Portfolio leadership, without waiting for the search.
Sponsors buying Minnesota manufacturers, food companies, healthcare businesses and software firms want delivery from the first quarter. The plan is agreed, while the people to deliver it are still being found.
Where the first year slips
The same things recur in sponsor-backed companies:
The first quarter goes on recruiting
A permanent hire takes a quarter or more, and the plan starts the day the deal closes.
The seller's team knows everything and tells little
A long-tenured management team holds the knowledge. Under new ownership the information flows more slowly than the sponsor expects.
Reporting the sponsor cannot use
The company reports as it always has, while the operating partner needs monthly variance and cash straight away.
Operational upgrades meet old habits
Plant improvement, pricing and systems change all depend on people who have done it one way for years.
An operator can be at the company within weeks, under a services agreement that follows the plan for the hold and does not cut across it. A sponsor might use one for a defined workstream, to bridge until a permanent hire, or as a test of what the company really needs.
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
What investors get beyond a name
After the match we stay with the portfolio engagement, and the collective stays behind the operator.
Progress the sponsor can see
A regular review with sponsor and operator keeps the plan honest and flags slippage before the board does.
Breadth across holdings
Operators can call on each other. A finance workstream that opens an operations one gets the right person.
Handovers we manage
If an operator departs before the hold ends, a replacement search begins from the plan and brief we keep, with the handover managed by us.
Matched to the plan for the hold
A plant consolidation, a buy-and-build and a carve-out need different operators. The thesis decides who we match, as much as the title.
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
Begin deploying the right operator within days of instruction. 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.
Operating partners to
