light

• Business Size: minimum $2m EBITDA or $10m revenue

• Business Profile: sticky B2B customer base

• Business HQ: US & Canada

For add-on acquisitions for our portfolio companies, we have no size/geography criteria. We’re actively seeking add-ons in the library, legal, and government niches.

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Reinvesting Capital in Organic Growth

At Atlasview we generally prefer reinvesting free cash flow/capital into inorganic growth (M&A, add-on acquisitions), as outlined in our upside case. But sometimes we uncover opportunities for substantial reinvestment into organic growth as well. For the types of companies we specialize in, organic reinvestment generally falls under two broad categories:

1) Research & Development

This includes developing new features, functionalities, products, and modules to attract new customers or generate more revenue from existing customers. Also known as growth capex R&D.

Return on investment for growth capex R&D ultimately comes down to how costly the development is (driven by difficulty/complexity), and how much customers will pay for it once it's complete. We prefer to get a level of commitment from existing customers before pulling the trigger (and in some cases, a customer might be willing to pay for the entire cost of the new development).

2) Sales & Marketing

Many might view S&M as simply opex, but there is an argument to be made that it could be considered "growth capex". S&M spending enables us to acquire customer contracts, an intangible asset that generates future revenue.

Return on investment for S&M spending boils down to the cost to acquire a new customer (CAC) versus the lifetime value, specifically the total gross profit, a new customer generates (LTV). 3.0 is considered to be a great LTV to CAC ratio, but the time period should also be considered. If we can spend $1 in advertising today and generate $3 within 2 years, that is an incredible return. But if it takes 10 years to generate that $3, we might be better off allocating that $1 elsewhere.

Payback period

Payback period (how long it takes to make 1x our investment) is how we decide which organic initiatives (if any) we should reinvest capital in. It will dictate how much capital is required for growth, and how risky the organic growth initiatives are. The longer the payback period, generally, the more capital we need and the riskier the investment is. Ideally, we want payback periods of 12 months or less on organic reinvestment initiatives.

​Money costs money, so any reinvestment (organic or inorganic) is always measured and compared against returning capital back to debt and or equity holders.

Podcast Recommendation - Richard Rainwater

Check out this great podcast episode on Richard Rainwater, who is perhaps the first-ever independent sponsor.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of our previous popular issues:

Our Process at Atlasview

We pride ourselves on having a simple and transparent process. Our streamlined process enables us to move quickly to get you answers fast.

• Step 1: Contact Us

• Step 2: Execute NDA & Schedule Call

• Step 3: Receive Offer & High-Level Terms​

• Step 4: Execute LOI & Complete DD

• Step 5: Close Deal & Receive The Cash

• Step 6: The Fun Part Begins!

Whether you’re a business owner interested in working with us, or an intermediary with a deal to share, always feel free to contact us!

Schedule Intro Call

About Us

Atlasview Equity Partners is a private equity firm acquiring and investing in software, services, and other asset-light B2B businesses. We combine patient capital with proven strategies to deliver predictable results for our stakeholders.