Principal, Financial Sponsor Partnerships

Phocas Software

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal, Financial Sponsor Partnerships builds and activates Phocas’s relationships with private equity firms, family offices, and other financial sponsors that own or acquire ideal customers in the United States. The role owns the sponsor book, the Phocas for Financial Sponsors offer, weekly deal-flow monitoring, and three commercial plays: winning additional logos across sponsor platforms where Phocas already has a customer; winning new logos as the day-one standard inside newly acquired portfolio companies; and defending sponsor-owned ARR. This is a principal-level individual contributor role with no direct reports. It reports to the VP Partnerships and works through account-owning teams and cross-functional partners. The role builds the sponsor program from the ground up: there is not yet a sponsor program, portfolio agreement template, or operating-partner network at Phocas. At twelve months, the business will decide whether to scale, hold, or exit the program based on evidence produced by the person in the role. The role is responsible for delivering sponsor-influenced new business, protecting approximately $2.5 million in sponsor-owned ARR, building sponsor relationships or portfolio agreements, and establishing the Phocas for Financial Sponsors offer. It will develop an acquisition integration playbook, sponsor team, portfolio reviews, exit-readiness packs, and a sponsor data model with RevOps. The role convenes the monthly Sponsor Tiger Team and works directly with the VP US Sales and CRO. Externally, it builds relationships with sponsor operating partners and portfolio-operations leads, as well as portfolio-company CEOs and CFOs.

Requirements

Has carried a number in B2B software sales, partnerships, or alliances.
Has personally opened doors at operating-partner, managing-director, and CFO level.
Has sold into or worked alongside private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, from a vendor PE team, sponsor value-creation team, or PE-focused consultancy.
Can identify operating partners in their network and explain concretely how to turn those relationships into pipeline.
Can articulate hold periods, investment hypotheses, value-creation levers, and unit economics, and explain the role of a PE operating team and why it might work with a vendor like Phocas.
Has a track record of building something from nothing on a ninety-day clock and being accountable for its results.
Has delivered results through people who do not report to them and maintains accurate CRM and pipeline data.
Has used AI with teams to solve problems, move faster, and improve productivity.

Nice To Haves

Experience inside a private equity firm.
Familiarity with mid-market distribution and manufacturing, and the ERP ecosystem around Epicor, Infor, NetSuite, Sage, Acumatica, and SAP.

Responsibilities

Develop the pitch by understanding sponsor firms’ priorities, alternatives, and the jobs to be done for sponsor operators.
Identify and prioritize target sponsors, including roll-up platforms, family offices, holding companies, and large-cap platform owners; build the sponsor book by priority and connection path.
Work top down with operating partners and portfolio-operations leads and bottom up through portfolio-company CFOs to earn introductions and deliver the sponsor pitch.
Negotiate portfolio agreements with Legal, FP&A, and Operations at approved terms, and operate within each sponsor’s rules of engagement.
Monitor sponsor deal flow weekly, verify ownership, obtain sponsor portfolio lists and key contacts, and report how the cohort is progressing.
Work opportunities with AEs, register sponsor influence, and coordinate group licenses across sister brands.
Build sponsor-level account plans with Account Managers and Customer Success, and run quarterly portfolio reviews.
Own the sponsor data model in HubSpot with RevOps, convene the monthly Sponsor Tiger Team, and collaborate with Partner Marketing on the narrative, program page, and events.
Build and activate relationships with private equity firms, family offices, and other financial sponsors in the United States.
Own the sponsor book, the Phocas for Financial Sponsors offer, weekly deal-flow monitoring, and the plays for expanding logos, establishing Phocas as the day-one standard in newly acquired portfolio companies, and defending sponsor-owned ARR.
Stand up the sponsor program, including an acquisition integration playbook, named sponsor team, portfolio reviews, and exit-readiness packs.
Produce the evidence pack supporting the twelve-month scale, hold, or exit decision for the sponsor program.
Work through AEs and the US New Business market lead; Account Managers and the US Expansion market lead; Customer Success; Partner Marketing; RevOps; Enablement; and Services, while partnering with Legal and FP&A on portfolio agreements.
Deliver three sponsor-influenced wins by month six and eight by month twelve, protect approximately $2.5 million in sponsor-owned ARR while holding gross revenue retention at 96% or better, and build five sponsor relationships or portfolio agreements by month twelve with an actively influencing named operating partner for each.