Profile

Headquartered in New York, VSS is a private investment firm that invests in healthcare, business services and education companies. Since 1987, VSS has partnered with lower middle-market companies, working closely with management teams, to facilitate their next stage of growth. VSS provides capital for growth financings, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions, and buyouts with the flexibility to invest control or non-control capital, based on the needs and objectives of each company. VSS has managed $4 billion in committed capital across 8 funds and has completed 99 platform investments and over 400 add-on acquisitions.

www.vss.com

Awards

2023 Top Private Equity Firms

2019 Top 25 Business Services Investors, Trent Hickman

Key People

Jeffrey T. Stevenson,  Managing Partner 

Jeffrey is the Managing Partner of VSS and has overall responsibility for the management of the firm and each of its funds. He joined VSS in 1982, shortly after its formation, and founded its private equity business. Jeffrey is the Chairman of the investment committee and has served on the boards of over 31 portfolio companies. He holds a BA from Rutgers College.

Trent Hickman, Managing Director

Trent is a Managing Director of VSS. He is responsible for developing investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, arranging debt financing for portfolio investments, structuring investments, and monitoring portfolio companies. He joined VSS in 1999 and has been active in the firm’s investments in Hanley Wood, Access Intelligence LLC, Pepcom, Mediatel (Yellow Brick Road), Southern Theatres, TMP Worldwide (now Radancy), Vault.com, MetSchools, Tranzact, Coretelligent, QuadraNet, GreenSlate, Really Great Reading, and Centroid Systems. Trent is currently a member of the Board of Managers of the following VSS portfolio companies: QuadraNet, GreenSlate, and Centroid Systems. In addition, he is a board observer of Coretelligent. He previously served on the boards of Access Intelligence, Tranzact, Southern Theatres, Radancy, Coretelligent, Really Great Reading, and Vault.com. Trent earned an AB in history and French from Duke University and an MBA in finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Lacey Mehran, Managing Director

Lacey is a Managing Director and joined the firm in 2006. She is responsible for Limited Partner relations, including fundraising and the co-investment program, as well as transaction origination. Previously, Lacey worked as a member of VSS’ investment team and was actively involved in several of the firm’s acquisitions. Prior to joining VSS, she worked at OTR Global, an equity research firm. Lacey received an MBA from The Yale School of Management and a B.S. in applied mathematics from North Carolina State University.

Patrick N.W. Turner, Managing Director 

Patrick is a Managing Director of VSS. He joined the firm in 2014 and is responsible for developing investment opportunities, structuring investments, conducting due diligence, executing transactions, and monitoring portfolio companies. Patrick currently serves as member of the boards of the VSS portfolio companies Quattro, Remedi8, Globo, ITN Networks, S&A Legal Management, and Olympus Cosmetic Group. In addition, he is a board observer of Powerhouse.

Funds Raised

Since 1987, VSS has raised and managed eight private capital funds (four equity buyout funds and four structured capital funds) that have focused on investing in lower middle market companies. The four most recent VSS funds have been structured capital funds. On a combined basis, the eight funds have raised approximately $4.0 billion in committed capital and the funds have invested in 99 portfolio companies.

The three most recent funds VSS has raised and managed are as follows:

Key Investments

Quatrro: Exited May 4, 2023
Sector: Business Process Outsourcing

Founded in 2008, Quatrro Business Support Services (“QBSS’) is a business process outsourcing partner serving small to medium sized businesses (“SMBs’) across a range of industries in the U.S. The Company offers offshore-based, end-to-end solutions focused on Finance & Accounting, Payroll, Tax and Tech Support.

GreenSlate: Exited February 10, 2023
Sector: Human Capital Management

Founded in 2004 as Indiepay, GreenSlate provides a fully-integrated, cloud-based accounting and payroll software platform specifically for the film and television industries. GreenSlate’s platform solutions span payroll, production accounting, benefits administration, insurance, and tax credit services. 

Really Great Reading: exited December 9, 2022
Sector: Foundational and Supplemental Literacy

Founded in 2005, Really Great Reading (“RGR”) is an educational content provider of foundational and supplemental literacy skills to grades K-3. The Company has five core products, predominately for primary grades, that help educators teach the foundational skills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading. 

*Quatrro, GreenSlate and RGR listed above are the most recently completed investment realizations of VSS SC III and were selected based on this objective, nonperformance-based criteria.

Capital Responsibility

VSS first implemented its ESG policy and program in late 2018, and since that time VSS has sought to increase its utilization of ESG concepts and information in our investment processes given the increasing importance of and focus on ESG principles in the U.S. alternatives market.

VSS’s ESG policy formalizes the consideration of ESG factors throughout the lifecycle of our investment evaluation, from initial diligence screening through post-investment monitoring. VSS believes that consideration of ESG principles can potentially enhance the long-term value of its investments and mitigate a range of business risks. VSS takes a broad view of ESG factors, which vary by company and industry, and understands that materiality and relevance will differ across industry sectors and geographies. As part of our screening, diligence, investment, and monitoring processes, VSS identifies and evaluates a variety of ESG factors.

VSS is currently in the process of launching (September 2023) a new and redesigned ESG program that we believe will improve our ability to establish and monitor key ESG KPI metrics across the portfolios. Our new ESG program is the result of a targeted collaboration between VSS, a top 50 U.S.-based CPA and Advisory firm with significant experience with ESG, and an established, cloud-based ESG database and platform specifically focusing on the private capital markets.