H2 Is Underway- Market Update Time

News, insights and updates from the team at Bloom Equity Partners

Founders & Friends, Happy Friday!

We are back at it again with another Weekly Bloom. Thanks for stopping by and tuning in.  Let’s get into it 🔥

Favorites from the Ecosystem

Investors👇…..

Sandy Kory @sandykory

2000-2003 was a brutal time in tech Google: "hold my beer" 2000 - 19m in rev 2001 - 86m 2002 - 348m 2003 - 962m (177% y-o-y growth!!!) Yeah, but what about their burn? 2003 - 395m in operating cash flow in '03, Google (as a private co) hit 218 on the Rule of 40

ValueAdd Capital (VAC) @ValueAddCapital

If you wanna start the compounding machine, long-term fixed and cheap debt is a pretty decent hack. I was scared of leverage in my 20s, now I’m starting to embrace it in my mid 30s and it’s truly a force multiplier, if managed properly.

Founders👇…..

MATT GRAY @matt_gray_

Last week my little business empire crossed $300K in monthly revenue. I ran zero paid ads, built a community of 14 million and operate at a 60%+ margin. Here are the 8 steps of my soulful journey: Hope it's helpful to someone. [🧵 thread]

Jesse Pujji @jspujji

If you’re beating yourself up over making a bad hire or afraid of pulling the trigger, I’ll share two things: 1) if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt (don’t hire) 2) I’ve made well over $3M worth of hiring mistakes. I’m still here Failure is an option, not an outcome.

Operators👇….

Andrew Lynch @andrewglynch

"How do I know if my Finance team is doing a good job? I'm not an accountant" If you're an SMB owner, operator or investor, this is for you Here is exactly how to evaluate, prioritise and start improving your Finance processes on day 1 let's dive in 🧵 👇

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Private markets begin to feel economic downturn

Private tech valuations are beginning to adjust downwards as they are lagging indicators of public valuations.

Earlier this week, PE Wire released a report which included a survey consisting of 50 notable PE professionals.

Here’s a quick summary of a few notable points:

• Tech valuations have begun to see some pullback due to overinflated valuations, but not to the extent of the public markets.

• Differences in valuation expectations between buyers and sellers have caused for a challenging deal process.

• Interest in PE sub-sector deals such as software and cybersecurity are still evident.

• Technology PE firms are not expected to pull back on their strategies in the sector but final sale pricing may be more vulnerable.

  • According to Pitchbook, US PE firms will close at least 400 middle-market software deals in 2022

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What We’re Reading and Listening To…

📚 Y Combinator: The Institute of Innovation

📚 Individuals or Teams: Who’s the Better Customer for SaaS Products?

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News from the Industry: deals, deals, and more deals 💰

Raising big money in a sour market

The Funded: Sequoia Capital's China arm is reloading with $9B in new capital

CCI approves acquisition of Citrix Systems by Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Investment Management

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End Note 🔚

As always, if you're enjoying The Weekly Bloom, we'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. We try to make it one of the best emails you get each week, and I hope you're enjoying it.

And should you come across anything interesting this week, send it our way! We love finding new things to read through members of this newsletter.

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About Bloom Equity Partners

Bloom Equity Partners is a lower mid-market software-focused private equity firm, leveraging deep operational and commercial experience to create enduring market value for the benefit of our investors, founders, and their companies.