Across roles at Consulting Solutions, ToolsGroup, and Touchplan, Jonathan has led the operating company's side of all three of these functions — most notably on a $60M debt raise (primary facility plus revolver), working alongside the deal team. A credit advisory firm handled structuring support at approximately 1.5%. Jonathan ran point on lender conversations as the operating CFO. The deal closed. This is not a theoretical combination of roles. It has been executed at institutional scale, across multiple engagements.
As CFO of ToolsGroup, banking through Silicon Valley Bank when SVB was placed into FDIC receivership in March 2023. While other companies scrambled to find alternative banking relationships overnight, payroll and operations at ToolsGroup were protected — because existing accounts had already been maintained at Bank of America and Morgan Stanley as a deliberate treasury redundancy strategy.
What this signals to a PE sponsor or founder: This is not crisis response — it is crisis prevention. The CFO who already has the backup banking relationships in place before the crisis is a categorically different person from the one who is calling banks at midnight on a Friday. That instinct is institutional-grade treasury judgment that cannot be taught in a classroom.
| What Stratis Replaces | Typical Cost — $60M Deal | Stratis Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Placement agent (Role 1 only) | $600K – $1.2M | $60K–$100K retainer + 0.25–0.5% success fee Savings: $500K–$2M+ |
| Credit advisor — e.g. Genesis Credit Partners (Role 3 only) | ~$400K – $900K | |
| PE Director-level time — partial Role 1 | Opportunity cost of $300K+ employee | |
| Jonathan Purdy / Stratis Group — all three roles | $60K–$100K retainer + 0.25–0.5% success | $500K–$2M+ in savings |
Conservative base case. Year 1 establishes 2–3 core retainer relationships and one debt raise mandate. Year 2 adds a second debt raise and secondary revenue streams. Year 3 reflects a mature practice with 4–5 concurrent relationships.
| Revenue Stream | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary — CFO-Led Debt Raise on Retainer | |||
| Debt raise retainer fees | $48,000 | $76,000 | $126,000 |
| Success fees at close (0.35% avg on completed deals) | $52,000 | $82,000 | $135,000 |
| Debt Raise Subtotal | $100,000 | $158,000 | $261,000 |
| Primary — PE Sponsor Retained Advisory | |||
| Monthly retainer relationships (avg $10K/month) | $84,000 | $132,000 | $216,000 |
| Sponsor Advisory Subtotal | $84,000 | $132,000 | $216,000 |
| Secondary — Interim CFO | |||
| Interim CFO engagements (avg $20K/month) | $0 | $48,000 | $96,000 |
| Interim CFO Subtotal | $0 | $48,000 | $96,000 |
| Secondary — Founder / CEO Advisory | |||
| Founder advisory retainers (avg $7K/month) | $53,000 | $36,000 | $48,000 |
| Founder Advisory Subtotal | $53,000 | $36,000 | $48,000 |
| Total Revenue — Stratis Group LLC | $237,000 | $374,000 | $621,000 |
Conservative base case. All streams scaled ratably to total targets: Year 1 $237K, Year 2 $374K, Year 3 $621K. Year 1 assumes 1 debt raise mandate, 1 sponsor retainer (7 months), 1 founder retainer. Year 2 adds a second debt raise mandate and partial interim CFO engagement. Year 3 reflects 2–3 concurrent retainer relationships across all service lines. Growth rate Year 1→2: 58%. Year 2→3: 66%. All figures pre-tax, pre-expenses.
Built on the Chase Hughes reframe architecture: altitude → frame install → category lock → identity metaphor → close on specific next step. Never argue inside a frame you did not choose.
Two parallel tracks running simultaneously. Cold outreach builds volume against the full TAM. Warm outreach targets companies already showing signs of needing capital — converting a generic introduction into a timely, specific conversation.
236 PE firms, $5.0T combined AUM, 13,677 active portfolio companies. The full TAM, mapped. Live prospecting engine for daily outreach.
Specialist B2B outreach firm running parallel campaigns to PE decision-makers and founder targets — sequenced email, LinkedIn, and follow-up by firm size, sector, and geography.
Financial databases and restructuring trackers identify PE-backed companies actively showing signs of needing a debt raise — high-leverage issuers, covenant violations, and distressed exchanges. "I noticed your portco is approaching a covenant deadline" lands very differently than a generic introduction.
Financial data and covenant tools. Screens specific debt instruments and borrower fundamentals — tracks capital structures, covenant compliance, and distressed exchanges.
Corporate credit and default trackers. Monitor trailing default rates and distressed-debt exchanges across the broader credit market.
Private market intelligence. Evaluate PE fund portfolios and debt burdens at the portfolio company level — identifying where leverage is building.
Watchdog reports. Reviews ongoing bankruptcies and out-of-court restructuring exchanges across the PE-backed universe — early signal on companies in active distress.
What is actually happening in private credit right now. Know these before any lender-facing conversation. Sources: PitchBook LCD Quarterly Private Credit Survey (May 27–June 8, 2026), Capstone Partners Middle Market Leveraged Finance Q1 2026, Lord Abbett Midyear Outlook, ABF Journal.
Direct lending now matches the broadly syndicated loan market in size — forecast to reach $3 trillion by 2028. Private credit has become a mainstream financing solution, not an alternative.
For quality middle-market credits. Use 10% as baseline for modeling senior/unitranche debt. Coverage expectations typically exceed 2.0x on forward projections.
