Advisor to private equity and mid-market leadership
The operating partner seat, without the fund hiring one
A technical value creation advisor in the operating partner seat for your portfolio company, on a monthly retainer, accountable to the plan the sponsor underwrote.
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 the seat gives your management team
You get an operator alongside your management team on post-acquisition execution, the 100-day plan, and the operating systems that move EBITDA.
The approach is operator-first rather than framework-first: your execution risk surfaces early, your growth assumptions get pressure-tested, and you get a decision-grade view of what actually moves value.
Where this fits
When sponsors bring me in
The thesis is stalling
Revenue is behind plan and nobody can say whether it is product, go to market, or execution. That diagnosis is the first job.
The CEO is capable but unsupported
They do not need replacing. They need someone who has run the function and can challenge them without it becoming a governance event.
A full time hire is not justified
An operating partner is a seven figure commitment across a fund. A retained advisory relationship is not.
The board needs a real answer
Not a workstream. A view on what is true, what it costs, and what happens if you do nothing.
Scope
What the engagement covers
Diagnostic
Weeks one to three: architecture, delivery cadence, real team capacity against what the plan assumes, and the two or three things that break first under the growth case.
A plan with costs
Week four: a written, prioritised plan the sponsor and the CEO both sign up to, rather than one handed to them.
Execution alongside
Ongoing: board attendance, executive support, and direct involvement where a decision needs someone who has made it before.
An unfiltered read
A monthly view to the sponsor that does not pass through the person being assessed.
Sequence
How the first 90 days run
01
Week 1
Your underwriting model, current plan and last three board packs get read. Your CEO and functional leads get interviewed. The objective is the delta between what you believe and what your company experiences, which is usually where your plan is quietly failing.
02
Weeks 2 to 3
Your plan depends on systems nobody has opened. Architecture and delivery capacity, the revenue motion and its pipeline maths, the data layer the board reports from, and whether the team in post is the one that reaches the exit.
03
Week 4
A written verdict with costs and sequence attached. Not a maturity score, which is comfortable and unactionable. Something a board can decide against in a single meeting.
04
Month 2 onward
Execution alongside the team against the agreed plan, with a monthly read to the sponsor that does not pass through the person being assessed.
An operating partner spread across a dozen assets is a newsletter, not an operator.
Why the diagnostic is worth reading
Most firms selling you this deploy a bench and bill the delivery, so your diagnosis and your remedy come from the same party. Engagements are capped at a small number at a time. Where your plan needs engineering or RevOps capacity, that comes through DevriX as a separate commercial conversation you are free to have with someone else, and frequently should.
An operating partner spread across your dozen peers is a newsletter, not an operator. The constraint is what makes the attention real, and it is the reason the diagnostic is worth reading: nobody is incentivised to find work that does not need doing.
Boundaries
What this is not
This is not a staffed delivery team, and it is not sell-side advisory. It does not replace your bank, your accountants or your lawyers. It is also not interim management: the CEO keeps the mandate and the accountability, and my job is to make that easier to discharge rather than to take it over. Where the honest answer is that you need a full-time hire, a different specialism, or nothing at all, that is the answer you will get in writing.
Before you commit
Questions sponsors ask
How is this different from a fractional CTO?
A fractional CTO owns the technology function and its roadmap. An operating partner works across the whole value creation plan, including the commercial motion, and reports to the sponsor rather than the CEO. The two are complementary and occasionally run together. If the technology seat is what the asset actually needs, Growth Shuttle runs that engagement and I will say so rather than sell you this one.
Will management see this as a threat?
Usually the opposite, provided the framing is right from day one. Most 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 will not be in the building on Monday. Someone who has run the function before and is not competing for their job tends to be received as cover, not as an audit.
How many portfolio companies can this cover?
A small number at a time, deliberately. Board attendance and real diagnostic work do not compress, and an advisor spread thin produces generic advice that any deck could have given you. The constraint is the product, and it is the reason the work is worth commissioning.
What if the diagnosis says replace the team?
Then it says so, in writing, early, with the reasoning attached so the board can disagree with it on the merits. The expensive outcome is discovering it in month fourteen after two quarters of missed plan. I would rather deliver an uncomfortable finding in week four than an agreeable one that costs a year.
What does this cost?
A monthly retainer scoped to the asset and the depth of involvement, agreed after the first conversation rather than quoted from a rate card. The diagnostic can be commissioned on its own as a fixed piece of work if you want to see the quality of thinking before committing to anything ongoing. That is usually the sensible first step.
How do engagements start?
A conversation about the specific portfolio company, what the sponsor believes is causing the gap, and what has already been tried. If it is worth going further, a short written diagnostic tells you considerably more than a proposal would, and it is useful to you whether or not the relationship continues.
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.