What - Lock 8 Partners

Injecting Operating DNA into Investment Strategy

What we do

Lock 8 makes control investments in small-scale B2B SaaS businesses and enhances operations to enable them to achieve their full potential. Our investment thesis focuses on sourcing below-the-radar companies that have solid products and stable businesses, but which have generally under-indexed in their go-to-market efforts. We avoid hyper-competitive bidding situation and seek to build value in investments by deploying a proven and replicable operating model developed over two decades (and counting). We work with owner-operators who are looking for attractive options to help their businesses scale.

The Lock 8 Experience

We are neither day-to-day overseers nor once-in-a-quarter directive givers. We are collaborators that work with leadership to drive results collectively and thoughtfully by applying an operating framework built around the needs of key stakeholders. We reject a one-size-fits-all approach but believe in a core set of disciplines critical to growing businesses. The Lock 8 operating model enables consistent and scalable success, while embracing the uniqueness of each business, market and operating context.

“It was important to me to leave my many friends and coworkers in good hands. Lock 8 provided me with a financially sound exit strategy and my colleagues with good opportunities and hired a terrific CEO who has leveraged the skills of my team to support the rapid growth of the company, while keeping and growing the company’s healthy culture. There are twice as many employees than there were when I left. The growth has been exciting to watch.”
- Larry Krakauer, Founder, Projector PSA
“The Lock 8 team was flexible and understanding of our startup nature. I have been able to relinquish management of routine and transactional day to day tasks that can be carried out by an equally—if not more—capable team. This has been the number one benefit. It restored some of the creative/strategic freedom that I feel leaders of innovative tech businesses need.”
- Stephen Doogan, Owner-Operator, Real Life Sciences
“Having gone through a number of acquisitions in my career, I was concerned that missteps would lead to a stall in growth or even possibly a contraction. But since the acquisition, we’ve continued to grow at a steady clip. The Lock 8 team was professional, made fact-based decisions and were straight shooters throughout the whole process.”
- Steve Datnow, Founder and CTO, OfficeWork Software

Investment Criteria

We evaluate SaaS companies across a number of metrics, with a strong focus on product strength, customer retention, capital efficiency, and market position.

CRITERIA

Size / Stage

Retention

Profitability

Investment Type

Capital to Date

Growth

TARGET

$2M - $10M in ARR

>85% annual customer retention

Breakeven or better

Open to majority / control investment

Limited outside capital

No minimum threshold

What we look for:

We work with founder-led, often bootstrapped, companies that are seeking a good buyer and excellent home for their business.

How we transact:

We offer seller-friendly deal structures. Because, we’ve been in your shoes; and a sale need not be a battle.

How we engage:

We recruit, support, and help develop an energetic, coachable, GTM-savvy CEO and help build an exceptional Leadership Team around that person.

We go where we can help, with intentionality and without heroics…turning a few high-impact dials to unlock growth.