Private credit can close in ~4 weeks vs. 6–8 weeks for bank syndication. Speed differential is a key competitive advantage — and exactly where an embedded, fluent CFO advisor adds the most value.
69% of respondents expect default levels in private credit portfolios to increase in the next six months — up from 57% in Q1. Lender due diligence is getting sharper as a result.
The 9% of lenders increasing software exposure are the right first targets for any SaaS portco raise. Knowing which lenders are in that camp — and approaching them first — is exactly the kind of market intelligence that separates a fluent insider from a placement agent working off a standard list.
Center of gravity has moved toward asset-based and non-bank structures as commercial banks pull back from cash-flow lending. Most private credit deals under $50M EBITDA carry at least one maintenance covenant — typically a total leverage ratio test.
Larger deals can achieve covenant-lite with sufficient lender competition. PIK toggles becoming more common — typically activating when coverage falls below threshold or at borrower election for 50–100bps rate increase.
Q1 2026 saw a 22.5% YoY decline in institutional leveraged loan value — driven by the US-Iran military conflict, AI-driven reassessment of software credit quality, and a wave of BDC redemption requests. The Fed's April 2026 rate pause has since stabilized sentiment.
Default expectations are improving — projected to drop to 3.0% by October 2026 from 5.3% a year earlier as lower funding costs support refinancing activity.
"The biggest shift right now is that the center of gravity has moved further toward private credit and asset-based structures — banks are still pulling back from cash-flow lending, so direct lenders are filling more of that gap, especially in the middle market. Pricing is still elevated — call it 9 to 11% all-in for a quality credit — but the rate picture has stabilized since the Fed's pause in April, and default expectations have actually come down meaningfully from where they were a year ago. The other thing I'd flag — and this matters specifically for SaaS portcos — is that over half of private credit lenders have now reduced their software exposure because of AI displacement risk. Twenty-one percent have significantly cut back, and six percent have stopped lending to software borrowers entirely. But nine percent have actually increased exposure, looking to capitalize on the dislocation. For a SaaS portco thinking about a raise right now, that means knowing which lenders are in that camp before you start conversations is the difference between a fast close and wasted time. That's exactly the kind of intelligence I bring into this process."
Five Advisors. Two Questions. One Chairman's Ruling.
What three things, based on this career history and full context, am I genuinely expert at?
What should my next steps be to launch a consulting business built on three tiers: Fractional CFO, Founder Advisory, and Loan Equity Capital Advisory?
PE-backed CFO work in SaaS companies — real and specific, but the Consulting Solutions gap will raise questions immediately in any serious client evaluation.
Financial transformation and restructuring — the ToolsGroup results are impressive, but he was the instrument, not the principal. The PE sponsor directed the strategy.
Verdict: These are real skills — but they are employee skills, not principal skills. The question is not whether the expertise exists. It is whether he can sell it.
The three-tiered model has a fatal ordering problem. Capital advisory requires a broker-dealer relationship that does not currently exist. The fractional CFO market is glutted. Founder advisory is the only differentiated offering — but requires a pipeline of founders.
Critical gap raised: The business plan has no client acquisition strategy. Without a client in 90 days, operating capital gets consumed by overhead and the pressure to take bad engagements becomes overwhelming.
1. The Lancor Database — Active Daily Outreach. The 236-firm PE database (source of the TAM numbers above) is the live prospecting engine. 5–10 targeted LinkedIn outreaches per day using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, working systematically through the universe of managing directors and operating partners across the identified firms. At that cadence, the full database is covered in under 6 weeks.
2. Contract Marketing Firm. A specialist B2B outreach firm is engaged to run parallel outreach to PE firm decision-makers and founder targets — sequenced email, LinkedIn, and follow-up campaigns targeting the right contacts by firm size, sector, and geography. This separates pipeline-building from client delivery so both can run simultaneously without one cannibalizing the other.
3. Restructuring & Distress Signal Tracking. Rather than waiting for inbound demand, financial databases and restructuring trackers identify PE-backed companies actively showing signs of needing a debt raise — high-leverage issuers, covenant violations, and distressed exchanges. Tools include 9fin (debt instruments, capital structures, and covenant compliance tracking), S&P Global Market Intelligence and Moody's Ratings (default rates and distressed-debt exchanges), PitchBook and Preqin (private equity portfolio and debt burden intelligence), and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (bankruptcy and out-of-court restructuring monitoring). This turns outreach from cold to warm — a conversation that opens with "I noticed your portco is approaching a covenant deadline" lands very differently than a generic introduction.
1. Identifying the precise EBITDA levers in a PE-backed company. Not conceptually — actually. The ToolsGroup result was the highest-yielding VCP in a 70-company portfolio.
2. End-to-end M&A transaction competence — integration, ERP, restructuring, and capital raising within the same operating context.
3. Building and leading global finance teams across Italy, South Africa, Europe, and Latin America simultaneously.
Challenge the three-tier model. Three service lines require three marketing messages, three client profiles, three sales motions. For a one-person firm in year one, that is three times the overhead with a third of the focus.
First principles answer: Pick one tier, dominate it, use it to fund the others. Fractional CFO has the shortest sales cycle. Year one geography is Atlanta and the Southeast — where the referral network exists.
