For private equity portfolio companies · Washington DC metro
You underwrote a 100-day plan.
Somebody has to run it.
The company you just bought has a bookkeeper, a server closet and a managed-services provider, and the technology section of the investment memo is now somebody's problem. At $3–30M of EBITDA that somebody cannot be a full-time CTO — the cost does not clear the hurdle and the hire takes a quarter. This is the same judgement, one or two days a week, at a published rate you can put in the model.
Where a sponsor actually needs this
Four moments, and none of them wait for a search.
Buying rather than running? The pre-LOI screen and the confirmatory work are on a one-page sheet for deal teams, built to print. This page is about the months after close.
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The 100-day plan has an owner on paper only.
The operating partner has six companies and the CEO has a business to run. The technology workstream is the one that quietly slips to year two.
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Every bolt-on arrives on a different system.
Three field-service platforms, four phone systems, and a consolidated report that is really somebody's spreadsheet. Integration windows are short and they do not reopen.
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The software spend was never renegotiated at the new scale.
Auto-renewals signed by the founder, per-seat pricing from before the roll-up, and nobody whose job it is to read the true-up clause before it fires.
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You need technology reporting a lender will accept.
Monthly, in writing, in numbers — not a status call. The same document that makes the next exit's diligence boring.
How a sponsor buys it
One published rate card. Nothing contingent on the deal.
Billed monthly, per portfolio company, at the rate on the card — no success fee, no percentage of savings, and nothing that pays me more if the deal closes. A technology adviser who is paid more when the transaction happens is not giving you technology advice.
It can be charged to the management company or to the portfolio company, whichever your structure prefers. No exclusivity either way: I keep other clients, and placing me at a second company in the portfolio is a second retainer, not a discount I am holding back.
After the initial term, 30 days’ notice ends it. The handover is the deliverable I would want to receive: the inventory, the plan, the vendor relationships and the contracts, written down.
Who I am doing this for
I already work inside deal technology.
Current engagement with an enterprise M&A software company — the tooling deal teams run their pipelines on. Before that, fifteen years building and leading engineering teams, including an ad platform through its acquisition and integration.
Bringing AI into an enterprise M&A platform.
Devensoft builds M&A software for enterprise deal teams — and they were a team I used to build software for. Now I'm working with them on where AI fits in the platform.
Described at category level on purpose: deal work is confidential, and a retainer that leaks is worth nothing to the next client. That is also the answer to what I would say about yours. The work that can be written up is.
The retainer
Three sizes, per portfolio company.
A full-time technology leader is about $20,000 a month loaded, plus a two to four months search — which is why a company at this size does not have one. The middle tier is the common shape for a platform after close; the top tier is for the months either side of an integration, when being in the room is what moves it.
Technical Advisor
$2,800
Per month · ~8 hrs
Month-to-month
You already have someone building things — an agency, a contractor, a nephew — and you need a second opinion you can trust.
Fractional CTO · Most take this
$5,600
Per month · ~20 hrs
3-month initial term, monthly after
Technology has become the bottleneck and nobody in the building owns it.
Embedded CTO
$11,200
Per month · ~48 hrs
6-month initial term
Earliest start: December 15, 2026
You are mid-transition — an acquisition, a system migration, a compliance deadline — and you need a technology leader in the room, not on a call.
Other problems I solve
Insurance agencies
Reach the whole book before renewals lapse.
Read more →Accounting and bookkeeping firms
Stop chasing W-2s every January.
Read more →Owner-operators
200 emails a day. 10 actually need you.
Read more →Home services and trades
The job's done at 4. The write-up's done at 7.
Read more →Home services, dental, auto repair
Your happy customers never say so publicly.
Read more →Law, financial, event vendors
The first call is the same twelve questions.
Read more →Insurance agency owners
Five systems, and nobody owns any of them.
Read more →Ready?
Which portfolio company is it?
One call, 30 minutes, free. Describe the asset and where the plan is stuck. I will tell you whether this needs a retainer, a fixed-price project, or a conversation with the management team you already have.