Executive operations for portfolio companies
Venture and private equity firms, independent sponsors, search funds, and holding companies bring us into small portfolio companies that need a real operating layer before the senior operations hires make sense.
The smallest companies in a portfolio have the least operating structure and the least capacity to build it.
The thesis is sound, the founder is capable, and the company still runs through one person's head: decisions stall between meetings, reporting arrives late and hand-built, and nothing is documented well enough to survive a transition. An operating partner can set the strategy, but someone has to run the week. We take that layer over as a fractional, embedded function: the founder's executive operations, the leadership rhythm, support staff direction, and the systems and documentation underneath, with AI doing the work it has earned and a person reviewing everything that goes out.
Four ways this shows up in a portfolio.
After the close
The first 90 days after an acquisition or a round decide how the next year runs. We stabilize the executive layer, set the reporting rhythm, and document how the company actually works while everyone else focuses on the plan.
Between leaders
A founder stepping back, a CEO search underway, an integration in progress. We keep decisions moving and operations documented through the transition, so the incoming leader inherits a running system.
Below operating-partner scale
An operating partner sets strategy across the fund. A 10-to-40-person portfolio company also needs someone to run the week: follow-through, coordination, and systems. That layer is what we install and run.
Across several companies
The same operating standard, reporting format, and documentation discipline installed in more than one portfolio company, with one relationship to manage instead of several hires.
Built to be diligenced.
Engagements run in 90-day terms with baselines set in week one, so results are measured, not described. Scope is agreed before we start. Everything we build lives in the company's own systems under its own accounts, documented to hand off, which means the company is never dependent on us and a future operations hire inherits a working system. Non-disclosure agreements come standard, and each company's information stays inside that company.
What does the fund actually receive?
A portfolio company that reports on a rhythm: current KPIs with named owners, decisions tracked to done, documented workflows, and a founder whose time goes to growth instead of chasing follow-ups. Baselines are set in week one, so the change is measurable by day 90.
How is this different from hiring an operations person into the company?
It's faster and reversible. We're running within weeks, everything we build is documented in the company's own systems, and when the company grows into a full-time operations hire, we help define the role and hand over a working operation. Nothing depends on us staying.
Who engages you, the fund or the company?
Either works. Some firms introduce us and the portfolio company engages directly; some engage us across companies. Scope is agreed up front either way, and each company's information stays inside that company.
See what an engagement looks like end to end, or start the conversation. For multi-company arrangements, ask about working across the portfolio.