For search funds, independent sponsors and lower middle market funds

The thesis holds. The CEO is the variable.

You underwrote a plan that assumes the person running this company can run a bigger one. Usually nobody is checking that assumption, and nobody is developing them against it. We do both, weekly, with the evidence going to your board.

Request a founder-CEO transition risk brief How we work alongside your operating partner →
The risk already in the file

65% of portfolio CEOs are replaced during the hold.

Not for want of a plan. The plan is usually fine. It assumes a level of operating capability that nobody installed, measured or built. See what the board gets →

83% and ~50%

83% of firms say an unplanned CEO transition lengthens the holding period. Around half say leadership turnover reduces returns. Source: AlixPartners PE Leadership Survey. One prevented CEO failure pays for years of a retainer.

Where we work
Search fundsIndependent sponsorsFamily officesLower middle market funds
The gap

Between the board pack and the front line, nobody is developing the CEO.

Your operating partner carries eight companies. The board meets four times a year. Meanwhile the person in the chair is running a company two sizes bigger than the one they built, and the only real feedback loop is a monthly pack that reports what already happened.

  • The founder who cannot let go. Every decision still routes through them, so the second layer never develops and the business cannot be sold without them in it.
  • The founder who was never a CEO. They built a great product or a great sales motion. Budgeting, hiring, and holding a leadership team to account: nobody ever taught them any of it.
  • The searcher in seat one. Credentialed, capable, and running a real company for the first time, with investors who have ears and a mouth but not hands.
  • The team that outgrew its meetings. Good people, no cadence. Priorities reset every week and nothing compounds.
Who we work with

Built for the portfolios too small for a full time operating partner.

01

Search funds and their boards

You backed the operator as much as the asset, and it is their first time in the seat. We are the weekly layer between your quarterly board seat and the person running the company on Monday morning.

First time CEOPost closeInvestor group
02

Independent sponsors and family offices

One to five founder led companies and no operating bench. You need the cadence installed once and then running without you, not another advisor with a deck and a quarterly opinion.

No operating bench1 to 5 holdingsLong hold
03

Lower middle market funds keeping the founder

You kept the founder post close because the business is, in large part, still them. That is usually the right call and it is also the largest single risk in the file. We de-risk it deliberately rather than hoping.

Founder retainedValue creation planEBITDA growth

Not a fit: funds with a full in-house operating team. You already have this covered and we would be a fifth wheel. We will tell you that on the first call rather than after the invoice.

What the board sees

Artifacts your board can read, not a relationship you have to take on trust.

Every engagement produces things that go straight into the board pack. You are never asking how it is going and getting an adjective back. These are the Business Operating Suite™ deliverables, reframed for a sponsor rather than an owner.

  • Operating scorecard. The owner, the metric and the number for every outcome in the company. Updated weekly, visible to whoever you decide sees it.
  • Quarterly planning output. The twelve month plan, this quarter's priorities, and a named owner against each. One page the board can actually review.
  • 100 day cadence install. Fixed scope, fixed end date, delivered as a project rather than an open ended retainer.
  • Founder-CEO development plan. An assessed baseline, the two or three capabilities the value creation plan genuinely depends on, and tracked progress against them.
The 100 day install
Days 1 to 15. Stakeholder interviews across the leadership team, and the accountability chart as it really is rather than as the org chart claims.
Days 16 to 45. Twelve month plan and quarterly priorities agreed, with owners named against each one.
Days 46 to 75. Scorecards live on real numbers. The weekly leadership rhythm running without us chasing it.
Days 76 to 100. The CEO runs the first quarterly planning session. We are in the room, not at the front. Board gets the pack.
How we fit

Alongside your operating partner and your board, not around them.

With your board

You set the value creation plan. We install the cadence that delivers it and report against it in the language of the board pack, on the same dates you already meet.

With your operating partner

They set direction across the portfolio. We are the weekly presence inside one company, which is the thing they do not have the hours to be.

With the CEO

They get one senior person who has actually run companies, in their corner, every week. That is why founders engage with this rather than defend against it, which is most of the battle.

The boundary, stated plainly. We do not take a seat, we do not run your P&L, and we do not replace anyone on your team. The capability has to live in the company after we leave, or the exit is buying our presence instead of their performance.

Ari Jason, founder of Mind Shift
Who does the work

One operator, not a bench of associates.

Sponsors buy the distinction between someone who has run companies and someone who has only ever advised them, so it is worth being precise. Ari Jason ran operations at scale before he coached anyone.

  • $5M to $150M in 14 years as COO, at 29.9% CAGR
  • $2Bn, 13 country restructuring at Colt Telecom
  • 50% infrastructure cost reductions at Bloomberg, Citi and Ford
  • 25% average EBITDA CAGR across advisory clients
  • ICF Member and IMAGO L1 facilitator, working across the US, UK and Middle East

Read the case studies →

Before you introduce us to a CEO

What sponsors ask first.

Is this a fractional COO?
No. A fractional COO takes a seat and runs a function. We install the operating cadence and develop the person already in the chair, so the capability stays in the company after we leave. If what the company actually needs is someone to run operations, we will say so on the first call.

Do you take a board seat or an equity stake?
No board seat. Fees are cash. Where a sponsor wants shared upside we will discuss a performance structure, but the default is a straightforward retainer with no claim on the equity.

How is this different from executive coaching?
Executive coaching develops a person. This develops the person and installs the operating system they run the company on, then reports both to the board. One without the other rarely survives a hold period: a stronger leader with no structure is wasted potential, and structure under a leader who has not grown into it is a temporary patch.

What if the founder is the wrong CEO?
Then you need to know in month three, not month eighteen. The founder-CEO transition risk brief is built to surface exactly that. If it is what we find, we will say it plainly, and we would rather say it before an engagement than bill through one.

What does it cost?
Priced per portfolio company and agreed before anything starts. Multi company rates apply across a portfolio, and the 100 day install can be taken as a fixed fee rather than folded into a retainer. We scope it precisely on the first call.

How quickly does anything change?
The cadence is live inside 100 days. Decision speed and leadership clarity move first, usually inside the first quarter. Financial impact follows as the rhythm holds and compounds.

Start with the risk, not the pitch.

Tell us about the company, the hold period and the person in the chair. You get back a written founder-CEO transition risk brief: what the value creation plan depends on this person doing, where the gaps are, and an honest read on whether we are the right answer. 90 minutes, free, and useful either way.

Request a founder-CEO transition risk brief