An outside operator portfolio CEOs will actually listen to, on call for the fund. A two-day diagnostic and a ten-day sprint for any portfolio company at risk of stalling.
Every portfolio has companies where the risk rises before it shows in the numbers.
Growth flattens after product-market fit. The next round needs a story the metrics don't yet support. The go-to-market that won the first customers doesn't scale to the next hundred. The leadership team needs to change shape for the next stage.
GPs and investment managers usually see it first. The CEO has heard it several times but hasn't moved much.
What the portco needs is a senior operator both the fund and the CEO trust: in the room within two weeks, out again with decisions the CEO owns.
A fund and its portfolio CEOs want the same thing: the right decisions, made early. I work with both.
For eight years I have been Venture Advisor to LUMO Labs, across their EUR 30M and EUR 100M funds investing in emerging technology for social impact.
Because I've worked with multinational corporations for 25 years, and with early stage ventures for 10+ years, as well as founded, raised for and operated venture-backed companies myself, CEOs take the conversation as counsel from someone who has been there.
Because I have built the business cases funds underwrite, GPs and investment managers get a read they can act on before the next board meeting.
A focused advisory sprint for Breakout-Stage CEOs - Series A to exit - facing the decisions that will define whether your company ascends or stalls. Ten working days. Ten clarified decisions. One plan. One narrative.
Your board is watching the runway clock. Your team is moving, but not in the same direction. The fundraise narrative isn't landing with investors. The GTM motion you bet the year on is sputtering. Or your leadership team has quietly become the thing nobody talks about in the all-hands.
You're at the inflection point on your Breakout Curve - the moment that determines whether your S-curve bends upward or flattens out. And you're making that call with imperfect information, under board pressure, and without a trusted sounding board who has been here before.
You don't need a 12-week consulting engagement with a deck and a team of associates. You need someone who has operated at this level - on five continents, across 50+ organizations - who can sit across from you for two weeks and force the ten decisions that unlock the next stage.
One engagement built the valuation model that told a major broadcaster what its content was worth: USD 50M in missed revenue over five years, and the price for the renewed agreement. The same pattern recognition, condensed into ten days, applied to your situation.
You run a venture-backed, PE-backed, or high-growth independent company - Series A through pre-exit - with real revenue, a real team, and real stakes. You're inside the inflection zone of your Breakout Curve: past product-market fit, not yet at institutional scale. You're facing a fundraising block, a go-to-market pivot, a leadership fracture, or some combination. You can name the problem. You're ready to make hard calls in days, not quarters. The cost of inaction is measured in millions.
You're pre-product-market-fit, looking for validation, or hoping a strategist will tell you your plan is good. You want a long engagement, a team of consultants, or a deck to put in front of your investors. You're not the decision-maker. You want accountability-free advice. You're shopping on price.
Every company follows an S-curve. Early traction is hard and slow. At some point, the curve bends - and growth accelerates. After the inflection, the machine scales. Between Series A and exit, every CEO faces the same question: am I about to bend the curve upward, or flatten it out?
Most companies don't fail after the inflection. They fail before it. Not because the product isn't right or the market isn't there - but because the ten critical decisions that drive the curve upward get made slowly, wrongly, or not at all.
The Breakout Curve Sprint forces those ten decisions in ten days. No reports. No decks. Decisions - with rationale, with owners, with timelines.
Every venture-backed company follows an S-curve. Early traction is hard and slow. At some point the curve bends and growth accelerates. Between Series A and exit, every portfolio company reaches the same question: will it bend the curve upward, or flatten out?
Most companies don't stall after the inflection. They stall before it. Not because the product or the market is wrong, but because the ten decisions that drive the curve upward get made slowly, wrongly, or not at all.
The Breakout Diagnostic shows in two days which of those ten decisions are holding the company back. The Breakout Curve Sprint makes them in ten days, with rationale, owners and timelines.
Ten working days. Ten steps of the Breakout Architecture. Ten decisions. Every day has a clear purpose. Each session ends with a decision, a draft, or a discarded assumption. Nothing leaves the room until it's resolved.
Deep mapping of the business, the team, the cap table, the market position, and the live constraints. By end of day two, we've named the real problem - which is rarely the presenting one.
Hostile interrogation of strategy, narrative, financial model, and team. We expose the assumptions you can't afford to keep - and the ones your board hasn't yet questioned.
Working sessions to force the ten decisions across the Breakout Architecture. Capital strategy, org design, GTM priorities, customer focus. Each closed with rationale, owner, and date.
The 90-day execution plan. The board-ready narrative. The communication cascade for the team. You walk into Monday with a different company.
