'WeSuite continues’ under PE ownership

YARMOUTH, Maine—WeSuite’s recent acquisition by Valsoft, a Montreal-based private equity firm with a “buy-and-hold" philosophy, will take the sales management solutions company to the next level, says President Tracy Larson. 

“The biggest thing for us, as a small company, is we're going to be able to accelerate the path we were already on - to be able to deliver some of the big items on our roadmap more efficiently and quickly, and potentially expand into other verticals, such as audio, HVAC, and others, that are kind of similar in terms of providing labor, parts and services,” she told Security Systems News (SSN). “That's really what we're looking at.” 

WeSuite’s offerings include WeOpportunity for sales prospecting, lead generation and pipeline management; WeEstimate for managing configuration, pricing and quoting, as well as providing a framework for approvals, contracts and commissions; and QuoteAnywhere for security sales quoting and site surveying. 

Dave Donaldson, managing director of Aspire Software – the operating arm of Valsoft - noted that his company is not a traditional private equity firm. 

“No one's ever come out and said officially that we're trying to follow the Berkshire Hathaway model, but I would equate that to getting a company that may not be the largest company, but it's very tight and integrated within the vertical, so it's very integrated with the customer base and the solution,” he said. “It's about finding a specific target audience and how to target the product to be successful within that audience, and WeSuite’s a perfect fit for that.”  

Donaldson noted that ValSoft also sees potential to advance, expand and diversify WeSuite and its products. 

“We also want to grow the product and move it up completely into the cloud and move forward from there,” he said. “We are definitely a growth-oriented company and look forward to continue growing the company both organically, as well as inorganically.”  

Those kinds of plans, as well as Valsoft’s desire to keep the WeSuite team intact, are what made Larson consider a sale to a PE firm, after receiving many calls and emails from prospective buyers over time. 

“Our plan was to keep moving forward, but when we learned about Valsoft, it spoke a little differently to us,” she said. “What meant a lot for us was that WeSuite continues. Our team is very hard working and dedicated, not only to the product and our clients but to each other and their success.”