Operating leadership for the portfolio, when the plan needs it.
A value-creation plan is only as good as the people running it. Gaps in the management team cost more than the fee to fill them.
Where portfolio companies fall short
Irish mid-market deals meet the same problems after completion:
The finance function is thin
Founder-owned companies rarely have monthly reporting that satisfies a fund and its lenders.
The seller leaves, the knowledge goes with them
A founder exit takes the relationships and the know-how, and the plan assumed both would stay.
A hire takes too long
A full executive search runs for months while the first hundred days go by.
The add-on needs integrating
Buy-and-build only works if somebody senior owns the integration.
A fractional or interim executive from our collective can be in the seat within weeks. They work to the value-creation plan, report to the deal team and pass the role to a permanent hire at the right moment.
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
Our role through the hold
A deal team needs the seat filled and governed. We stay engaged with the chair and the executive after the match.
Reviews against the plan
We join the board's reviews of the value-creation plan and flag slippage while the hold can still absorb it.
Depth for buy-and-build
An add-on integration or a finance rebuild can be talked through with peers in our collective of 800+ who have done one in an Irish business.
Operator changes, handled
The seat belongs to the portfolio company. If the operator moves on, we keep the value-creation plan and the brief, and run the search for whoever comes next.
Matched to the deal
We match on the workstream and on any founder still in the business. If neither the founder nor the fund trusts the operator, the hold loses a quarter.
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
