Private Equity

I work mostly with mid-market Private Equity firms in the UK, Europe, and North America; as a strategic advisor, on both product due diligence and value creation projects.

Product advisory

Whether as an interim advisor or working on a longer term retained basis, I partner with funds to increase the value of their portfolio from a product perspective.

This work can take the form of Product DD, portfolio optimisation, turnaround, or transformation projects. I work either with the fund itself or directly in-asset too.

I get involved in setting product vision, leading ambitious 0-1 product builds, consolidation projects, and driving efforts to define product fundamentals such as PMF (Product Market Fit), GTM (Go To Market), and POM (Product Operating Model).

I have longstanding relationships with professional advisors I’ve worked with throughout the PE lifecycle and specifically enjoy partnering with them to work on rapid reporting and evaluation of investment opportunities.

My experience

  • Product due diligence

  • Value creation

  • Bolt-on acquisitions

  • Portfolio optimisation

  • Buy vs. build

  • Turnaround and transformation

  • Red flag reports

  • Product portfolio early warnings

  • Product growth opportunity identification

  • Mentoring and coaching

  • B2B SaaS

  • MarTech and AdTech

  • Data / Information Services

  • Companies investing in content creation at scale

  • EdTech

  • FinTech and Payments

  • B2C Travel and Hospitality

  • Premium and Luxury

  • $20m to $400m revenue

  • 50-1,500 FTE

  • UK, Europe, and North America

Product Due Diligence (PDD)

I am often called in by the value creation team a year or so in to an investment hold period and asked to provide external product advisory to get portfolio companies back on track.

The incumbent team (often not experienced with PE), given insufficient guidance at the CDD stage by consultants with little or no experience of actually delivering products themselves (simply because it’s not what they do), can easily lose the first year post-deal trying to figure out how to deliver.

PDD can bring forward the work currently undertaken at the value creation stage, meaning the asset can hit the ground running from day one.

Why is PDD important for VCP?

PDD flags current gaps and weaknesses in the product portfolios of target investments, which aids the de-risking of existing challenges - but it also identifies future opportunities and the feasibility of capitalising on them with the product setup that exists today (and what may be needed moving forward).

Without sufficient PDD pre-deal, day one post-deal faces several blind spots and the increased risk of a false start or - worse - a failed or aborted plan in the first year.

Having the right product strategy, team, structure, processes, roadmap etc identified at the same time as CDD means that growth playbooks (new markets, efficiencies, pricing etc) can be aligned.

Product in PE

Increasingly, as the Chief Product Officer role has become more familiar on Boards in all sectors, I’ve been working with private equity firms to define what this looks like, how to drive value, and how to build a right-shape / right-size structure underneath the CPO role.

Strategic planning, tactics, tools, goal-setting, leadership, product education, and cross-team skillset development are all part of this. As is the implementation of world class processes, systems, services, and methodologies.

PE in Product

I often work with companies new to private equity ownership, helping navigate the different operating expectations and ways of working.

I’m experienced in building out the first Product team following PE investment - creating high performing teams, consolidating products, rationalising product market fit, and defining roadmaps that underpin tangible growth.

A selection of previous client and partner firms include…