Everyone is underselling the military piece. A commissioned naval officer and pilot who became a PE-backed CFO is not a career path — it is a credential stack that almost no one in the advisory market possesses.
The missed expertise: trusted bridge between the military-security world and capital markets. Gulf sovereign fund deployment into US defense tech runs $70B annually — almost nobody operates at that intersection with both a military commission and a PE CFO background.
Fractional CFO funds year one. Founder advisory builds reputation. But the cross-border defense-finance-international advisory practice is the $500K per year business with almost no competition.
Key insight: Strong existing contacts in Italy's northern industrial corridor position Stratis Group for European advisory work. That conversation needs to happen this week, not next quarter.
This person consistently shows up in situations where companies are in trouble and leaves them materially better. ToolsGroup, Fiserv, Oracle — that is not coincidence. That is a pattern.
He has navigated genuinely high-stakes events that either break people or build them — SVB crisis, three simultaneous acquisitions, contested audits. He was not broken.
The outsider question: Why is he not already charging $50,000 a month for what he clearly knows how to do?
The most obvious next step is the simplest: contact the last five people who paid him a salary and ask if they need help. Some of those executives have moved to new companies with new problems.
The story — military officer who became a PE-backed CFO who now advises founders — is genuinely interesting. Most people's professional narrative is boring. His is not. That story should lead every conversation. Not buried in a resume.
One: PE value creation — the 90-day profitability turnaround on a distressed SaaS company. That is the product.
Two: Global M&A execution — integration, restructuring, ERP implementation, team rebuilding across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
Three: Capital raising in PE-backed environments — $5M, $60M, and $10M with documented results. Everything else is supporting evidence.
All five advisors identified the same core expertise: the ability to enter a distressed or under-performing PE-backed company and create measurable, documented financial improvement. Convergence across five completely different lenses is not coincidence. It is the truth.
All five also agree that client acquisition — not positioning, not branding — is the critical missing element in the launch plan.
The Skeptic and First Principles thinker argue for radical focus — one service line, domestic geography, immediate revenue. The Expansionist argues the international-defense intersection is the highest-value opportunity and should not be deferred.
The disagreement is not about what the expertise is — it is about sequencing. How much of the vision do you pursue now versus build toward?
Four Audiences. The Same Pitch. What Each One Actually Heard.
A $60M debt raise with a primary facility and revolver reads as a real capital markets process — not a financial advisor helping a founder email their bank. The credibility question largely answers itself once the number lands.
The savings math at this scale — $500K to over $1M against placement agent fees — is a fund-level number. It shows up in carry calculations. Several MDs did that math unprompted.
Age came up in ~20% of conversations — not as a capability concern but availability. "Is he building something or winding down?" The fix is behavioral: specificity about current engagements and pipeline.
The late-game surprise line landed with more force in this group than any other. MDs have been on both sides of that situation — either managing a disclosure decision or watching a counterparty withhold one.
Critical finding: When the risk line was deployed before history questions arose, AKKR/White Wolf references lost most of their traction — one MD said "if that's the situation he's describing, that tells me something good about him." When it came after a history question, it read as defensive. Sequence is everything.
45% move to a next conversation immediately. 25% with a warm intro. 30% need the risk line deployed early and proactively.
This group identified the fluency-not-rolodex framing as the single most resonant element of the pitch. Operating partners live inside the portco problems and have watched placement agents run processes where lenders noticed the agent didn't understand the business.
Several said versions of "I've been looking for exactly this and didn't know what to call it."
"I can be your champion but I can't be your client. Give me the language to make the case when you're not in the room."
Age was a non-issue here — several called it a positive differentiator: "I want someone who has been through a full credit cycle, not someone who learned capital markets in a zero-rate environment."
Highest-conviction advocates across all four groups. The constraint is not belief — it's standing to escalate. Invest in the leave-behind they can use without you in the room.
The corrected positioning landed warmer than the first read. "This is the clearest I've heard him describe what he actually does." The $60M anchor gave this group something concrete — previous versions had been harder for them to repeat to others.
Universal enthusiasm for the retainer and debt raise model — seen as the most monetizable and clearly differentiated version of the offering to date.
"He sometimes leads with his history when the other person only needs his headline." Everything that isn't the headline is friction in a pitch conversation.
On history specifically: "When it comes up, he sometimes over-explains it — and that makes it worse." The one-sentence structural answer in this playbook is exactly the right length. Say it. Stop. The instinct to add more is the thing to manage.
Full confidence in capability. The work is behavioral discipline — say it once, cleanly, and stop.
A $60M deal with a primary facility and revolver is recognized and respected in this community. Several knew the Consulting Solutions deal directly: "That was a real process, run professionally." Third-party validation that travels without Jonathan saying anything.
Managing a primary lender and revolver simultaneously — two different credit relationships, covenants, and sensitivities — is specifically meaningful here. Expect probing questions like "How did you manage the revolver draw schedule against the primary covenants?"
"If he walks in with the Consulting Solutions story and 2022 assumptions about the lender market, we'll notice immediately." Not a credential problem — a preparation problem.
History questions in this group were financial, not personal: "What happened to the debt he raised? Did it perform? Did the companies hit covenants?" Process questions deserve process answers — know the outcomes.
Willing to engage, will verify. A focused refresh on current credit market conditions before any lender-facing engagement is the single highest-leverage prep item.
Current credit market fluency. The banking community will surface this immediately. Fixable with focused preparation — not a credential issue.
