SmartDraft

SmartDraft makes add-on software for AutoCAD and BricsCAD that turns civil engineers' 3D design data into the drawing sets agencies actually accept. Around 200 engineering firms and 2,600 installs run on it, all acquired by word of mouth, because the product grew out of tools its founder built for his own workflow and other engineers kept asking for. One customer has carried SmartDraft through six different employers.

Rex Cooper ran the company solo from Arkansas for decades, so efficiently that he once operated it from a 138-day world cruise without clients noticing. At 61, with retirement approaching, he came to Rejigg with one non-negotiable: whoever took over had to take care of the engineers who depend on the product.

Rex connected with Parixit Joshi on Rejigg in January 2024 and had an LOI by March. Then the process did what processes with careful solo founders do: it slowed, wobbled, and got restructured around what actually mattered to Rex before completing in mid-2024. The buyer's patience was the deciding factor.

Parixit Joshi spent 25 years advising private equity firms on software deals before making this, his first acquisition of his own. He won the deal by explicitly rejecting the harvest-and-decline playbook: his plan was continuity for clients and investment in the product, which is exactly what the founder was holding out for.