Most mid-market portfolio companies ($30M to $250M) share one trait: they can’t grow organically without throwing more money at the engine.
And there’s nothing wrong with paid media at all. It’s the rising costs + inefficient “owned” funnel that’s adding up – and tanked hundreds of thousands of businesses in 2023 and 2024 with hectic prices, ZIRP disappearing, or Google SEO shutting down for a while.
I recently worked with a PE-backed $85M professional services company. $10M+ on paid media in 12 months. Almost zero organic pipeline.
Website was a brochure from 2019. CRM had no lifecycle stages. Nine handoff points between marketing, sales, and CS. Zero SLAs.
In this week’s Growth Shuttle Insider, I break down the four structural reasons it keeps happening, plus a 5-day diagnostic any operating partner can run on a portco this week:
Growth Shuttle InsiderGrowth Shuttle Insider
Why Mid-Market Companies Struggle With Organic Growth Today
Mario Peshev
