Author: Audrey Pang

Ionic Partners, a pioneer in investing in and operating Second Chasm software companies, announces the appointment of John Jonson as Principal, Capital Formation.

March 8, 2023 – Ionic Partners (“Ionic”) announced today that John Jonson has joined the firm to lead Ionic’s capital formation efforts, bringing his decades of experience as a leader in fundraising, investment entity structuring, and business development. 

“We created Ionic to bring to bear world class software and technology expertise to an untapped part of the market. As we are now poised to apply our team’s experience and skills to a targeted and significant opportunity set, we are thrilled to have someone of John’s extensive background and deep relationships on board to help enable this inflection point,” said Donald Park, Co-Founder & President of Ionic Partners. He added, “John has a proven track record of translating unique manager strategies across various industries for major institutions and family offices. As we expand our offering to investors across both the equity and credit spectrum, John will be an essential addition to our team.”

“Translating top tier investment strategies to all types of investors has been a gratifying experience during my career.  Having been an allocator for family offices as well as a university endowment, I understand and enjoy the substantial process in finding optimal fits,” said Jonson.

He added “Donald and Andy have created at Ionic an exceptional team at an opportune time. With experienced, discerning, and steady hands on the wheel, they and their team have become one of the most stellar emerging software managers in one of the most attractive investment spaces for the coming decade. The combination of finding the right companies along with Ionic’s specialized focus and expertise is a unique and highly appealing value proposition to many, and I’m incredibly excited to join and contribute.”

Jonson joins Ionic as its third Principal, joining Audrey Pang and Tanner Cerand who joined the firm from Vista Equity Partners and focus on Operations and Origination, respectively. Prior to joining Ionic, John served as Head of Capital Formation at Pantera Capital, the first blockchain hedge and venture fund in the United States and considered one of the pre-eminent firms in the space. While at Pantera, John led the successful raise of the $1.3B Blockchain Fund.  Prior to that, John was a Managing Director at Lyrical Partners from 2013 to 2020, where he led the single and multi-family office, university endowment and institutional capital formation efforts, and also helped source, diligence and manage the firm’s venture investments. Before Lyrical, John was a co-founding Managing Principal of Capricorn Investment Group, originally the single-family office for Jeff Skoll, the first president of eBay.  John served as Capricorn’s Chief Operating Officer and led Strategic Business Development for Capricorn and its affiliates.  During his tenure, the firm was an early investor in Tesla, VitaminWater, SpaceX, TrueCar, HeartFlow, and Yammer.

John received a BA in Public Policy from Duke University and an MBA with high honors from the International Business Program at the Moore School at the University of South Carolina, with a focus on Japanese finance. He has served on the University Endowment’s Investment Oversight Committee since 2009.

About Ionic Partners

Ionic Partners brings together over 50 years of global software industry expertise as both operators and investors. The company is led by Andy Tryba and Donald Park, formerly of ESW Capital and Vista Equity Partners, respectively. Ionic has experience investing in businesses as entrepreneurs from startup to growth stage, to IPO and Fortune 500-scale. They have also been advisers and partners to management teams and boards. Ionic acquires recurring revenue software businesses and creates value through a proven operating model, a dedicated team of software operators and executives, and change management experts with deep experience in building world-class culture, processes, and successful outcomes.

Ionic Partners, experts in acquiring and operating recurring revenue software businesses, announces the appointment of Tanner Cerand as Principal, Origination.

January 11, 2022 – Ionic Partners (“Ionic”) announced today that Tanner Cerand will join the firm to lead Ionic’s sourcing efforts, bringing to bear his decades of experience as a leader in investment research, origination, and business development.

With an established and permanent capital base, Ionic is a highly active acquirer of recurring revenue enterprise software businesses. Ionic Partners is distinguished by its focus on acquiring and operating “Second Chasm” software companies – those that have strong products and teams, but whose revenue growth and profitability don’t reflect the intrinsic value of their offerings. These companies are characterized by lower revenue growth and sometimes near break-even profitability, which causes investors and operators to recognize that they need a new operating approach to successfully scale.

“In a market awash in capital and outsized returns, many companies today believe they must exhibit hyper-growth characteristics to be successful. We don’t believe that at all. Many companies have great products and great teams but struggle to access the best resources in the world to remain competitive,” said Donald Park, Co-Founder & President of Ionic Partners. “Ionic was created to find companies where leadership recognizes these challenges and seeks a fundamentally different way of operating to succeed in the new world. Tanner Cerand has a proven history of identifying great companies with strong products and attributes that others may overlook, and he’ll be a great addition to our team.”

Cerand added, “Second Chasm companies typically find themselves in a marginalized position in the marketplace. They tend to be too small to garner the attention of traditional acquirers and growing too slowly to attract traditional investors in a ‘growth-first’ economy. Where others may overlook these companies, Ionic sees tremendous undiscovered value potential. This combination of finding the right companies along with the Ionic team’s specialized focus and expertise at running and growing these companies is a unique and exciting value proposition that I’m thrilled to be a part of.”

Ionic Partners builds sets of enterprise software companies through acquisition, focusing on $3mm to $30mm revenue businesses globally. Ionic specializes in transactions that require unparalleled speed and certainty – from corporate carve-outs and ‘end of life’ venture investments, to entrepreneur-led businesses and family-held operations. Ionic brings over 50 years of experience as software entrepreneurs, operators, and investors and is led by Andy Tryba and Donald Park, formerly of ESW Capital and Vista Equity Partners, respectively. As part of their unique operating methodology, Ionic acquires businesses and transforms them into modern companies with a cloud-first approach towards product, workflow, and especially, talent. Ionic’s recent acquisition of Gigster, from investors Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint Ventures, has accelerated their ability to provide enterprises with the ability to quickly develop world-class software products and digital assets using an elastic, globally-connected workforce.

“The modern cloud presents opportunities to deliver high-skill jobs to the right person, instead of the person to the job, which is how most businesses operate,” said Andy Tryba, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ionic Partners. “We help bring companies with stalled growth or operational challenges into the modern cloud using our expertise in building and managing remote teams,” said Andy Tryba. “Tanner’s deep industry relationships and established track record at some of the world’s best software investment firms will help bring the right kind of companies into our unique model of value creation through innovation.”

Cerand brings 18 years of financial market experience and nine years of experience in software and technology deal sourcing. Cerand previously led deal sourcing at Build Acquisition Corp. and BuildGroup, an operator-led permanent capital software investment group led by Lanham Napier, the former CEO of Rackspace (NASDAQ: RXT). Prior to BuildGroup, Tanner helped build and lead research and business development strategies at Vista Equity Partners, a leading software investment firm with over $86 billion in AUM. Tanner’s work on the Founding Committee for BEAM Angel Network helps provide equitable access to capital for women-founded companies and generational wealth for the founders and investors that support them.

“I love engaging with executives and investors to have thoughtful conversations around key technology trends and where markets are headed, while building meaningful connections between founders, executives, and investors across my expansive network,” said Cerand.

About Ionic Partners

Ionic Partners brings together over 50 years of global software industry expertise as both operators and investors. The leadership team has experience investing in businesses as entrepreneurs from startup to growth stage, to IPO and Fortune 500-scale. They have also been advisers and partners to management teams and boards. Ionic acquires recurring revenue software businesses – specializing in carve-outs and Second Chasm companies – and creates value through a proven operating model, a dedicated team of software operators and executives, and change management experts with deep experience in building world-class culture, processes, and successful outcomes.