Portfolio leadership for technical businesses on a hold.
Sponsors in Southern California buy defence suppliers, device makers and specialist manufacturers from founders who built them by hand. The thesis depends on running them like companies. The operators who can are in demand.
Where the plan loses quarters
The thesis is fine. Running the business is where time goes:
Operating partners are stretched
A number of portfolio companies need senior attention in the same quarter, and a single person is stretched across all of them.
A key seat is empty or wrong
The CFO has left, or the founder's deputy is not the person the plan needs, and the hold is running.
Compliance obligations come with the asset
Quality rules, government contract requirements and cybersecurity expectations pass to the new owner along with the business.
A permanent hire is poor value over a short holding
Salary, benefits and severance represent poor value in a company that could be sold within a few years.
A fractional executive covers the gap straight away, on a term that matches the hold. The operator corrects the reporting, runs the function and hands it to the permanent hire that the plan requires. A services agreement leaves no payroll or benefits 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
Working with sponsors
The sponsor gets an operator and our oversight of the engagement for as long as the hold needs.
Early warning
Set check-ins with the operating partner and the executive surface slippage before the board meeting does.
Regulatory depth to hand
The collective of 800+ includes people who have managed quality systems, government contract requirements and cybersecurity reviews.
The engagement belongs to the company
If the executive moves on, we search again from the brief we hold for the holding and manage the handover.
Fit with the founder
Defence and device founders often stay after the deal, so we match for that relationship.
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
