Acquisitions and early stage capital + unleashing engineering teams
Rebase Capital is a fund led by a software developer and financial analyst. We invest in and buy companies where we can add value to engineering teams.
Our investment focus
Vertical SaaS businesses with a track record of success
Why we love this space: Vertical SaaS products act as the operating systems for businesses. And, once firmly delivering value there are growth opportunities by solving tangential customer challenges in innovative ways.
Where we add value: We give founders breathing room in their cap structure. If founders want to exit, we find a new CEO focused on empowering engineering teams. Finally, and critically, we invest for the long run.
Deal size: $5mm-$15mm majority investments or full exits for existing investors and founders.
The long tail of low-code / no-code products and tools
Why we love this space: The low-code / no-code space is justifiably highly fragmented with various products and end customer profiles. It’s filled with website builders, form builders, design templates, cloud databases, CMS’s, workflow automation tools, agencies, and more. Serving a niche with a well functioning product is a recipe for success.
Where we add value: We operate the business as a rollup, meaning we have a team of marketing and software folks that will take your business to the next level. As a result, tech-stack fit is important to us.
Deal size: $500k-$1m exits for solo founders.
Startups building products for professional services firms
Why we love this space: Professional service firms that operate in consulting, auditing, law, and financial advisory are increasingly adopting technology in their businesses. There’s room for startups that enhance productivity or drive insights for this clientele.
How we add value: We have a robust community of beta testers and early adopters from the professional services industry. Also, we can help you build your engineering team for early product development.
Deal size: $100k-$300k seed and series A investments.
Our thoughts on investing and software
What do MBAs learn about software?
It's critical for non-engineering leaders to develop a strong mental model for how software systems are designed built and managed. In order for CEOs in training to develop this mental model we need MBA programs to offer more approachable education on the software development lifecycle.
An acquisition playbook for a tech downturn
Buy a good SaaS business with unworkable cap structures. Re-energize leadership and employees. Operate for the long run.
AI copilot for X is the new Uber for X
Look out for "Copilot for X" companies where (1) the incumbent SaaS products in the vertical are too slow to incorporate generative AI and/or (2) the workflows for the vertical are still manual and rely on copy/paste with MS Word or other undifferentiated software.
About us
Sagar Shah | Founder
I’m primarily a software engineer. I spent 6 years working at VHX (acquired by Vimeo), which allows video content owners (SMBs) to run their own multi-platform streaming services (Netflix out of the box). Here, I helped build the product’s payments, analytics, CMS, third-party app APIs, video ingestion, and much more.
I’ve also managed a globally distributed team of backend engineers for 3 years at a password manager called Dashlane. I am most proud of accelerating the professional growth of countless individual contributors and managers on my team. My special powers as a manager are active listening, discovering potential of individuals and teams, mapping interests to opportunities, setting clear objectives, and taking hard decisions when necessary.
Finally, I’m also a financial analyst. I spent 3 years at Ernst & Young valuing all sorts of assets and businesses. I’m well versed in finance, accounting, and the drivers of value for businesses. You can learn more about my background on LinkedIn.