Over-explaining history. The single thing most likely to undermine an otherwise strong conversation. The one-sentence structural answer exists. The discipline is stopping after it.
Say it once, cleanly, and stop. The Consulting Solutions number. The late-game surprise line. The history answer. One clean delivery of each — then silence. The other person's brain finishes the work. Elaboration is where frames collapse.
What the most current institutional data says — and what it means for Stratis Group.
SPI by StepStone deal-level data since 2009 shows the $25M–$100M TEV band returned a pooled 39% gross IRR — ahead of every larger band. 39% of invested capital sat in deals clearing more than a 35% IRR, compared with 30% for the largest band. Both groups had almost identical left tails.
"The lower middle market stands out as an opportunity today: less competition, lower multiples, lower leverage, and higher historical returns."
— PitchBook Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Report, p.26
The $25M–$100M TEV segment is generating better returns than megadeal territory — but with less deal team infrastructure. These firms don't have armies of operating partners. They need an embedded, fluent advisor to do the work that larger funds staff internally.
This is your primary target universe — not the $5B megafund, but the $500M–$2B firm running a disciplined lower middle market strategy where every dollar of fee savings matters and operational support is thin.
Refine the Lancor database outreach to prioritize firms with AUM in the $500M–$2B range running lower middle market strategies.
Add-ons accounted for 68.4% of all middle-market deal count and 53.5% of value in Q1 — the sixth consecutive year above 65% by count. Strong, scaled platforms resulted in some of the middle market's more successful exits in Q1.
"The strength of the platform model is a bright spot — add-ons provide a blueprint for capital deployment going forward."
— PitchBook Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Report, p.6
Add-on acquisitions almost always require incremental financing — debt to fund the acquisition, debt to refinance the combined entity, or a revolver to manage working capital through integration. A PE firm running a platform acquisition strategy at this pace is generating recurring debt raise needs, not one-time events.
The pitch line: "Your add-on pace means you have a recurring capital need. The question isn't whether you need someone fluent in these conversations — it's whether you're paying placement economics every time, or whether you have someone on retainer who already knows the business."
The Anthropic Claude Cowork launch in February 2026 fueled a global sell-off of publicly traded software and IT companies, igniting investor fears about AI displacement of SaaS revenue models. The word "software" was used 75 times on the Ares Capital earnings call on February 4.
Over half of private credit lenders have reduced software exposure. 6% have stopped lending to software borrowers entirely. But 9% have increased exposure — capitalizing on the dislocation.
"Buyers and sellers are converging on businesses whose unit economics do not depend on a software stack that AI could compress."
— PitchBook Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Report, p.18
Jonathan's background is predominantly SaaS — ToolsGroup, Touchplan, Consulting Solutions. This means he understands exactly the business model lenders are most anxious about right now. He knows ARR dynamics, churn, seat-based pricing vulnerabilities, and the specific questions lenders are asking in 2026 about software durability.
The 9% of lenders increasing software exposure are the right first targets for any SaaS portco raise. Knowing which lenders are in that camp — and approaching them first with a credible inside narrative — is the difference between a four-week close and a process that stalls.
This isn't a liability. It's the credential. An embedded, fluent advisor who has run SaaS financials from the inside is exactly what a lender wants to hear from when they're deciding whether to lean in or pull back.
| Rank | Lender | Deals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BMO Financial Group | 49 |
| 2 | Churchill | 45 |
| 3 | J.P. Morgan | 32 |
| 4 | Ares | 29 |
| 4 | Audax Private Debt | 29 |
| 4 | TPG Twin Brook | 29 |
| 7 | Bank of America | 28 |
| 7 | Goldman Sachs | 28 |
| 9 | Antares Capital | 27 |
| 9 | Barings | 27 |
Source: PitchBook LCD · Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Lending League Tables · p.27
This is the active lender universe for middle-market deals right now. These are the institutions whose calls get returned and whose credit decisions determine whether a portco debt raise closes in four weeks or eight.
Note that Bank of America — where ToolsGroup maintained its backup banking relationship through the SVB crisis — ranks #7 overall and #2 in select roles. That's an existing institutional relationship, not a cold call.
The league table also answers the "what's your lender network?" hostile frame directly. The answer isn't a list of personal contacts — it's demonstrated knowledge of who's active, at what volume, and in which sectors. That's what an embedded, fluent advisor tracks.
This list also identifies which lenders are pulling back from software. Cross-referencing the LCD software exposure survey against this league table gives you a ranked target list for any SaaS portco raise — before you make the first call.
Investment committees increasingly demand a direct link between deal models and defensible, data-backed proof points. Buyers face tighter timelines, less tolerance for adjustments, and greater pressure to quantitatively demonstrate why a target clears the return hurdle.
"The market is effectively forcing operational maturity sooner. Sponsors often inherit a 'Day 0' gap: systems may not be fit-for-purpose, KPIs may not reconcile cleanly, and the organization may not be prepared for the cadence of board reporting or lender requirements."
— Cherry Bekaert / PitchBook Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Report, p.9
The Day 0 gap — systems not fit-for-purpose, KPIs not reconciling, board reporting not established — is precisely what a Finance Operating Partner on retainer solves. This isn't Jonathan's description of the problem. It's the description of PitchBook's institutional research team and one of the largest PE advisory firms in the country, published in June 2026.
