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IP Interview
Published June 3, 2025

Vista Equity: Due Diligence & Sales Alignment

Executive Bio

Former Value Creation Director at Vista Equity

Interview Transcript

Disclaimer: This interview is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. In Practise is an independent publisher and all opinions expressed by guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of In Practise.

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That's helpful. Now, in a typical Vista deal, when do you get involved in due diligence? How do you determine when your role begins? Let's start by describing a typical Vista Equity deal, including company size and what they generally do.

Optimally, the operating arm gets involved at the tail end of commercial diligence and the beginning of operational diligence. The way I think about this, and we did this when I was at Vista, is it's almost like a stage gate process. The easiest way to describe it, and I borrowed this from someone else, is deal killers, model movers, and value creation planning.

This is a snippet of the transcript.to get full access.

That's helpful. Now, in a typical Vista deal, when do you get involved in due diligence? How do you determine when your role begins? Let's start by describing a typical Vista Equity deal, including company size and what they generally do.

In the deal killer space, it should really be the deal team asking if the market is big enough and if we can make the investment thesis work. You might involve the operating team, like in a software business, where the product and tech team ensures there's not an overwhelming amount of tech debt. You may also check for any significant legal issues or regulatory changes that could potentially impact the business.

This is a snippet of the transcript.to get full access.

That's helpful. Now, in a typical Vista deal, when do you get involved in due diligence? How do you determine when your role begins? Let's start by describing a typical Vista Equity deal, including company size and what they generally do.

You have the deal killers, and the operating team is very surgically involved, if at all, in that portion. You reach IC1, and then in the model movers, the operating team becomes much more involved. You're assessing the models, determining the levers to use, and deciding how much to invest in sales and what to expect in return. You consider ratios and how they look.

This is a snippet of the transcript.to get full access.

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