The plan is agreed. The operator is not in the building yet.
Sponsors from Texas and further afield buy lower-middle-market companies here in industrial services, healthcare services and software. The value-creation plan is only as good as the person running it, and permanent searches run slower than a hold period allows.
Where a hold loses months
The same problems tend to recur:
The first quarter goes on searching
A permanent search eats months, and the plan is already in motion.
Founder reporting is not sponsor reporting
The business keeps reporting as it always did, while the sponsor wants monthly figures a lender will accept and that sit comparably beside the rest of the portfolio.
Seller-founder and sponsor read the business differently
Each side has a fair point, and with no operator between them the gap turns into friction.
The gap is real and temporary
A systems cutover, an integration or a carve-out calls for a senior operator over a fixed period rather than across the entire hold.
Operators reach the portfolio company in a matter of weeks, under a services agreement sized to the hold, whether to carry one workstream, cover the gap until a permanent hire lands, or find out what the company needs before anyone writes a job spec.
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 from us
After the match we stay inside the portfolio engagement, and the operator keeps the collective at their back.
Reviews the investor can see
Investor, operator and Fractional meet on a fixed cadence to test progress, so slippage surfaces before board day.
Depth across the portfolio
An operator in one holding can call on peers who have run the same playbook elsewhere.
Handovers we run
If an operator leaves mid-hold, we search again from the plan on file and stay through the handover.
Matched to the deal
Investors and founders read progress differently, and we look for an operator both will trust.
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
