Serent Snapshot: Rod Jimenez, Co-Founder and CEO of SHR
Meet Rod Jimenez, Co-Founder and CEO of Sceptre Hospitality Resources (SHR), a platform that simplifies the complex life of hoteliers through their revenue generation software and superior customer service. Rod is an experienced Co-Founder and CEO with nearly three decades of experience in the finance and hospitality industries. We sat down with Rod to learn more about his experience with Serent Capital.
“Our relationship with Serent started even before we were looking for a capital partner. It was exciting to see how committed the folks I met at Serent were to follow up with us, staying on top of what we were doing. Every meeting that we had was more confirmation that they really knew our space, where we played in that space, who our competitors were, and how all those dynamics affected us.”
“We needed a partner that was aligned with us with regards to strategy — and had the resources to help us make much more focused and efficient decisions in all the areas that we now know were super important for us to focus on.”
Navigating Challenges Through Shared Values
Finding a partner was about more than just getting capital, Rod notes. “We needed a partner that was aligned with us with regards to strategy — and had the resources to help us make much more focused and efficient decisions in all the areas that we now know were super important for us to focus on. That process was the catalyst in searching for a partner. When that happened, Serent was ready, and we were not starting from zero. It was a very efficient process.”
One of the key things Rod and the SHR team looked for in a partner was a set of shared values. “The values at SHR are integrity, service, teamwork, and creativity, in that order — so integrity is a huge deal for us, and it is for Serent. Typically it’s easy to talk about that until you see an opportunity for that to come through.”
The COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020 put those values to the test. “We started to deepen our relationship with Serent right as COVID started to tear apart our industry. The way that everybody at Serent handled themselves during those initial few weeks after COVID showed us that they do what they say they’re going to do. It was a great thing for us to have confirmation that early in the transaction that we had made the right decision.”
Partners With Deep Industry Knowledge
Deep knowledge of the hospitality industry set Serent apart from other potential partners. “When we were looking for a partner, it became clear very quickly in many of the meetings I had that I had to explain our business to the person on the other end of the line. That wasn’t the case with Serent. They knew the business that we were in, they knew the other players in the industry, and they knew who the influencers were when it came to consultants.”
“What I’ve been impressed with is how quickly they understand the challenges and the opportunities of the business. And how connected they are to the dynamics and the ecosystem of the industry that we play in. Those were key pieces of how we looked at a potential partner.”
“The Growth Team at Serent are a bunch of A-players that are available to help the portfolio companies with all kinds of challenges from go-to-market, to human capital, to M&A.”
Executing on Growth Initiatives
Serent’s Strategic Operations Team, which is part of their Growth Team, was critical in building out a strong go-to-market operation at SHR. “We have been working very closely with the Strategic Operations Team on the go-to-market aspect of our business, especially as we roll out two new products.”
Serent’s team doesn’t just advise, as Rod discovered — they become intimately involved in executing on growth initiatives.
“The Growth Team at Serent are a bunch of A-players that are available to help the portfolio companies with all kinds of challenges from go-to-market, to human capital, to M&A,” Rod notes. “Very quickly, they become part of the team. And that approach provides them with a lot of visibility into what’s going on inside the business — not necessarily filtered from my perspective, but very directly working with the folks in the trenches trying to figure out things. That’s a very effective approach.”
Building a Go-To-Market Strategy
In partnership with Serent, SHR began to build a new go-to-market operation focused on their multi-product strategy. “With our new multi-product strategy front and center, it was clear that a lot of things had to happen with regards to our go-to-market. We needed to define addressable markets. We needed to define where we had the best right to win. We needed to quantify the different regional markets and where the opportunities were.”
“The Strategic Operations Team at Serent took the lead. We went through a very comprehensive process of interviewing all of our salespeople, evaluating the factors that made us winners in certain areas or certain segments of the market. From there, we went into evaluation of a new piece of technology that our salespeople are now using.”
SHR’s work with Serent is already paying dividends. “We’re seeing the early results of our new strategy, and we are working now on adding a layer to the multi-product strategy that makes those different applications inter-operate so that the value proposition now becomes much more expanded. Beyond the benefits of having three products from one company, you now have three products that are not just integrated, but that are communicating with each other and making each application more intelligent as a result of what the other application is supplying.”
“The people you partner with really make all the difference.”
Finding the Right Partner
Building a true partnership meant the SHR team could execute more efficiently. “It has been clear that there was a lot of work done pre-investment, and so we have been able to hit the ground running.”
“My biggest piece of advice to a founder looking at a growth partner would be not to ignore the personal aspect, the character aspect of who you’re going to be partnering with,” Rod advises. “The people you partner with really make all the difference.”