Portfolio leadership on the clock of the hold.
Los Angeles sponsors buy founder-led consumer, media, services and industrial businesses that have never had a professional management team. The thesis is clear. The people to deliver it are not always in the building.
Where months go missing
The deal is sound. Execution is where the months go:
The operating partner is stretched
Three companies want senior attention in the same quarter, and a single person is trying to cover them all.
A seat is empty or wrong
The CFO has left, or the founder's long-time number two is not the person the plan needs, and the hold is ticking.
Reporting is below fund standard
The monthly numbers arrive late and in the wrong format, from a founder who was never asked for them before.
A permanent hire does not fit a short hold
Salary, equity and severance buy poor value in a business that could change hands within a few years.
A fractional executive fills the seat now, on terms that fit the hold. They put the reporting right, run the function, and pass it to a permanent hire if the plan needs one. A services agreement leaves no payroll or equity behind at exit.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- Deploying a senior operator inside a portfolio company
- Executing a 100-day plan the moment the deal closes
- Value creation through the hold, not another advisory report
- Building reporting, systems and management credibility before an exit
- Operational diligence and leadership-gap assessment before you buy
Not for
- A strategy deck or set of recommendations to hand back
- A business that wants an adviser, not an operator inside it
- Pure diligence with no operator deployed afterwards
- A mandate for oversight rather than hands-on execution
How we work with a sponsor
The deal team gets an operator and our governance around the engagement for the length of the hold.
Drift flagged early
We check in with the operating partner and the executive on a set cadence and say so when the plan slips.
Breadth behind the operator
When a finance problem turns into an operating one, the executive has 800+ vetted operators to ask.
The engagement, not the person
We hold the brief for the portfolio company, not just the person. If the executive moves on, we run the handover and the next search.
Matched to the hold
A short hold and a long one need different operators. We match on the plan and the founder still in the building.
Across the PE investment lifecycle
From pre-deal to exit preparation.
Pre-deal: operational due diligence
Embed a Fractional COO or CFO to support your ODD. They identify gaps your model hasn't priced.
Post-acquisition: fill the leadership gaps
Start the search within days of instruction and have the right operator embedded within weeks. No recruitment pipeline, notice periods, or trial risk.
Value creation: operational improvement
Build financial infrastructure, operating cadences, commercial engines, and professional people structures.
Exit preparation: build credibility
A Fractional CFO producing clean board reporting and investor-grade financials is a meaningful credibility signal in any sale process.
The value-creation matrix
Each value-creation lever maps to the operator built to own it. Most plans pull two or three at once.
Portfolio company leadership options
Match the right fractional operator to the specific portfolio company need.
Our operating partners have worked at
