An operator in the seat when the value plan starts.
Sponsors know where the value is. The hold is short, and the missing piece is often a leader who can deliver it from inside the company.
What slows a portfolio company
Dutch mid-market sponsors and the companies they back meet the same obstacles:
The finance seat is a bookkeeper
Reporting good enough for the owner is not good enough for a sponsor's board.
Strong on product, thin on plan
A capable management team with no one who has delivered a value plan before.
A search outlasts the plan
Hiring a permanent leader takes months and the plan does not wait.
Family sellers stay close
After a family sale the founder often stays near the business, and the new owner needs someone who can work alongside them.
A vetted operator can be inside a portfolio company in weeks, on an agreement that runs as long as the workstream does. Use one to deliver a specific piece of the value plan, to cover a vacancy, or to see what the company needs before you hire for it.
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 we add to the hold
A portfolio seat needs governance around it. We stay involved after the match, alongside the sponsor and the board.
Governance through the hold
We review the value plan's progress with the board and the executive at each board cycle, and flag slippage while there is still time to act.
More than one operator's view
A carve-out or an integration problem can go to colleagues in our collective of 800+ who have run one before.
No restart if someone leaves
The seat belongs to the portfolio company. Because we hold the brief and the governance, a new operator picks up where the last one stopped, and we run that changeover.
Matched to the value plan
We match on the workstream, the hold and the management team. An operator the founder-seller will not work with costs months.
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
