Lessons in vertical market and AI transformation
The 2026 Mainsail CEO Summit highlighted some of the many ways our portfolio companies are transforming their organizations and embedding AI to drive both customer value and growth. Here’s a look at the hard-won lessons shared with the room. We thank each leader for their time and candor:
→ John Erhart for sharing the journey at Inn-Flow to disrupt its own processes and assumptions and emerge with a stronger corporate + product + data strategy. Most recently, that includes Inn-Flow’s acquisition of Lilo to help drive both customer value and organizational scale.
→ Marc Sanderson for showing how INNERGY’s education program for millwork and cabinetry teams can inspire other software founders to elevate their vertical market customers into “raving fans.”
→ Nick Wegner at Pilotbase for a masterclass in what ecosystem creation and ownership looks like in practice.
→ MirrorWeb’s Romir Bosu for leadership lessons in culture change and raising the bar on talent performance in order for teams to thrive in an AI-native environment. That same growth mindset carried his team through Mainsail AI Launch Labs, where they built Mira, MirrorWeb’s newest AI agent, from scratch and brought it to market just weeks later.
→ Mainsail’s Bashir Abdallah and Brian Russell for sharing case studies on data strategy-led growth and AI’s impact on traditional pricing models.
→ Lastly, to our Executive Chairs Jeff Gardner, Frazier Miller and Ed Roshitsh for leading conversations on how each company can think big, move fast, and play to win in today’s environment.
Offensive leadership requires clarity under pressure
Ben Anderson from Propel Performance Group sent us home from our CEO Summit this year with a powerful choice: “You are either shaping what happens next or reacting to it.” Clarity under pressure, maintained trust, and leading offensively are what separate teams that execute from teams that drift – today and in any environment.
We are incredibly proud of the transformational work being embraced across our portfolio and excited for what comes next for the vertical software companies that lean into the leadership opportunity in front of them.
See you next year!