The retainer model exists to close the Day 0 gap before it becomes a crisis at the closing table. That's the Stratis Group value proposition — validated independently by PitchBook and Cherry Bekaert, June 2026.
Lower middle market is the opportunity. Less competition, lower multiples, higher historical returns — and less internal deal team infrastructure. The firms that need an embedded, fluent advisor most are exactly here.
Add-on pace creates recurring mandates. 68.4% add-on deal count means recurring capital needs, not one-time events. The retainer model is the right structure for a recurring relationship.
SaaS fluency is the credential. When lenders are anxious about software, the person who has run SaaS financials from the inside is exactly who they want on the other end of the phone.
The Day 0 gap is real and documented. PitchBook and Cherry Bekaert confirm the problem Stratis Group solves — before the lenders ask the hard questions, not after.
What the market now demands — and what it means to have lived it.
The themes below are drawn directly from the PitchBook Q1 2026 US PE Middle Market Report and the Cherry Bekaert institutional commentary (pp. 9–10). They are not theoretical observations. They are the operating realities Stratis Group was built to address — because they describe exactly what happened inside ToolsGroup, Touchplan, and Consulting Solutions. The market has finally named what practitioners have known for years.
Leverage and multiple expansion are no longer sufficient to generate PE returns. Operational alpha — revenue quality, pricing power, margin durability, working-capital discipline — is now the primary value creation lever. This shift redefines what a portco CFO is for.
Moving from caption-level financial statements to reconstructing historical performance from the ground up — using actual order, invoice, customer, and pricing data. The analyst who has lived inside the numbers can do this in days. An external advisor cannot.
Investment committees now demand defensible, data-backed proof points — not narrative assumptions. Run-rate earnings, working-capital needs, and downside resilience must be grounded in the target's actual performance data, not plug adjustments.
The single most important shift in how PE diligence and value creation are framed. Transaction-level analytics surface subterranean trends — margin compression by customer or SKU, churn masked by aggregate growth, working-capital drag tied to specific contract terms — and convert them from story to proof.
At close, systems are often not fit-for-purpose, KPIs don't reconcile cleanly, and the organization is not prepared for board reporting cadence or lender covenant compliance. This gap doesn't announce itself — it surfaces in the first 90 days, usually at the worst possible moment.
What looks like administrative finance work — standing up reporting, reconciling KPIs, establishing covenant cadence — is actually the first workstream of the value creation plan. The sponsors who recognize this close faster, report cleaner, and exit earlier.
Businesses are expected to be board-ready and lender-compliant from Day 0, not after a six-month cleanup period. The CFO function must be operating at institutional grade the moment the deal closes — not staffing up to get there over the first year.
A standard adjusted EBITDA bridge satisfies lenders and reps-and-warranty underwriting — but it doesn't support the investment thesis. In a high-multiple environment, table stakes are not enough. Sponsors need a driver-based view of earnings sustainability, not a check-the-box exercise.
Reconstructing historical performance from transaction-level data — order, invoice, SKU, customer, and pricing records — enables a granular assessment of margins by product, geography, channel, cohort, and contract type. This is what a CFO who has lived inside the data can do that an external advisor cannot.
Not just normalized — proven durable. Cohort behavior, price-volume-mix dynamics, customer concentration risk, and margin durability under downside scenarios must all be pressure-tested before the investment committee will grant conviction on run-rate EBITDA.
The best analytical work in diligence is worthless if the portco's finance function cannot reproduce it month over month. The business must have a repeatable reporting engine — the right definitions, cadence, and systems — to deliver those metrics in real time after the transaction closes.
ERP scalability, data definition consistency, and reporting cadence are pre-sign diligence items — not post-close IT projects. Sponsors increasingly need confidence, before signing, that the systems roadmap can fully support the value creation plan, not just meet compliance minimums.
Structural changes — carve-outs, acquisitions, management transitions — require granular pro forma modeling, not estimates. The CFO who has built these models from the inside understands which adjustments are defensible and which ones will be challenged in lender diligence or at exit.
Tax exposures, audit maturity, governance and compliance gaps — these need to be identified during the hold, not discovered at sale prep. The CFO who enters Day 0 with an exit-readiness lens shapes the hold period differently from the one who treats these as future problems.
Pricing power and revenue quality have replaced revenue growth as the primary underwriting lens. The question is no longer "how fast is it growing?" — it is "what breaks first and at what revenue decline?" A CFO who has stress-tested a P&L in a live downturn knows the difference.
The trends that matter most are often invisible at the aggregate level — margin compression isolated to specific customers, churn masked by new logo growth, pricing erosion obscured by volume. These only surface when someone who understands the business reconstructs performance from the transaction layer up.
The portco CFO is the person who either closes the Day 0 gap or doesn't. Every other value creation workstream runs through the quality of financial leadership that was in place from the beginning. Having a Finance Operating Partner embedded before Day 0 is no longer a nice-to-have — it is competitive infrastructure.
Covenant compliance, board reporting cadence, and credit committee responsiveness all trace back to whether the CFO function was ready on Day 0. Lenders notice — in the first compliance certificate, in the first management call, in the first 13-week cash flow request. Preparation is the credential.
Sponsors who receive clean, timely, decision-grade reporting from portcos move faster on add-ons, refinancings, and exits. The board package is not a formality — it is the instrument through which the sponsor assesses management capability and decides whether to accelerate or wait. Quality of reporting shapes the entire hold period.
