For Orlando Bravo, Puerto Rico Is a Privilege
For Orlando Bravo, the story always starts in Puerto Rico.
Even today, as the billionaire cofounder and managing partner of private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo, he recognizes that where he came from will forever influence where he is.
Bravo attributes his meteoric rise in the early 2000s—when he made a name for himself in software acquisitions—to his upbringing in Puerto Rico. His unique journey instilled in him a confidence to think differently in the Wild West of Silicon Valley and to ultimately separate himself from other tech entrepreneurs.
Bravo’s incredible success has since afforded him the opportunity to give back to a community that has given him so much—and to be a role model to new generations of Puerto Rican entrepreneurs who sometimes need a push to know that they can dream.
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About Our Guest
Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo. He led Thoma Bravo’s early entry into software buyouts and built the firm into one of the top private equity firms in the world. Today, Orlando directs the firm’s strategy and investment decisions in accordance with its principles of partnership, innovation, and performance. Orlando has overseen over 440 software acquisitions conducted by the firm, representing more than $250 billion in transaction value. Forbes named him “Wall Street’s best dealmaker” in 2019, and he was dubbed “Private equity’s king of SaaS” by the Financial Times in 2021.
Orlando was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Brown University in 1992 and earned a JD from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1998.
He is the Founder and Chairman of the Bravo Family Foundation, the mission of which is to provide access and opportunities to young adults in Puerto Rico. Orlando directs the organization’s various programs and initiatives to promote entrepreneurship, community-based leadership and economic development in Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, he spearheaded a humanitarian mission to remote communities on the island. In 2019, Orlando committed $100 million to the Foundation’s Rising Entrepreneurs Program (REP) with the goal of fostering entrepreneurship in Puerto Rico.
The Orlando Bravo Center for Economics Research at Brown University supports innovative research, training and collaborative projects for faculty and students in the Department of Economics. At Stanford Law School, Orlando created the Bravo Family Public Interest Post-Graduate Fellowship Fund to support students seeking full-time employment in public interest.
Orlando’s philanthropic interests also include causes in healthcare. He endowed faculty scholar and fellow positions at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research. He supports a wide range of medical research conducted at Stanford University, at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Orlando is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Corporation of Brown University.
