How we operate
The work starts the day the deal closes.
Savvant is not a fund and does not behave like one. We use our own capital, the people deciding what a product does are the people building it, and most of what we do to grow a product is done in-house.
01 The model
Our week is spent inside the products.
Most owners of software companies are one step removed from them. There is a board pack, a quarterly review, a plan agreed in a room nobody shipping was in. The product gets managed at a distance, and everyone involved can explain why the number moved without having touched the thing that moves it.
Savvant is the other arrangement. The people deciding what a product does are the people building it, the money is ours, and there is no committee between an idea and a release. That is what makes the operating work above possible at the size we are, and it is the only structural advantage a company this small has.
It costs us, on purpose. Hustly pays in cash, so we give up the money every other rewards app books on points nobody redeems. Textly does its sorting on the phone, which is slower to build and means we never hold the data. An operator makes those calls. An owner at a distance never gets asked.
Who you actually deal with
The people who own Savvant. There is no investment committee between the first conversation and an offer, no broker in the middle and no fund whose consent we need, because the money is ours. That is why we answer in weeks.
We do not manage assets. We run companies.
02 AI operations
What we use AI for.
- Lifetime value
- The cheapest user is the one we have Models pick what someone sees next, judge when a nudge is welcome, and answer support questions properly the first time.
- Predictability
- We model the return before we spend We pay for completed actions, and growth we can forecast is growth we can fund from cash flow.
- Overhead
- Automated before it is a job description Moderation, localisation, first-line support and reporting are the work that usually turns into headcount. That is how the teams stay small.
- Organic
- Volume a paid channel would bill for Our creator and clipping network produces it. AI does the variants, the cutting and the scheduling. People decide what is worth making at all.
03 How we run products
One team per product, and the team decides.
A small company means there is nowhere for a decision to hide. That is the main advantage we have and we would like to keep it for as long as possible.
- Ownership
- The team owns the product Roadmap, release, support escalations and economics sit with the same few people. No separate growth function to negotiate with, and no handover between the person who decided and the person who builds.
- Hierarchy
- Almost none One conversation between an engineer and the person who signs off capital. Senior people take the harder problems. Nobody manages anybody.
- Decisions
- Argued in writing Anything consequential is written down before it is decided. Slower on the day, faster over a year, and it works across time zones.
- People
- They move between products Whoever a product needs, it gets. Nobody is permanently assigned to one codebase, which is only possible while the portfolio is small, so we are using it while it lasts.
- Shipping
- Ship over strategy The number we watch per product is how much reached users this quarter. A plan that produces no releases is not a plan.
- Constraints
- They do not move No paid tier that unlocks something we deliberately held back. Set once, at the top, so a product team never has to win the argument twice.
04 Acquisition criteria
What makes us pick up the phone.
Guidelines, not gates. Match most of them and we move quickly. Match none and we will tell you in the first reply, not after three meetings.
- SectorRequired
- Software Consumer apps, prosumer tools and B2B software. We pass on agencies, on marketplaces whose real business is logistics, and on anything whose margin sits in hardware.
- TractionRequired
- Real customers People pay for it, or so many people use it that they obviously would. We are comfortable with flat growth and uncomfortable with no usage.
- SizeTypical
- €1M to €20M revenue Below it we still look if the product is unusually good. Well above it we would need a partner, and we would say so in week one.
- StructurePreferred
- Full ownership We buy 100%, in cash, without earn-outs that keep you tied to a number for three years. Rolling equity into Savvant is possible if you want it.
- PlatformPreferred
- Mobile and web We know iOS and Android properly, because that is what we have shipped. Web products interest us. Anything whose value sits in a hardware supply chain does not.
- PeopleBoth ways
- Founder ready to hand over You can stay or you can leave. What we need is honesty about which one, early, so we can staff for it.
05 What we refuse
A short list, held to strictly.
Every shortcut in this list buys a number this quarter and costs the product the one after. These are the ones we decided not to take.
- No harvesting
- We will not buy a product in order to strip it: stop the work, cut it to the bone and let it coast. If that is the only case for an acquisition, we pass.
- No rented growth
- Distribution we do not own is a bill that never stops. Paid channels are a lever we pull deliberately, never the engine underneath a product.
If this sounds like the right home for your company
Four steps, and you will get a real answer either way. You get the full attention of the people who own the company, and a straight answer about anything we are not willing to promise.