When a founder steps back from the company they spent years building, the first question is rarely about price. It is about what happens next. To the product. To the team. To the customers who depend on it. Six months into the year, that question is worth answering with evidence rather than promises.
The Through-Line: Reinvestment, Not Extraction
Permanent capital changes the math. With no fixed end date and no financing contingency, there is no clock forcing short-term decisions. That shows up in how each company has spent the last six months: modernizing products, hiring, and investing in customers, rather than cutting to hit a quarterly number.
Solen partners with founders of critical workflow software businesses and operates them for the long term. The goal is simplification, not control. The progress below reflects that.
AutoTime: Landing Enterprise and Building for Scale
AutoTime provides labor tracking and time and attendance software to industries where precision and compliance are not optional. In the first half of this year, the business secured a major contract with a global enterprise customer, a milestone that reflects both the strength of the product and the commercial infrastructure Solen helped put in place. The work behind that win was not just in sales. It came from investment in go-to-market support, operational clarity, and the kind of long-term thinking that makes a business credible to large enterprise buyers.
"The support we received on the commercial and operational side made a real difference. This is what it looks like when a long-term partner is genuinely invested in your growth."
Shirish Bhide, Senior Manager, Services
smrtr: Stronger Pricing, Growing Customers
smrtr builds compliance and supply chain software for companies operating in complex, regulated environments. Over the last six months, the business has expanded its customer base, product portfolio and improved how it prices its product. These outcomes reflect a more mature go-to-market strategy, one that Solen's commercial and operational teams worked alongside smrtr to develop. Pricing work is often the most overlooked lever in software businesses. Done well, it signals confidence in the product and creates a more sustainable revenue base. smrtr is seeing both.
"The growth we have seen this year is not accidental. Having a partner who understands software businesses and invests in them seriously changes what is possible."
Susanne Moore, CEO
Cairn Applications: Room to Focus
Cairn Applications joined the Solen portfolio with a founder who had built something customers genuinely depended on. When James Moser was ready to step back, the business needed leadership that could carry the product forward with the same care. Jason Rumsey came in as CEO with that mandate. The first priority was simple: reduce the noise around the business so the team could focus on what they do best. Pricing was strengthened, customer service received dedicated attention, and the operational overhead that had accumulated over the years began to lift. The product and the customer relationship stayed at the center.
"When you take over a business someone else built, you want to honor what made it great. Having a partner like Solen means you are not doing that alone."
Jason Rumsey, General Manager
Spokane Software Solutions: Early Days, Early Impact
Spokane Software Solutions joined the Solen portfolio in December 2025, bringing more than four decades of trust in the agricultural software market. The company builds mission-critical ERP and produce traceability software for growers, packers, and shippers, the kind of workflow software that has to work every single day. The partnership is new, but the work is already underway. In the months since joining, the team has introduced a new pricing structure built on market data, a meaningful step for a business that has been serving its customers since 1978. It is an early signal of what long-term investment looks like in practice: not disruption, but thoughtful improvement on a foundation that was already strong.
"We have spent decades earning the trust of our customers. Partnering with Solen means we can keep doing that with more resources and a clearer path forward."
Christopher Poston, CEO
Trackit: A New Chapter for Transit Technology
Trackit joined the Solen portfolio in March 2026, bringing transit technology used across more than 100 locations. It is the newest of the mission critical softwares featured here, and the early work is the familiar kind: understand the product deeply, protect what customers rely on, and invest behind it for the long term. The first six months of any partnership are about listening before changing.
The Wider Portfolio
Beyond the companies above, the portfolio continues to span niche industries from agriculture and media to healthcare and energy. Champ Software, Primate Technologies, Thought Foundry, Track Star, and FMSI each serve a specific market with software their customers depend on every day.
The founder reactions tend to rhyme.
Rita Patterson, Co-founder of Primate Technologies, said Solen’s investments and business knowledge are “providing a great future for Primate’s customers and employees.”
Scott Dunnewind, CEO of Champ Software, recalled that “every interaction was marked with integrity and thoughtfulness.”
Jim Van Hecke, Founder of Dash, put it most simply: “We found a good home at Solen.”
What This Adds Up To
Six months is a short window, but the direction is consistent. Products are getting modernized. Teams are being invested in, not thinned out. Customers are staying at the center of the work. That consistency is the whole point of permanent capital: when no clock is forcing a short-term move, the right long-term decision is usually also the available one.
The external markers line up too. Solen was named to the 2025 Inc. 5000, is Great Place to Work Certified, and was recognized by Axial as a Top 50 Lower Middle Market Technology Investor for 2026. Useful signals, though the better evidence is what founders say once they are inside.
Let’s Talk
If you are a founder wondering what a permanent home would mean for your company, your team, and your customers, the honest answer looks a lot like what this roundup describes. We are happy to talk it through, with no timeline and no pressure. Reach out to the Solen team and let’s talk.