The diagnostic comes first: two days, ten pillars assessed, the three real blockers named and a straight go / no-go.
When the answer is go, the sprint follows: ten working days, ten steps of the Breakout Architecture, ten decisions. Each session ends with a decision, a draft, or a discarded assumption.
Deep mapping of the business, the team, the cap table, the market position, and the live constraints. By end of day two the real problem is named, which is rarely the presenting one.
Hard testing of strategy, narrative, financial model and team, to surface the assumptions the company can't afford to keep.
Working sessions to force the ten decisions across the Breakout Architecture. Capital strategy, org design, GTM priorities, customer focus. Each closed with rationale, owner, and date.
The 90-day execution plan. The board-ready narrative. The communication cascade for the team.
The CEOs who say yes are not buying time. They are buying the avoidance of an eight-figure mistake, or the unlock of a nine-figure outcome. Priced accordingly. Two ways in: a two-day diagnostic that tells you whether you need more, or the sprint itself.
Two days. Ten pillars assessed against evidence, the three real blockers named and sized, and a straight go / no-go on whether a sprint is warranted.
Ten working days, ten steps, ten decisions. Direct CEO engagement, on-site or remote. Fixed fee, no hourly, no overruns.
Six-month retainer to hold the team accountable to the 90-day plan. Bi-weekly CEO sessions, quarterly board check-ins, ad hoc strategic counsel. By selection only.
Equity-based engagements considered for select high-growth companies with proven leadership and a clear path to exit. Limited capacity - one in five engagements.
For a fund, the measure is the value of the portfolio company it protects. Two products, per engagement or on retainer across the portfolio.
Two days per portfolio company. Ten pillars assessed against evidence, the three real blockers named and sized, and a straight go / no-go on whether a sprint is warranted.
Ten working days, ten steps, ten decisions. Direct engagement with the CEO and leadership team. Fixed fee, no hourly, no overruns.
A fixed number of diagnostics a year across the portfolio, priority scheduling, and the sprint at the standard rate. Terms agreed on the call.
Two decades across strategy consulting and operating roles spanning five continents and 50+ organizations - from early-stage to Fortune 500. Principal at Capgemini Consulting across Europe, North America and the Middle East. Independent strategy advisor to some of the world's largest telcos, broadcasters, and media companies. Currently founder of a venture-backed AI platform, my 15th early stage tech company I'm involved in - meaning I bring experience from the ground up as well, not advising from a distance.
Active advisor to LUMO Labs portfolio companies. Proven across telecom, media, digital health, conservation tech, and frontier-market entry.
The large corporate names in my track record? In most cases, they hired me to do the smart work their own teams couldn't. The same pattern recognition is available to you - condensed into ten days.
A three-month group-level engagement built the enterprise business case across 14 operating countries, identifying USD 2bn cumulative revenue uplift through 2030, with the country CEOs building the numbers along the way.
Designed, built and ran the valuation model for a major broadcaster's content. It quantified USD 50M in missed revenue over five years and projected the value forward as the board's negotiation position.
Four years as head of corporate and business development for a creator platform in Africa: two new country operations live, entities set up and core teams hired, and the positioning and investor materials behind USD 3M raised across the period.
Full case walkthroughs available under NDA.
Twenty-five years with multinational corporations, including Principal at Capgemini Consulting across Europe, North America and the Middle East.
More than ten years with early-stage ventures as founder, co-founder, executive and advisor. Currently founder of a venture-backed AI platform, my 15th early stage tech company I'm involved in.
Eight years as Venture Advisor to LUMO Labs and its portfolio companies.
Funds get an operator who reads a company the way an investor does. CEOs get one who has run companies himself.
Four years as head of corporate and business development: two new country operations live, entities and core teams set up, USD 3M raised across the period, and the company at about USD 500K MRR and break-even.
Co-founder, President and COO: built the service model and deal structures, brought in first institutional capital from Boost VC, and structured artist projects in the USD 2 to 3M range underwritten by a strategic investor.
Founder and CEO: took the company from concept to platform, with angel investment in, pre-seed committed and a pilot site secured ahead of deployment.
Full case walkthroughs available under NDA.
The first call is a fit assessment, not a sales pitch. If it isn't right, we'll say so. If it is, we start with the diagnostic or go straight to the sprint, within four weeks.
The first call is thirty minutes on the portfolio company that prompted it. If it isn't right, we'll say so. If it is, the diagnostic is scheduled within two weeks and the terms follow.
Reviewed weekly. Response within five business days if aligned. Most engagements arrive by referral.