Great software. Under-run businesses.
Shaping Lift is an operator-led independent sponsor building a platform of vertical SaaS companies, each keeping its brand, all run by one shared operating team.
The customers are loyal. The business is run below its potential.
The systems of record that run schools, clinics, public agencies, and thousands of other everyday businesses keep their customers, with low churn and healthy cash flow. Most of these businesses are run well below what the product and the customer base could support, and the technology underneath is falling behind.
- 01
Switching costs are the moat.
These products hold a customer’s records, workflows, and years of history. Replacing them means retraining staff, migrating data, and risking daily operations, so customers tend to stay for years.
- 02
The modernization pressure.
Legacy vertical SaaS was built for a slower era. AI has raised what customers expect from every product, and aging stacks and stretched teams make each improvement slow and expensive. Most of these companies are fine today, but few are equipped to keep up on their own.
- 03
Small, mighty teams ship more, and better.
A handful of senior engineers with modern AI tooling can modernize aging products and keep improvements moving. Under an experienced operator, these businesses can deliver better software with less overhead. That gap is the margin.
One platform, many products.
Each company keeps its brand, customers, and product focus. Underneath them, a shared operating platform handles engineering, support, finance, and go-to-market, so every company we add gets better and leaner, and the whole becomes more valuable than the parts.
The market is already telling us.
The public markets have already made the call. After AI fears compressed software multiples early in 2026, investors split the sector in two: systems of record with real switching costs, such as Shopify, Okta, CrowdStrike, Datadog, and Veeva, recovered strongly, while the tools AI can replace did not. Durability is being priced, and it is the same durability our targets have, at a fraction of the valuation.
The playbook has also been proven in public. Bending Spoons has bought established software and run it with a small senior team, through Evernote, WeTransfer, Vimeo, Airtable, and others. It reported $1.31B of revenue in 2025 at a 47% adjusted operating margin, and listed on Nasdaq in July 2026.
Vertical SaaS at this size is too small for most large platforms and too important to be folded into a strategic. That's where we build.
Buy proven software, run it exceptionally well, and increase its value.
Value is created by running the business better than it was run before: a modern product, a leaner cost base, a sharper go-to-market. Operating costs come down, margins go up, and each company is worth more because it earns more.
Acquire the anchor
The first company: vertical B2B or B2G SaaS with $2–5M EBITDA that is the system of record for its customers, in any vertical where switching is painful. Underwritten on the cost base we will run rather than the one we inherit.
Modernize
Customers and critical knowledge are secured first. Then the stack is modernized and release velocity restored, so the product keeps earning its price. Cost comes out only after that.
Add companies
More vertical SaaS companies join the platform, each keeping its brand and its customers. Shared engineering, support, finance, and go-to-market lift margins at every company, and sharper pricing, packaging, and a real sales motion lift revenue.
Build the platform
A group of well-run products on one platform is worth more than the parts. We build for long-term value and keep every option open.
Shaping Lift is run by an operator.
Owner, operator, and builder of software businesses, with two decades of turning SaaS products into lean, profitable companies.
Shaping Lift is led by Phil Alves. He founded and runs DevSquad, a 90+ person software development firm that has built and modernized 200+ SaaS products for Fortune 500 companies and leading vertical SaaS companies. That work has put him inside hundreds of SaaS codebases, teams, and go-to-market motions: he knows where cost and slowdowns hide.
He also owns DevStats, an engineering-metrics SaaS product run by its own general manager, with Phil as the operator above it. It's the Shaping Lift model, already working.
Most buyers at this size have to hire an operator after closing and spend a year getting up to speed. At Shaping Lift, the operator is the sponsor, with meaningful GP co-investment in each deal.
Phil is also a pilot, and he runs his businesses the way he flies: checklists, discipline, and no surprises.
Back the platform, not just a deal. Let's talk.
Capital partners, founders thinking about succession, and intermediaries with a fit.
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