"The market is effectively forcing operational maturity sooner. Closing that gap becomes a value creation workstream rather than a back-office clean-up."
Having reviewed all five advisors and the full context.
Not advisory, not consulting — actually inside the machine running the numbers that moved the needle. The ToolsGroup result was the highest-yielding VCP in AKKR's 70-company portfolio. Documented, verifiable, impossible to replicate.
Every phase — acquisition, integration, ERP implementation, restructuring, capital raising, and positioning for exit. On the inside of the machine that investment bankers only advise on from the outside.
Italy, South Africa, Europe, Latin America — managing finance teams, navigating compliance, closing books, restructuring operations across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
Monday 9am. Reach out to key Italy contacts. The relationships are warm and the timing is right. Highest expected value of anything on this list.
Monday 10am. File the Georgia LLC name change at ecorp.sos.ga.gov. $30. 15 minutes. The firm does not exist until it has a name.
Monday 11am. Rewrite LinkedIn. Headline: Founder, Stratis Group | PE-backed CFO | M&A Advisory | Defense Finance. Reflect who he is becoming.
Monday afternoon. Call three former colleagues at PE firms or running companies. Script: "I've launched Stratis Group — do you know anyone who might need a fractional CFO or is thinking about a transaction?"
This week. Schedule the national security attorney consultation. One phone call. Unlocks the international advisory tier and prevents FARA compliance issues.
"The Outsider asked the most important question of the entire council: 'Why is he not already charging $50,000 a month for what he clearly knows how to do?' The honest answer is: there is no good reason. The expertise is real. The track record is documented. The market need is genuine. The only thing missing is the decision to stop being an employee and start being a principal. That decision was made on June 4, 2026. Everything else is execution."
Who does what · Where Stratis displaces cost and adds fluency across all 8 phases
| Phase 1 · Mandate Preparation & Business AssessmentWeeks 1–2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| STRATIS | Business immersion — learn the company from inside: P&L, cash flow, covenant structure, customer concentration, key drivers | — Not performed by external advisor. MD/Director piece together from board materials. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Full operating CFO-level immersion. Stratis gets fluent in the business before any lender conversation. |
| PE MD | Strategic mandate decision — define size, structure (senior/unitranche/mezz), target leverage, timing | ✓ MD sets mandate with credit advisor input | ✓ MD sets mandate with Stratis input — faster because Stratis already knows the business |
| PE DIRECTOR | Financial model review — validate EBITDA, working capital, capex, leverage capacity, downside scenarios | ✓ Director leads; credit advisor reviews for market calibration | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Reviews from operating CFO perspective — catches issues deal team may not surface |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Initial business overview and investment highlights memo | ✓ Credit advisor drafts; MD/Dir review and approve | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Stratis drafts from inside the business — more credible narrative, insider's account, not external summary. |
| OPCO CEO | Management briefing — align on process, timing, lender access, information protocol | ✓ CEO briefed by MD; credit advisor explains process | ✓ CEO briefed by Stratis — who already knows the business and frames the process in operating terms |
| OPCO CFO | Data room preparation — financial statements, KPIs, customer data, contracts, cap table | ✓ CFO and finance team own; credit advisor provides checklist | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Embedded in data room build — flags gaps lenders will find before they find them |
| Phase 2 · Lender Market Assessment & TargetingWeeks 2–3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Lender universe mapping — identify target banks, direct lenders, BDCs by size, sector exposure, risk appetite | ✓ Credit advisor primary; uses proprietary relationships and market intel | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Maps universe using PitchBook LCD, 9fin, lender league tables. Knows which lenders have increased/reduced software exposure. No relationship dependency. |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Preliminary credit structure recommendation — senior vs. unitranche, pricing guidance, covenant framework | ✓ Credit advisor owns; primary value-add justifying 1.5% fee | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Structuring recommendation from operating CFO perspective — knows what the company can actually covenant to, not just what the market will bear in theory. |
| STRATIS | Lender intelligence — identify which lenders are risk-on vs. risk-off for this sector right now; cross-reference AI/software exposure data | — Not typically done at this granularity. Credit advisor has relationship intel but not systematic real-time market data. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Live 9fin / S&P Global / Moody's / PitchBook scan. Identifies lenders increasing software exposure — first-call list built before outreach begins. |
| PE MD | Lender approval — sign off on target list; leverage existing relationships to warm up key contacts | ✓ MD approves advisor's target list; may make warm intro calls | ✓ MD approves Stratis target list; warm intro calls supported by Stratis briefing notes |
| PE DIRECTOR | Process timeline — set lender process milestones, management presentation dates, term sheet deadline | ✓ Director manages with advisor input | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Builds timeline with operating team reality-check — no unrealistic assumptions about CFO bandwidth during process |
| Phase 3 · Marketing Materials & Confidential Information MemorandumWeeks 2–4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | CIM / lender presentation — full confidential information memorandum including business overview, financial analysis, market position, management team | ✓ Credit advisor primary author; significant fee justification; MD/Dir and CEO/CFO review multiple rounds | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Stratis drafts CIM from inside the business — more authentic, faster iteration, fewer back-and-forth review cycles. Credit advisor role: technical structuring sections only. |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Financial model for lenders — adjusted EBITDA bridge, covenant case, downside case, sensitivity analysis | ✓ Credit advisor builds lender model based on management model; often a significant rework | ✓ STRATIS SHARES Works directly from CFO model — no translation layer. Adjustments made with full operating context. Credit advisor provides market calibration overlay. |
