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Ryan Kennedy
Founder & Principal at Kickdrum. Building tech that helps Private Equity accelerate enterprise value.
Ryan Kennedy is the Founder and Principal of Kickdrum Technology Group, a company based in Austin, Texas. He has been leading Kickdrum since its inception in 2012, focusing on enhancing businesses through technology solutions for private equity investors and executives.
Background and Experience
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Education: Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Cornell University with cum laude honors. He also possesses an AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate certification from Amazon Web Services.34
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Professional Career:
- Kickdrum (2012-Present): As Founder & Principal, he leads a team that partners with technology investors to enhance business value.
- Nimble Creek Farm (2007-Present): Owner/Operator.
- Cirrus Insight (2018-2019): Interim CTO.
- Sheridan Healthcorp (2014-2015): Acting CTO.
- Previous roles include senior positions at Versata (a subsidiary of Trilogy) and Trilogy.23
Skills and Expertise
Ryan Kennedy has extensive experience in software development, enterprise architecture, agile methodologies, cloud computing, strategic planning, and leadership. His expertise spans multiple industries including healthcare and automotive.24
LinkedIn Profile
His LinkedIn profile can be found under the username "ryanpkennedy".14
Contact Information
For contact details such as email or phone number, you may need to access platforms like Growjo or Weekday Works which require registration for full access.12
Highlights
In 2023, private equity (PE) accounted for 30% of the average family office portfolio. In 2024, roughly 30% of family offices plan to increase their PE investments. This trend makes sense, given that most families have built their wealth running large scale businesses.
What families often don’t have as much experience with is conducting the comprehensive technology diligence that PE firms rely on to:
✔ Uncover the hidden strengths and weaknesses of a target investment ✔ Understand how well a company’s technology roadmap aligns to an investment thesis ✔ Make tough calls on whether a deal should be renegotiated or abandoned
Here are three ways family offices can make sure tech diligence is working for them - not against them:
1️⃣ Select a provider that is driven by the investment thesis. This helps firms avoid spending too much time on an opportunity that isn't supported by the thesis, or on a risk that is acceptable and doesn't require mitigation.
2️⃣ Engage a diligence partner as early in the process as possible. We are often in the initial management meetings to help with questions to ask, things to look for, and deciding when to trust versus when to investigate. This helps family offices beat the competition to the first bid or save time and money by walking away from a bad deal sooner.
3️⃣ Choose a diligence partner that not only evaluates a target’s team, technology, risks, and opportunities, but can also provide a scoped and cost-estimated roadmap to remediate issues found in diligence and accelerate value post-close.
#PrivateEquity #FamilyOffice #TechDiligence #RiskManagement
Too often I have seen bad investments happen or investors overpay when tech diligence is treated as a box to check rather than leveraging it as a strategic advantage.
Choose a diligence partner that not only evaluates a target’s team and technology risks and opportunities, but also provides a scoped and cost-estimated roadmap to remediate issues found in diligence to accelerate value post-close.
Using this approach we’ve enabled PE firms to negotiate significant price reductions, adjust their investment thesis, or in some cases avoid a bad deal altogether.
#TechDiligence #PrivateEquity #DealNegotiation
