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Private Equity Advisory
Our private equity advisory helps sponsors and operating partners test the behavioral assumptions inside an investment thesis, from customer retention to management decision-making, and turn them into evidence that guides the deal and the hold period.
The problem behind the problem.
Private equity firms are skilled at modeling cash flows, debt capacity and multiple expansion. The harder part is the set of human behaviors those models quietly assume. A value creation plan may depend on customers accepting a price increase, a sales team adopting a new motion, or a founder-led company transitioning to professional management. Each of those is a behavioral bet, and each is usually underwritten with management presentations, a handful of reference calls and a data room that was assembled to tell a story. When the bet is wrong, the miss rarely shows up until well into the hold period.
The pressure of a competitive process makes this worse. Deal teams work against exclusivity windows, advisors focus on the questions they were scoped to answer, and the behavioral evidence that would sharpen the IC memo sits unexamined in CRM exports, product logs and support tickets. After close, operating partners inherit a 100-day plan built on those same assumptions, with board reporting that tracks lagging financials. Private equity advisory from a behavioral science perspective closes that gap, testing what people actually do before capital is committed and measuring it consistently afterward.
How we deliver private equity advisory.
- 01Observe
Frame the thesis as behaviors
We work with the deal team to translate the investment thesis into the specific customer, employee and leadership behaviors it depends on. We then gather qualitative evidence through customer interviews, management conversations and, where access allows, observation of how the product and the sales process actually work, so the analysis starts from the assumptions that matter most to returns.
- 02Signal
Read the data room for behavior
We analyze customer, transaction and operating data for behavioral signals: cohort and logo retention, expansion and contraction patterns, conversion points in the funnel, and adoption depth by segment. We compare what customers report with what they do, flag where untested assumptions are filling gaps, and summarize findings in terms the IC memo and LOI negotiation can use.
- 03Design
Shape the 100-day plan
Findings become a focused value creation agenda: the behavioral levers most likely to move retention, pricing realization and sales productivity, the leadership priorities that support them, and a short list of predictive KPIs for the board. We help operating partners and management agree on which hypotheses to test first and what evidence would change the plan.
- 04Test
Pilot before scaling initiatives
Rather than rolling out a pricing change, new sales process or customer success model across the business at once, we design controlled pilots and A/B tests that show whether the intervention changes behavior. This protects the hold-period timeline by surfacing what works early and avoiding broad initiatives that look sound in a deck but fail in practice.
- 05Scale
Embed measurement and leadership
We help portfolio leadership operationalize what was learned: board decks built around leading indicators, dashboards that operating partners can trust, and coaching for executives who must sustain new behaviors across their teams. Toward exit, the same evidence base supports a credible equity story about the durability of customer relationships and the strength of the organization.
Deliverables.
What changes.
Who engages us.
We support deal partners, principals and operating partners at lower middle market and middle market private equity firms, along with independent sponsors and family offices making direct investments. Typical moments include pre-LOI thesis testing, confirmatory diligence when exclusivity is tight, the first 100 days after close, a mid-hold reset when performance drifts from plan, and pre-exit preparation. We also work directly with portfolio company CEOs and executive teams who want an outside, evidence-based view of customer and organizational behavior.
Industries
Beyond the balance sheet.
Private equity ownership shapes the daily experience of employees, the service customers receive and the health of the communities where portfolio companies operate. Our private equity advisory treats those stakeholders as part of the value creation case, not an afterthought. Plans that rely on understanding customers and supporting employees tend to be more durable than plans that rely on cost cutting alone. We help sponsors find growth that customers welcome and teams can sustain, and we measure people outcomes alongside financial ones.
Frequently asked questions.
How is this different from traditional commercial due diligence?
Traditional commercial diligence typically sizes the market, reviews competitive position and runs a customer survey. We add a behavioral lens: analyzing what customers actually do in transaction and product data, comparing it with what they say, and identifying the specific behaviors the investment thesis depends on. The two approaches are complementary, and we often work alongside existing advisors to fill the gaps their scope does not cover.
Can you work within a tight exclusivity window?
Yes. We scope work to the questions that matter most for the IC decision and the time available. In a compressed process, that may mean focusing on cohort retention and a small set of customer interviews rather than a full journey analysis. We are explicit about what the evidence can and cannot support, so the deal team knows where confidence is warranted and where risk remains.
Do you work with operating partners after close?
Frequently. Many engagements begin in diligence and continue into the first 100 days, when findings become a value creation plan. We work alongside operating partners and portfolio leadership to design pilots, define predictive KPIs for board reporting and coach executives through the behavioral changes the plan requires. The aim is to build capability inside the portfolio company, not dependence on outside advisors.
What data do you need from the target company?
It varies by business model, but useful sources include customer-level transaction or billing history, CRM opportunity data, product usage logs, support tickets and any existing survey results. We work with whatever is available in the data room and are comfortable with messy, unintegrated datasets. Where data is thin, we rely more heavily on structured interviews and say clearly how that limits the conclusions.
Often paired with.
Customer & Commercial Due Diligence
Customer diligence that reads what buyers actually do: retention by cohort, conversion points, adoption depth and the gap between stated and revealed behavior.
ExploreManagement Team Assessment
Research-grade evaluation of leadership teams for investors: capabilities, key-person risk, team dynamics and readiness to execute the plan ahead.
ExplorePortfolio Value Creation
Predictive KPIs, tested initiatives and leadership support that help portfolio companies grow retention, revenue and capability across the hold period.
ExploreRelated insights.
The Cost of Untested Assumptions
Why untested assumptions are among the most expensive hidden risks in any organization, where they hide, and how to surface and test them systematically.
Read
Predictive KPIs vs. Vanity Metrics
How to distinguish predictive KPIs from vanity metrics, test whether a measure actually informs decisions, and build behavior-based indicators that move before results do.
ReadReady to talk about private equity advisory?
Every engagement begins with a conversation. Tell us what you are facing and we will tell you, candidly, how we would approach it.
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