Page 72 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)

clear,” Bravo says. Today’s roaring market adds 1,000 pounds of supplies—water, granola bars,
potency to the playbook. Lenders are now gorg- meal kits, satellite telephones, diapers, intrave-
ing on software debt, and stock market multiples nous tubes and hydration pills—to Aguadilla,
for these businesses are surging. near Mayagüez. When an airport worker opened
A recent example is Detroit’s Compuware, a the door of his plane, Bravo says, the look of fear
decades-old pioneer of software applications to on his face was unforgettable. “All you could say
manage mainframe computer systems. In 2013, was ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you.’ ”
this Nasdaq-listed giant was all but left for dead He returned two weeks later in a larger plane
68 and up for sale. There was minimal interest, oth- with 7,000 pounds of supplies. Then he came in
er than from Bravo and partner Seth Boro, who a massive DC-10 cargo plane before ultimately
were keen on Dynatrace, software that helped chartering two container ships carrying 600,000
O companies move databases to the cloud, which pounds. “It was just like cold-calling for deals,”
A V
R Compuware had acquired in 2011. Thoma Bravo Bravo says of rounding up all the donations. He
B used $675 million in cash and raised $1.8 billion personally put in $3

O in debt to buy Compuware and then split off Dy- million in just the first
D
N natrace as a separate company. The pair began I learned more 30 days, and commit-
A to move Dynatrace from selling database licens- ted $10 million alto-
L
R es, once the bulk of its business, to cloud sub- gether.
O scription services, now 70% of sales. This past about building
When the Federal
E
L August, Dynatrace went public, and Thoma Bra- Emergency Manage-
I
F vo’s 70% stake is now worth over $4 billion, with an efficient ment Agency became
O
R the remainder of Compuware worth nearly a bil- fully operative there,
P
lion more. “I learned more about building an ef- software the island’s richest na-
ficient software company over the last four and a tive turned his atten-
half years than in the first 30 years of my career,” tion to Puerto Rico’s
says Dynatrace CEO John Van Siclen. company over future. Though 44% of
With a fresh $12.6 billion war chest for its Puerto Ricans live be-
13th fund raised in 2018, Bravo is eyeing $10 bil- the last four low the poverty line,
lion-plus deals and expects to begin buying en- Bravo believes in the
thanks in part to the success of his firm, he now and a half years potential to foster en-
tire divisions from today’s technology giants. But
cit-
trepreneurship,
faces more competition. Heavyweights like Black- ing that a tenth of the
stone and KKR are increasingly sussing out soft- than in the first population has tried to
ware deals, not to mention his longtime rival Vis- build a business.
vo’s $3.6 billion 2015 acquisition of San Francis- 30 years of money, his founda-
his
ta Equity. And he’s not immune to mistakes. Bra-
with
Armed
co-based digital network tracker Riverbed Tech- tion is looking to back
nology is currently struggling because of slowing my career. Puerto Rican technol-
sales and too much debt. He isn’t worried. “There ogy entrepreneurs,
are bigger and better companies to fix than there even ferrying them to
were ten years ago,” Bravo says. Thoma Bravo’s offic-
es for training. Bravo
is biggest challenge these days
admits to being tired
H is likely back home in Puerto of the debate over Puerto Rico’s statehood and
Rico where it all began. Bravo an-
holds his tongue when asked about President
nounced in May that he is con- Trump’s performance during Maria. “My pas-
tributing $100 million to his Bra- sion, which is the same as with companies, is
vo Family Foundation that will be to move beyond the strategic, long-term pon-
used to promote entrepreneurship and economic tification, and into the operational and tactical
development on the island. moves that make you move forward today,” he
This new foundation was birthed by Hurri- says. “Economies go down, companies miss their
cane Maria, which devastated the island two numbers, trade stops, product issues happen
years ago. Bravo was in Japan raising cash for and people quit. [The question is] do you have
yet another massive fund and frantically calling a creative approach to problem solving?” Bravo
San Juan trying to locate his parents, who were says. “Some people are stuck . . . and some peo-
living in the capital. They were fine, but the is- ple love putting the pieces together. I just feel
land wasn’t. like every operational problem can be solved.
Five days later, he flew his Gulfstream jet with There’s always a solution.” F

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