Advisor to private equity and mid-market leadership
The technology voice your board does not currently have
A board level technology advisor for your PE-backed companies, so engineering and product decisions get challenged by someone who has made them before.
Track record
500+
companies advised since 2010
40+
acquisitions as an operator
6
companies founded, 2 exited
$1.45B
GMV managed through DevriX
The engagement
How this works
What your board is currently missing
Most mid-market portfolio boards have finance, sector and deal expertise and nobody who has run an engineering organisation. So technology arrives as a budget line and a status colour, and the questions that would matter never get asked by anyone who would recognise a weak answer. Whether the architecture holds through the growth plan.
Whether the roadmap belongs to the CEO or the CTO. Whether the team in post is the one that reaches exit, or the one that got you through the first year. Those questions have expensive answers when they arrive late, and they almost always arrive late when nobody in the room can tell a real answer from a confident one.
Where this fits
When sponsors bring me in
Nobody can grade the answer
Will the architecture hold through your growth plan. Is the roadmap the CEO’s or the CTO’s. Is the team in post the one that reaches exit. These need someone who would recognise a weak answer.
Board packs report progress
Someone has to know which parts are load bearing and which are narrative written to survive the meeting. Green status is not evidence.
Add-ons carry hidden cost
Technical debt acquired in a bolt-on surfaces eighteen months later as integration spend nobody underwrote, and by then it is priced into your returns.
Exit preparation starts late
Buyers discount what they cannot verify, and every discount traces to something a diligence team found that you could have documented a year earlier.
Scope
What the engagement covers
Reading the pack
Board packs report progress. Someone has to know which parts are load bearing and which are narrative assembled to survive the meeting. Velocity charts, uptime percentages and roadmap slides all look like evidence and rarely answer whether the thing you are betting the thesis on will hold.
Supporting the CTO
Most technology leaders in PE-backed companies are under supported rather than under performing. They inherited a plan built during diligence with targets set by people who left the building at close. The seat is in their corner, not over their shoulder, and that framing decides whether the relationship works from week one.
Buy-side input
Add-on acquisitions carry technical debt that surfaces later as integration spend nobody underwrote. A short read before signing is materially cheaper than discovering two incompatible stacks after you own both of them.
Exit readiness
Knowing what a diligence team will find, early enough that it can still be changed or explained. A known and documented weakness costs far less at the negotiating table than a discovered one.
Sequence
How the first 90 days run
01
Board cadence
Attendance at your regular board, with pre-reads that flag what the pack does not say and the questions worth asking before the vote rather than after it.
02
Between meetings
Direct access for your CEO and technology lead while a decision is live.
03
Event driven
Add-on diligence and exit preparation as they arise.
Technology decisions in a hold period compound. Being in the room is how you catch them while they are still cheap.
Why oversight and delivery stay separate
A board seat is oversight rather than delivery, and that separation is what makes the advice worth taking. An advisor who also sells you the engineering has an opinion about how much engineering you need. Where your portfolio company needs capacity, that is a separate DevriX conversation you are free to have with someone else. Technology decisions in a hold period compound: the architecture choice made in month three sets the integration cost in month thirty, and the hiring decision made under pressure sets the team you take to exit.
The value of the seat is catching those while they are still cheap to change, which is rarely the moment anyone thinks to commission a review. Seats are limited to a small number, because board work depends on knowing the asset properly and that does not compress.
Boundaries
What this is not
A board seat is oversight, not execution, and usually advisory rather than a directorship, which keeps it flexible and avoids the governance and liability overhead for both sides. It is not a fractional CTO engagement: your technology leader keeps the function and the seat exists to support and challenge them, not to run it from above. It is not a delivery contract either, so where your portfolio company needs engineering capacity that is a separate DevriX conversation you are free to have with someone else. Standalone diligence, unattached to a board relationship, runs through Growth Shuttle rather than here.
Before you commit
Questions sponsors ask
Is this a formal directorship?
Usually an advisory seat rather than a board directorship, which keeps it flexible and avoids the governance and liability overhead for both sides.
How does this sit with the existing CTO?
In their corner. A technology leader who has someone senior to think with tends to perform better, not feel policed.
Can this cover several portfolio companies?
A small number. Board work depends on knowing the asset properly, and that does not compress.
What about diligence on add-ons?
Included where it is a portfolio company the seat already covers, because the context is already there and a short read before signing costs a fraction of discovering two incompatible stacks afterwards. Standalone diligence, unattached to a board relationship, runs through Growth Shuttle.
How often is the commitment?
The regular board cadence plus availability between meetings when a decision is live rather than retrospective. Event-driven work such as add-on diligence or exit preparation is scoped as it arises, so the baseline commitment stays predictable and the heavy periods are agreed rather than assumed.
What does a board seat cost?
A retainer scoped to the cadence and the size of the portfolio company, agreed after the first conversation. It is materially below what a non-executive with equivalent operating background costs on a permanent basis, which is usually the comparison sponsors are making.
How do engagements start?
A conversation with you about where your board is currently flying blind on technology.
Start with the asset, not the engagement
Tell me which portfolio company is behind plan and what you believe is causing it. That conversation is free and usually clarifies whether this is the right instrument.