Optimize for the exit. Backed by operators who have done it.
Grey King advises operating companies, fund managers and investors to optimize businesses for successful exits: improving performance, strengthening strategic positioning and maximizing realizable value. What separates us is where our judgment comes from: we have carried the P&L, met the payroll, sold the product and made the hard calls ourselves as CEO, President, COO and in interim leadership roles inside companies under real pressure.
Optimize for the exit, not just the next quarter.
Many advisors can read the financials. Fewer can tell you whether the business is actually positioned for a successful exit: whether the sales process is durable, whether the product roadmap matches what customers actually buy, whether the cost base and leadership team will hold up under diligence, or whether the plan on the page can be executed. Those are the questions that decide realizable value, and they are answered from operating experience.
Our team has built, scaled, sold and rebuilt technology companies: grown a wireless location business to a billion-dollar public market cap, taken interim CEO and President roles in companies weeks from running out of cash, restructured a C$150M private lending fund, right-sized cost bases and rebuilt leadership teams for exit. We have lived with the consequences of those decisions, not just recommended them.
The financial discipline still matters: cash forecasting, margin structure, capital strategy. And we bring it. But it is in service of exit readiness: what to change first, who has to change it, and how long the business can afford to wait. We are informed by data and facts, and we hold every mandate to the same standard of integrity, fairness and objectivity.
Operating companies, fund managers and investors optimizing for exit.
Operating Companies
Businesses optimizing performance, preparing for exit, or navigating significant challenges, where the work is in sales, product, cost structure and leadership to maximize realizable value, not only the balance sheet.
Fund Managers
Venture, private equity and private credit funds preparing portfolio companies for exit or managing underperformance who need someone able to step inside and actually run it, not just report on it.
Investors
Boards, lenders and LPs who need objective, evidence-based counsel on exit readiness and, when required, hands-on operational intervention.
What our clients say.
“[Lew] and his team brought a fresh perspective to a complicated and difficult situation at a family of funds; and ultimately, he recommended the course of action that prioritized the overall return to the investors and set the funds on that course.”
“[Lew] has a rare ability to quickly assess a situation by synthesizing previously unconnected information and develop actionable ways forward, often in the most difficult of environments.”
“Lew brought a wealth of experience and was instrumental in helping us navigate an otherwise tricky process.”
“Lew has proven that he is capable of successfully elevating and course-correcting the most difficult challenges.”