Portfolio leadership to the speed of the hold period.
Toronto has deep pools of institutional and private capital, and most of it is backing owner-managed companies that have never had a professional executive team. The plan is clear. The leaders to deliver it are not always there.
Where the plan stalls
The thesis is sound. Execution is where time gets lost:
The operating partner cannot be everywhere
When several portfolio companies need senior attention in one quarter, one operating partner cannot cover them all.
A gap in the management team
A CFO or COO role is vacant or filled by the wrong person, and the hold clock is running.
Reporting does not meet the fund standard
Monthly numbers arrive late, in the wrong shape, with a founder who is not used to being asked.
A full-time hire is a commitment the plan cannot carry
The cost and the notice risk do not fit a business that may change owners within a few years.
A fractional executive takes the seat immediately, on terms that suit the hold period. They set up the reporting, run the function day to day and pass it to a permanent appointment once the plan requires 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
Alongside the deal team
An operator for the sponsor, with our governance kept around the engagement through the hold.
Slippage named early
We meet the operating partner and the executive on a fixed cadence, and we say early when the plan slips.
Depth beyond the seat
Our collective of 800+ backs each executive when a finance problem crosses into operations.
The company keeps continuity
Continuity sits with the portfolio company and with us, so a departing executive means a managed handover and a fresh search from our brief.
Founder fit
Where the seller stays on, the executive has to work with them, so we match on temperament as well as skill.
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