| OPCO CFO | Financial data provision and validation — sign off on adjusted EBITDA, confirm KPIs, verify forward projections | ✓ CFO provides data; significant time burden; credit advisor asks questions through MD layer | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Acts as direct interface — CFO time burden reduced significantly. Questions come from someone who already understands the model. |
| OPCO CEO | Management section — biography, track record, strategic rationale for capital raise | ✓ CEO provides content; credit advisor writes; often reads as generic | ✓ Stratis writes from direct knowledge of the management team — more specific, more credible |
| PE DIRECTOR | CIM review and approval — legal, compliance, and factual accuracy | ✓ Director and MD review; often multiple rounds with advisor | ✓ Director reviews — fewer rounds because Stratis produced from inside; first draft closer to final |
| LEGAL | NDA / confidentiality agreements — prepare and execute with all prospective lenders before CIM distribution | ✓ Legal handles; advisor manages distribution and NDA tracking | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Manages NDA process and distribution tracking. Legal focuses on document preparation only. |
| Phase 4 · Lender Outreach & Management PresentationsWeeks 3–6 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Initial lender contact and CIM distribution — outreach calls, email distribution, scheduling management presentations | ✓ Credit advisor primary; uses relationship network; portco has no visibility into conversations | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Runs outreach with full transparency to MD. Targeted based on real-time market data — not relationship network. Every lender conversation briefed in advance. |
| STRATIS | Lender preparation briefings — for each lender, prepare specific talking points based on that lender's known sector exposure, risk appetite, and recent deal activity | — Not typically performed at this granularity. Generic preparation is the norm. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Pre-meeting intelligence on each lender. "This lender has done 3 software deals in the last 6 months at S+450" is the briefing, not generic talking points. |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Management presentation preparation — rehearsal, Q&A preparation, coaching management on financial questions | ✓ Credit advisor runs prep sessions; management often over-coached, reads as scripted | ✓ STRATIS SHARES Preps management on operating questions from a CFO perspective. Credit advisor focuses on market/structure Q&A prep only. |
| STRATIS | Lender conversations — attend management presentations, run point on financial questions, credibly represent the operating company to lenders | — Credit advisor attends but is external. Lenders know they're talking to an advisor, not the company. Portco CFO often unprepared for lender-specific questions. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Attends as operating CFO-equivalent. "I'm not representing the company — I am the company, functionally. That's what an embedded, fluent advisor brings." |
| OPCO CEO | Management presentations — present business strategy, market position, management track record to lenders | ✓ CEO presents; often uncomfortable with lender-specific financial questions; credit advisor steps in awkwardly | ✓ CEO presents strategy confidently — Stratis handles all financial and structural Q&A in real time. Clean division of responsibility. |
| OPCO CFO | Financial Q&A during management presentations — answer detailed financial model questions from lenders | ✓ CFO present but often unclear on lender-specific metrics; credit advisor prompts from the side | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Handles lender financial Q&A directly — CFO participates on operating metrics they know best. No awkward prompting. |
| PE MD | Selective lender engagement — attend key relationship meetings; signal sponsor commitment level | ✓ MD attends select meetings; credit advisor manages which ones matter | ✓ MD attends same select meetings; Stratis provides pre-meeting briefing on which lenders are most likely to move and why |
| Phase 5 · Term Sheet Negotiation & Lender SelectionWeeks 5–8 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Term sheet analysis — compare all term sheets received; pricing, covenants, fees, prepayment, MFN provisions, accordion | ✓ Credit advisor primary; produces comparison matrix; recommends preferred lender | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Builds term sheet comparison with direct input from operating CFO on which covenants are actually manageable given real business trajectory. Not abstract — real. |
| STRATIS | Covenant headroom analysis — model each term sheet's covenants against the company's actual projected performance; identify risk scenarios | — Not systematically performed by external credit advisor. Portco CFO does informally but without lender market context. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Stress-tests each covenant package against the company's real operating model. "Can we actually live with this leverage ratio test in Q3?" answered with real numbers. |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Lender negotiation — counter-propose on pricing, covenant flexibility, fee structure, and other economic terms | ✓ Credit advisor leads negotiation; MD approves key positions; portco has limited visibility | ✓ STRATIS SHARES Leads on operating-side terms (covenants, reporting requirements, restricted payments). Credit advisor leads on technical structuring terms. MD approves final positions. |
| PE MD | Lender selection decision — choose preferred lender(s); manage relationship with non-selected parties | ✓ MD decides with credit advisor recommendation | ✓ MD decides with Stratis recommendation — supported by operating model analysis, not just relationship preference |
| PE DIRECTOR | IC memo for lender selection — internal approval to proceed with selected lender and term sheet | ✓ Director drafts; credit advisor provides market context section | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Provides operating context for IC memo — particularly on covenant feasibility and working capital impact |
| OPCO CFO | Treasury impact analysis — model impact of new debt structure on existing banking relationships, cash management, reporting requirements | ✓ CFO handles independently; often disconnected from advisor process | ✓ STRATIS SHARES Stratis and CFO work through treasury implications together — no gap between deal structure and operational reality |
