How Orlando Bravo emerged as wall street best dealmaker

Early Live

The 49 years Orlando Bravo born in 1970 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico is a Puerto Rican billionaire businessman, co-founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo, a private equity investment firm that specializes in software and technology-enabled services sectors.

The story of Orlando Bravo is not a rag to riches one. Orlando was born into a privileged life in Puerto Rico, in the Spanish colonial city of Mayaguez. Mayaguez for decades has been the center for fishing tuna and supplying to places like the Neptune, local Starkist, and Bumble Bee canneries.

 Beginning in 1945, Orlando’s father and grandfather Orlando Bravo and Orlando Bravo jr both ran the Bravo Shipping company which emerged as one of the biggest tuna-fishing factories entering the port in Mayaguez. The business was very lucrative at this time.

Orlando started training up for tennis at the tender age of 8 and usually practiced at the local universities around his surroundings. His parents and brother would make the two and a half-hour drive from his home to San Juan so that he would be able to train better and compete with higher tennis players. In a short time, Orlando emerged as the best tennis player in Puerto Rico, this landed him in Nick Bollettieri’s Academy. 

Getting to the Academy, Bravo would wake at dawn, head to class at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School before returning to tennis courts at noon where he spent hours training against peers like Jim Courier and Andre Agassi. After the training, he would study for some hours before retiring to his four-man room condominium. This was how his day is always spent, six times a week for a whole year. 

The brutally competitive environment of the tennis academy helps Orlando to emerge as the top-40 ranking in the USA as a junior. The resilience spirit developed at this tender age helped Orlando to emerge as a leader in the private equity world today. Orlando Bravo is the driving force behind Wall Street Hottest Firm 

Education and Career life. 

In 1992, Orlando graduated from Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in economic and political science. His qualifications earned him a job as an analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Merger and acquisition department. As a result of his fluency in Spanish, he was promoted to the front desk. However, he soon realized that he does not want to be a banker. Orlando revealed that working on Venezuelan billionaire Gustavo Cisneros’ 1993 acquisition of the Puerto Rican supermarket chain Pueblo Xtra International opened his eyes to the world of buoyant.

With his resolve not to be a banker, Bravo headed west to Stafford University to study Law. However, he also wants to have a degree in Business and pleaded to run both programs simultaneously. Orlando’s wish was granted. During summer, he often worked at the Seaver Kent, a Menlo Park, California based joint venture with David Bonderman’s Texas Pacific Group that specialized in middle-market deals. Orlando was expecting to get a job here upon graduation in 1998 but he was disappointed. 

After spending a series of time cold-calling, his resume caught the eye of Carl Thoma, a founding partner of the Chicago-based private equity firm Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner (now known as GTCR).and they hit it off. When Orlando came on board Thoma and his partner Bryan Cressey have just split off from Bruce Rauner and Stanley Golder. Bruce Rauner later became the governor of Illinois, creating Thoma Cressey. The first assignment given to Bravo when he joined Thoma Cressey was to go to San Francisco to hunt for investments. 

However, Bravo’s first few deals before he turned 30 did not hit. He realized that his mistake was in backing startup entrepreneurs and decided not to get involved with risky things. Bravo diverted the money he used in backing up startup entrepreneurs into buying established companies selling niche software. His first big move was to buy the Prophet 21 company and still allowed the CEO of the company to work beside him. Bravo’s turned his focus to acquiring established software companies and in no time Thoma Cressey began to thrive.

The biggest opportunity for Bravo came when Thoma split with his partner Bryan Cressey, a health care investor, and instead put Bravo's name on the door. This leads to the birth of Thoma Bravo and since then the company trades in all kinds of software.

Orlando Bravo's Net Worth 

Today, Orlando Bravo emerged in the 2019 Forbes 400 list as the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire, he debuted at 287 with a net worth of $3.0 billion as at October 2019.

Personal life

Bravo is married to Katy Bravo and blessed with three children. He and his family are living in his house at the San Francisco Bay area in California