Private Equity & Portfolio Companies
We work for the sponsor and inside the company
We step in where a deal needs operators, not another advisor. We run diligence before you own the business, put people in the seats after you do, drive the value creation plan while you hold it, and get the company ready for the next buyer. It is the same team across the hold period, so nothing has to be rediscovered at each stage.
Our operators have served as chief financial officer or in other leadership roles inside private equity portfolio companies. As a team they have taken more than 65 transactions to close, buy side and sell side, with more than $55 billion in value behind them. With more than 25 leaders we match the person to the company rather than sending whoever is free.
We take the work, not the observer’s seat. That matters most in the first hundred days, when a portfolio company has a plan it has never run and a finance function built for a different owner.
Where we come in
Acquisition due diligence. We run financial and operational diligence on a new platform or an add-on, in the detail an owner needs rather than the detail a report needs. Quality of earnings, working capital, the accounting positions that will not hold, and an honest read on whether the management team can run the business you are buying.
Integration into the platform. When an acquisition needs to fold into a platform company you already own, we drive the integration: the reporting package, the close calendar, the chart of accounts, budget and forecast discipline, and the systems underneath them, all onto your model. We make your operating principles take hold in the business you just bought, not just on paper. Add-ons get folded in rather than run alongside.
Leadership inside the company. We serve in the seat at the newly acquired company leading finance, people, or both, on an interim or fractional basis. That covers the gap while you run a search, and it covers the case where the seller’s team was never going to be the buyer’s team.
The people side. Private equity deals turn on people more than the model admits. We assess the leadership you inherited, design the organization against the investment thesis instead of the old one, keep the people you need through the transition, and surface the employment exposure that shows up in diligence and in indemnity claims.
Value creation through the hold. This is the work that decides the return. We build the value creation plan and then execute it: pricing and margin, working capital, cost structure, the reporting that shows whether the plan is working, and the operating changes the plan depends on. We stay in the business while it happens.
Sale preparation and exit support. When you take the company to market we prepare it for that market, deliver a sell side quality of earnings report, and support the transaction through to close. Sponsors usually need less of this than a closely held owner does, because a well run portfolio company is already close to ready.
Why sponsors use us instead of a consulting firm
We function like operating partners: we sit in the seat and lead while we do the work. Our operators have run the close and built the reporting the board relies on, driven the value creation plan day to day, and carried a company through integration or exit. That is a different job from advising on it, and portfolio company management can tell the difference inside of a week.
We work as an embedded team, on your reporting calendar and against your investment thesis, and we stay until the work holds. Then we leave. You are not buying a permanent line item.
Proof
Following the acquisition of a portfolio company with no finance function or management structure in place, we built the financial reporting infrastructure, implemented an ERP system, and mentored new leadership through the transition while the business worked to preserve cash and prove out its sales funnel. We also led the shift of a service line from a full in-house team to an outsourced model, improving customer satisfaction and the unit economics behind it. In Year 3 of the hold period, revenue is projected to grow more than 6x year over year, at strong gross margins, on a leaner, more scalable operating model.
A portfolio company in an old-line fulfillment business was in the middle of a hard reset. Cash was short, lenders were frustrated, and the business was mid-transformation into a digitally focused platform. We stepped in to run the finance function, put in a new ERP system, and built out the sponsor’s operating thesis along with the metrics to track it. Working alongside the rest of the management team, we also rebuilt pricing and reworked how the sales team took the business to market, aimed at recurring revenue, stickier customer relationships, and stronger cash generation. The business went under contract with another private equity firm.
When to bring us in
You are diligencing a platform or an add-on and want operators looking at it. You have just closed and the seat is empty, or the person in it was the seller’s choice. Integration has stalled and the reporting still does not roll up. The value creation plan is a document rather than a set of changes in the business. Or you are twelve to eighteen months from a sale and you want the next buyer’s diligence to be uneventful.
Frequently asked questions
Do you work for the fund or for the portfolio company?
Both, often on the same deal. The sponsor engages us and we work inside the company, we report the way you want it reported, and we tell you what we actually find.
Can you serve in the seat, or do you only advise?
We take the seat. Our Managing Directors lead finance, people, or both, inside portfolio companies and carry the responsibility that comes with the title.
How quickly can you start?
Faster than a search. We put an operator in place while the permanent hire is recruited, then hand off cleanly. With more than 25 leaders on the team we match the person to the situation rather than the other way around.
Do you do quality of earnings work on both sides?
Yes. Buy side diligence when you are acquiring, and a sell side quality of earnings report when you take a portfolio company to market.
What happens when the work is done?
We hand off to the permanent team and step out. We would rather be the reason the seat gets filled well than a cost that never comes off the income statement.
