Our involvement depends on what the situation demands. From exit preparation and diagnostic assessments through performance improvement, turnaround mandates and transaction advisory. In every case the work is operational with financial rigour underpinning it, using our decades-long operating experience.
Preparing the business, not just the data room, to maximize realizable value. Buyers discount what they cannot verify: customer concentration, churn mechanics, delivery risk, key-person dependency. We fix what can be fixed and evidence the rest before diligence starts.
An expert, unbiased perspective when Boards, Management teams and investors need root-cause clarity. We work through the business the way an operator does: pipeline and win rates, product and roadmap, delivery and support, cost structure, and the capability of the team. And we talk to Management, Board, investors, employees, partners, customers and suppliers.
Hands-on operational work: refocusing sales on where the product actually wins, resizing and restructuring the cost base, fixing delivery and support, rebuilding the org around the plan, and imposing cash discipline. We do the work alongside the team, not from a deck.
Reporting to the Board, our team takes full operational control, stepping in as CEO, President or interim executive where the situation requires it. We arrest destructive activity, stabilize cash, and rebuild the operating rhythm of the company through a practiced approach. Timelines are situation dependent.
Hands-on advice and support through a sale, refinancing, recapitalization or restructuring. We bring operator judgment to the process: what the business can credibly commit to post-close, and where the operating reality has to shape structure and price.
When a lighter touch is warranted, a strictly advisory role toward specific, measurable objectives. A sounding board from people who have sat in the big chair and had to make the same call under the same constraints.
Advance materials review. Onsite interviews across sales, product, delivery, finance and leadership. External party interviews.
Deep-dive on initial and discovered issues like unit economics, pipeline quality, delivery capacity, and org capability. Follow-up internal interviews.
Final report composed with a sequenced, operationally executable plan. Draft presented to Management for comment.
Final report presented to the Board and investors, with owners and milestones attached to each action.
Weekly progress reports are provided to Management (and Board) throughout — so corrective actions can be taken as issues are identified.
Company had lost its largest client and was off-covenant. Lender concerned about long-term viability.
Followed our recommendation to focus on EBITDA performance. Team member engaged for ongoing lender oversight. Successfully acquired within 18 months.
Strong revenue growth offset by EBITDA erosion. VCs asked to reinvest in product evolution and growth plan.
Recommendations partially implemented; bridge funding limited to a 12-month runway. Successfully exited within 36 months.
Unprofitable and worsening as time passed. VC investors hesitant to reinvest as cash ran low.
Lew appointed President. Refocused sales to product fit, moved ~75% of dev offshore. Cashflow breakeven in 6 months; sold to leading competitor at 14 months.
13-year-old company with no historical revenues after two strategic pivots. Founding investor lost confidence.
Lew appointed CEO. Pivoted to a new market and rebuilt the team. Achieved cashflow breakeven, recruited Series A, transitioned Management.
Series E threatened by Management concerns. Flat US$40M sales, eroding gross margins, lender preparing to call the loan.
Acted as investor rep through Series E, then Interim CEO. Right-sized opex ~17%, refocused sales on margin, renegotiated supplier contracts. Stabilized; lender extended terms.
Dysfunction at the GP level; LPs had lost confidence. Portfolio fully invested but underperforming.
Served as operational advisor to new GP. Investor-nominated director on portfolio Boards. Most of the portfolio successfully exited; continuing toward final transactions.
Select mandates delivered on behalf of the Kirchner Group.