For decades, the dealer software market has been built by entrepreneurs. Many of the systems that dealerships rely on today, whether for dealer management, inventory, F&I, fixed operations, CRM, digital retailing, payments, or analytics, began as businesses founded by people who deeply understood the industry and built software to solve very specific problems. That entrepreneurial […]
The first half of 2026 has kept us busy across the group. We welcomed two new businesses to our portfolio, hit to road to meet founders around the world, and leaned into AI. Here’s a look back at the first six months of the year! Acquisitions Completed We completed two acquisitions in the first half of the year, expanding our footprint in dealership software. […]
When Divya Lucas joined Aspen three years ago, she wasn’t stepping into a carefully planned technology career. In fact, her path into software began almost by accident. After spending a decade in the automotive industry working with dealer management systems and CRM software, Divya was approached about an opportunity that would eventually lead her to Aspen. What started as a customer success role quickly […]
Read More… from Women in Technology: Finding Your Voice and Creating Your Own Opportunities
For many entrepreneurs, building a business begins with a passion for the work itself. However, as the business grows, the work you once loved gets buried under the work that simply has to get done. A CIBC survey of more than 1,000 small business owners found that two-thirds work longer hours than they did as employees, and […]
Read More… from The Case for Selling: How an Exit Can Give a Founder Back Their Focus
In the first article in this series, Adam Zimmer shared lessons from the founder’s perspective, emphasizing that the smoothest sale processes are rarely built in the months leading up to a transaction. To complement that perspective, we spoke with Aaran Newman, Managing Director of Auto-IT, who, in conjunction with his partners, recently guided the business through its own sale […]
Read More… from Inside the Process: A Firsthand Account of Selling a Business
Customer-owned software businesses have very different priorities than traditional founder-owned companies when they begin thinking about a sale. The customers who own the software are usually operators first. They built or acquired the platform to solve a critical operational problem inside their industry, not because they aspired to run a software company indefinitely. At a certain point, many customer-owned businesses […]
Read More… from Running the Business You Depend On: The Customer-Owner Dilemma
A practical guide to knowing whether your business is ready for a sale, with reflections from someone who has lived both sides of the deal. Adam Zimmer founded Arius Software in 1999, ran it for more than a decade, and sold it to Perseus Group in 2012. Today, he is a Portfolio Manager where he is responsible for acquiring and overseeing a group of businesses […]
Read More… from Lessons from a Seller: How to Run a Smoother M&A Process
We’ve recently started running a series of AI roundtables to share what teams across Perseus are building, and what’s working. In our latest roundtable, Pranav Sood, General Manager of Aspen walked through how his team uses AI tools. As an avid sneaker collector, Pranav first started using AI to catalogue his inventory. It was a simple experiment, but it quickly highlighted how powerful these tools can be when applied to repetitive, […]
Read More… from Inside One GM’s AI Experiment: From a Legacy Portal to a Team of Digital Agents
As Patrick Nazzaro prepares to step into retirement, he reflects on a career spanning more than four decades. From his early days in aerospace engineering to leading software businesses through multiple ownership transitions, his path was shaped by very different operating environments, and the lessons that came with them. Earlier in his career, Patrick navigated a challenging acquisition […]
Read More… from Employee Success Story: Patrick Nazzaro’s Journey from R&D Leader to GM
English: Hello, my name is Diego Mariño, and I am a Business Development Manager for the Latin American region. When we start talking to founders, these initial conversations usually focus heavily on the personal side. We want to understand a little about what the business does and also a little about their expectations on a professional and personal level, so that […]
Outstanding customer support is one the most important differentiators of a well-run software business. However, providing extraordinary support that delights your customers can become expensive. Since we never sell our businesses, we think differently about operational improvement. We are not optimizing for quarterly improvements, or an eventual sale. Instead, we help our businesses grow sustainably over the long-run. This mindset has led us to invest […]
Read More… from The Golden Ticket: How to Improve Response Time and Enhanced Customer Service
A look back at the stories celebrating the visionary leaders who are forging paths across Perseus. International Women’s Day is an opportunity to recognize the women across the Perseus ecosystem who are building, leading, and shaping our business every day. Over the past year, we’ve shared several stories highlighting women at the forefront of technology, AI, and M&A. Each one reflects the impact […]
Read More… from Celebrating Women Across the Perseus Ecosystem