A year ago I opened our annual review by noting what an unusual and incredible year it had been for ASG. As we wrapped up 2022 those words continued to ring true.
While our operations across ASG returned to a new sense of normal coming out of the pandemic, we saw an incredibly uncertain macro environment and market. Our headline: We grew through it. In fact, we celebrated the milestone of our 50th acquisition and our community of companies saw individual and collective growth.
So, what’s our secret sauce? Well, one of the main ingredients is our core belief in partnering with founders who have built tremendous value with mission critical software solutions. The truth is that these have always been great businesses to own, but an uncertain market like last year’s uniquely reveals both value and froth.
I attribute another part of our success to taking a long-term view. Short-term market conditions in verticals like hospitality or real estate software look scary if you’re looking at very specific times — the back half of 2022 might have seemed like a counterintuitive time to be interested in real estate software, just like 2020 and 2021 seemed like a counterintuitive time to acquire hospitality software.
We made both of those bets. 2022 saw our bet on hospitality pay off with the launch of and incredible growth for Actabl. And in spite of a challenging market for the flagships in our real estate vertical — including 2022 acquisition Sierra Interactive — in the back half of 2022, we’re in it for the long term.
Just like we had faith that people would always want and need to travel, we have a fundamental belief that people will always need a place to call home and agents and brokers will always need tools to improve their businesses.
The third and final part of the (now not-so) secret recipe: Our people. This will be my 5th year working with ASG and Alpine and the longer I work here the more I know our ‘attributes over experience’ approach to talent creates outsized outcomes. I’m more excited than ever to work with our leaders and empower them to become best-in-the-world software CEOs.
If the past few years have taught me anything it’s that all of the years to come — 2023 included — are sure to come with their own unique challenges. I truly believe in the people on team ASG to keep on managing through whatever the future throws our way with resilience and heart.
Our focus will be on continuing to partner with independent founders to acquire extraordinary SaaS companies — both here in the U.S. and internationally as we keep expanding our global reach. And of course that means we’ll also be looking to hire extraordinary leaders and accelerate our growth on every front — from M&A to the organic growth of our companies.
For more highlights, stats, and to meet some of the founders and companies we welcomed to ASG, check out our full 2022 review.
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