THE FRONT DOOR
Know what's wrong before you pay to fix it.
A fixed-scope assessment of a portfolio company’s marketing operation, which reads the gap between what the investment committee underwrote and what the operation can deliver, tells you whether the number in the model is reachable and what it would take, and sequences the fixes against the value creation plan. It stands alone, so you are not committing to a build to run it.
Pre-deal, or just after close
The assessment works at two points in the deal lifecycle.
Pre-deal, it is the marketing and commercial due diligence, validating whether the growth assumptions in the model are real before the investment committee signs off.
It runs in the first 30 days as the assessment that turns the value creation plan's marketing line into an actual sequence of work.
What we examine
The same 16-point method as the diligence, reported on six functional areas. See the method
Positioning and message-market fit
Is the company saying one clear thing, or three blurred ones?
Full-funnel performance
Where demand leaks between first touch and closed revenue
Channel efficiency
Which channels earn their spend and which the others are paying for
AI-search readiness
Whether buyers are finding the company through AI answers yet, measured, and what to do about it if they are
Team and agency capability
What the current setup is built to deliver, whether it can carry the plan as staffed, and where one hire or one change would move the number
Martech and attribution
Whether the data can even answer the board's questions
What you receive
Two things, both built to be read in a board meeting rather than admired in a slide deck.
A findings document
The honest current-state picture, with the issues that are costing you revenue quantified where the data allows
A value-creation roadmap
A 90-day priority sequence mapped to the VCP, plus the recommended engagement model
The most valuable output is the honest call on whether marketing is even the lever. Sometimes it isn't, and knowing that early protects the hold.
Scope and timeline
Access and data pull
We pull analytics, ad accounts, CRM, existing reporting and the value creation plan, and work from that data straight out of your systems.
The analysis
Funnel, channel, positioning, capability, and attribution, assessed against how a held company actually has to grow.
Board-ready readout
Findings, roadmap, and recommended model, walked through live with the operating partner and portco leadership.
Pre-deal, when data-room access is partial, the same method runs outside-in from public and competitive signals inside 10 working days, which is enough to price the risk before close and to know where to look first after it.
Pricing is fixed and set against the portco's size and stage. It's confirmed before we start, and it's credited toward the build if you proceed.
Book an assessment for a portfolio company.
Tell us the company and the thesis, and we’ll confirm scope and timing within a day.