Orlando Bravo, Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo

In this episode, Thoma Bravo managing partner Orlando Bravo discusses why he began investing in software two decades ago, the resiliency of the software business model, and navigating the investing landscape throughout the pandemic.

On navigating through crisis: “Number one, it is better to be overly conservative than overly optimistic. Within that philosophy and framework, you look to take costs out. And in case you took out too much, you can always add back to the business. And the second thing we look to do is we look to be very hands on. In times of crisis, you do to have be hands on as an investor, as a CEO, and as a leader. And we did that until we could finally have some visibility into how the business world was performing.” 

On the keys to his investing success: “It is very difficult to change the real trajectory of a business over a private equity investment environment or horizon of 3-5 years. So, you really have to take a very practical approach to the one or two value creation levers that you want to deploy because it is likely that that company that has been around for 30 years with an established culture, set of procedures, processes, ways of communicating, ways of interacting with customers. That company is likely to behave in a very similar way after you buy it than as before.”

Transcript