The private equity firm Tritium Partners tapped Consero Global before hiring a full-time portfolio company CFO, so when the ideal candidate came along, he could focus on strategic initiatives immediately.
Private equity investing isn’t for the faint of heart. A lot of firms built their reputation on rescuing enterprises from the brink and leaving those businesses stronger than ever before. Even GPs who target high-growth businesses will focus on those struggling to manage that success. Those fees and carried interest are based on their ability to see untapped potential and execute a plan to realize it.
Tritium Partners saw a lot to like in PELITAS, a rapidly growing, healthcare Saas company that created industry-leading solutions for increasing cash and cultivating patient loyalty at over 200 hospitals and ambulatory locations. It was launched by co-founders that had built a great solution platform, but who eventually realized they needed a partner to build a management team and take the business to the next level. Tritium was a great fit for PELITAS because they focus on high growth businesses where they can collaborate with talented management teams and founders to guide their companies to new heights.
Tritium identified an enormous amount of potential for the company, but some facets of the business needed to be upgraded to match its growth, including its finance and accounting function. They wanted to hire a new CFO, but they also knew any initiative could be hobbled if its books weren’t in order first.
“We hired Consero for its outsourced finance-as-a-service solution, because they provided us leverage to immediately upgrade our finance function without hiring a large back-office team,” said Chris Steiner, Principal of Tritium Partners. “Consero’s capabilities allowed us to focus on the rest of our 100-day plan, with the confidence that our basic finance function would be handled properly.”
PELITAS had a great offering, but its finance and accounting capabilities needed more sophistication to support the anticipated growth. Consero brought scalable systems, teams and processes to the business and began producing GAAP-compliant, audit friendly financials. Consero helped PELITAS through its conversion to accrual-accounting, its first audit and the establishment of its credit facility, all before there was a permanent CFO in place.
McClure explains that PELITAS appreciated his more strategic orientation, and with Consero in place, the company didn’t need to hire a CFO based on their ability to build the finance function from scratch. During his first few months with PELITAS, McClure did some minor customization to the process and procedures, but Consero’s platform was flexible so it was only a matter of refining. “I didn’t need to hire, train and manage the staff. I could just focus on learning the business and our key deliverables without having to be distracted with personnel matters.”
