EverCommerce served more than 500,000 small businesses, and almost none of their customers ever heard its name. Its software ran the back offices of home contractors, physical therapists, personal trainers, and salon owners. Each industry got tools built for its own work, plus payments to tie them together. When the Denver company went public in July 2021, its private equity backers, Silver Lake and Providence Strategic Growth, still controlled it.

A Roll-Up With a Plan

Eric Remer co-founded PaySimple, a payments company for small businesses, in 2006 and ran it for a decade. In October 2016 he founded EverCommerce and folded PaySimple into it. The company grew by buying software makers in three areas: home services, health services, and fitness and wellness. The bet was that service businesses would pay for software made for their trade, and that payments, marketing, and customer tools could be sold on top.

Seventeen Dollars on Nasdaq

EverCommerce priced its IPO at $17 a share in July 2021 and listed on Nasdaq as EVCM. EverCommerce sold its shares to the public while Remer stayed on as CEO. Alongside the offering, Silver Lake agreed to buy $75 million more stock at the same price. The shares soon traded below their offer price. EverCommerce kept reorganizing around its three businesses, including its EverHealth and EverPro units. It still trades on Nasdaq.

Cover: Pheasant and pine tree, Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for an evergreen pine (EverCommerce).