The Edge Founder Looks Back After His Software Company Is Sold

By Rob Bates | May 26, 2026

Last month, Serent Capital, a private equity firm that invests in business-to-business software companies, purchased The Edge for Jewelers (aka The Edge), the popular retail software platform. Payment terms were not disclosed.

After the acquisition was announced, a second investment firm, Balance Point Capital Advisors, said it was also taking a stake in the company

As a result of all this, Dick Abbott (pictured), 85, The Edge’s founder and longtime CEO, announced he will retire. He is being replaced as CEO by Josh Brenner, an executive with experience in SaaS (software as a service). Brenner was formerly CEO of Hired, the HR tech firm.

Abbott tells JCK he decided to retire in part because the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) “scares” him.

“That’s the future,” he says. “It is so powerful, and I don’t have the knowledge to be able to apply it in a way that is beneficial to my customer base and take full advantage of it. I believe the folks that bought The Edge will be able to apply AI in a way that I never could.”

He also says he wants to play a little more golf.

Abbott still remains co-owner of Edge Retail Academy, along with its chair, David Brown, and the two companies remain “closely aligned,” a statement said.

The Edge for Jewelers was always a unique product because it was written by the owner of a jewelry store. After Abbott worked for a software company in the 1970s, he bought a florist, an optical business, and a jeweler—though he admits he was mostly an absentee owner.

“My wife encouraged me to write software for the store,” he recalls. “She said, ‘You write software for everyone else.’ I took her advice and wrote some software that allowed me to know what a businessperson should.

“After I put in the software in my store, I doubled my business with 15% less investment in inventory. I didn’t do anything different; I didn’t change my advertising. I just changed my inventory mix.”

A traveling salesperson saw the store was getting impressive results and told other jewelers, who called up Abbott wanting to know what his secret was.

“One fellow said, ‘I’d like to buy [your program],’” Abbott recalls. “I didn’t design the software to sell it. I said, ‘You’ll have to lose my phone number because I can’t service it.’ He still wanted it, so I sold it to him for $750. Then a second guy wanted to buy it. I told him $1,500.”

When the calls kept coming, a business was born. The software became a hit, even though Abbott admits that he never liked being a programmer.

“I prefer interacting with people to machines,” he says. “I made some serious money being a computer programmer, but I didn’t love it. I have six kids, and programming provided me with a really good living.”

What he did enjoy was helping small jewelers.

“My heart is with the independent retailer,” he says. “If I could help them do what they do, I got the biggest kick out of that. That was the most satisfying thing to me, helping people who were providing jobs for others.”

What’s his final advice to mom-and-pop jewelry stores? “Use technology and make sure you put it to its full use. Business isn’t going to get any easier, and the only answer is for the owner to get better.”

(Photo courtesy of Dick Abbott)