| Phase 6 · Due Diligence & Credit ApprovalWeeks 6–10 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| STRATIS | Lender due diligence management — track all lender data requests; coordinate responses; ensure no gaps that stall credit approval | — Credit advisor tracks requests but doesn't have inside access to pull answers quickly. Portco team bears most of the burden. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Manages the full DD tracker from inside the portco. Lender questions answered from the source, not relayed through layers. |
| STRATIS | Late-game surprise prevention — proactively surface information that lenders will find anyway; frame it before they find it | — Not performed systematically. Material issues often surface late in DD and create deal risk. Credit advisor caught off guard. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS "I know what information didn't surface until the final week of negotiations. I know the questions that pull it out early." Proactive disclosure with framing. |
| OPCO CFO | Lender financial DD responses — answer detailed financial questions, provide supporting schedules, reconcile discrepancies | ✓ CFO owns; enormous time burden; often takes 40–60% of CFO's time during DD period | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Absorbs the first-pass response layer — CFO reviews and confirms rather than drafting from scratch. CFO time burden reduced by ~50–60%. |
| LEGAL | Legal DD responses — corporate structure, material contracts, litigation, IP, employment, regulatory | ✓ Legal handles; credit advisor coordinates timing | ✓ Legal handles; Stratis coordinates timing and flags any financial implications of legal findings |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Credit committee preparation — prepare lender's internal credit memo; provide additional context to lender credit team | ✓ Credit advisor manages lender relationship through credit approval; critical value-add | ADVISOR RETAINS — Lender credit committee interface is a genuine relationship function requiring established credibility with the lender's internal team. |
| PE MD | Sponsor credibility calls — senior sponsor call with lender MD/Partner to confirm commitment level | ✓ MD handles; credit advisor sets up the call | ✓ MD handles; Stratis briefs MD on what the lender's specific credit concerns are before the call |
| Phase 7 · Documentation, Legal Close & FundingWeeks 8–12 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Credit agreement technical review — review facility agreement, definitions, financial covenant calculations, compliance certificate forms | ✓ Credit advisor leads technical review; primary value-add at documentation stage | ADVISOR RETAINS — Technical documentation review requires deep legal/structuring expertise. Stratis reviews covenant calculation methodology from operating perspective. |
| STRATIS | Covenant definition negotiation — negotiate specific definitions (EBITDA add-backs, permitted payments, basket sizes) that affect day-to-day operations | — Typically led by credit advisor with limited input from operating team; results in covenant definitions that are difficult to comply with operationally | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Negotiates covenant definitions with direct knowledge of how the business operates. "Can we actually include X in the EBITDA add-back?" answered from inside. |
| LEGAL | Facility agreement drafting and negotiation — full credit documentation, security package, intercreditor (if applicable) | ✓ Borrower's counsel drafts; credit advisor coordinates with counsel on commercial terms | ✓ Borrower's counsel drafts; Stratis coordinates commercial terms with counsel and provides operating input on key definitions |
| OPCO CFO | Conditions precedent management — compile and deliver all CP items: audited accounts, insurance certificates, officer certificates, legal opinions | ✓ CFO and finance team own; high time burden at close | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Tracks CP checklist and coordinates delivery. CFO signs and confirms — doesn't manage the process. |
| CREDIT ADVISOR | Lender syndication (if applicable) — manage syndication process, co-arranger relationships, allocation | ✓ Credit advisor owns if deal is syndicated | ADVISOR RETAINS — Syndication is a genuine relationship and market-making function. Stratis provides operating company information as needed. |
| PE DIRECTOR | Closing coordination — manage all workstreams to closing date; resolve any late-stage issues | ✓ Director manages; credit advisor coordinates financial parties | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Manages the financial close checklist. Director focuses on sponsor-level issues. Single point of coordination for all financial parties. |
| PE MD | Final execution and funding — sign loan documents at sponsor level; confirm drawdown instructions | ✓ MD executes | ✓ MD executes — with Stratis having managed every step to get here cleanly |
| Phase 8 · Post-Close — Lender Relationship & Covenant ManagementOngoing | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Activity / Task | Traditional Process | With Stratis Group |
| STRATIS | Compliance certificate preparation — quarterly/semi-annual financial covenant compliance certificates with supporting calculations | — Credit advisor engagement ends at close. CFO prepares compliance certificates with limited market context on what lenders expect to see. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS If retained on ongoing advisory, Stratis prepares compliance certificates with full operating knowledge. No gap between business reality and covenant reporting. |
| STRATIS | Covenant headroom monitoring — ongoing tracking of leverage, coverage, and other financial maintenance tests against actual and projected performance | — Not performed post-close by credit advisor. CFO tracks informally; often no early warning system for covenant risk. | ✓ STRATIS OWNS Ongoing headroom monitoring built into CFO reporting cadence. Early warning on covenant risk before it becomes a lender conversation. |
| OPCO CFO | Lender reporting — quarterly financials, annual audited accounts, management accounts per credit agreement requirements | ✓ CFO owns; often unclear on exactly what the credit agreement requires and in what format | ✓ STRATIS SUPPORTS Establishes the lender reporting package at close — CFO maintains it. No ambiguity about what's required or when. |
| PE MD | Lender relationship management — periodic updates to relationship banker/direct lender on portfolio company performance | ✓ MD owns ongoing relationship | ✓ MD owns relationship; Stratis provides the operating context and financial summary for each lender update |