Why revenue now carries the return
The growth a deal needs has doubled
In the 2010s, a typical buyout needed 5% a year of EBITDA growth to return 2.5 times its capital over five years. Bain's 2026 report puts that at 10% to 12% today. Cheap debt and rising multiples no longer close the gap.
Cost cuts run out. What is left is revenue: more of the demand the company already pays for, turned into signed contracts. That is a marketing and sales problem, and in most portfolio companies nobody owns it end to end.
The first 100 days
What we do in a portfolio company after close
| Phase | What we do | What the board gets |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 30: find the leak | Follow ten real enquiries from first contact to sold or lost. Count every open quote and who owns it. Time the first reply. Check which sold jobs carry a source. | A one-page map of where signed revenue leaks, in dollars, ranked. |
| Days 31 to 60: fix the handoff | One owner per lead. A reply inside five minutes. A next action and a date on every quote. The source written onto every sold job in the CRM. | More of the demand you already pay for turns into signed revenue. |
| Days 61 to 100: scale what sells | Move budget toward the sources that produce signed revenue, not clicks. Add spend only where the path can carry it. | Growth the board can trace from source to signed contract. |
The order matters. A reply inside five minutes makes every later step bigger, and money spent before the handoff works mostly buys leads that leak. Revenue operations consulting covers the leaks in detail. Lead response time statistics shows what slow replies cost.
Published outcomes
What changed, in rates
| Business | Result | Time frame |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance | 24% lower cost per booked appointment | July to September 2026, at about 12,000 booked appointments a month |
| Home improvement | $2.9M signed in one quarter, up 109% | Best quarter in two years, with every record moved to a new CRM |
| Specialty retail | 26% more enquiries, 36% more organic traffic | January to August, year on year |
Each company is anonymised. The full case studies show the starting point, the work and the evidence.
For the operating partner
The five numbers you should see every Monday
| New enquiries, by source | Is demand holding while spend moves? |
|---|---|
| Median first reply time | Leads reached inside five minutes convert about 8 times better. |
| Open quotes, with owner and date | Quoted revenue nobody chases is the cheapest growth in the company. |
| Signed revenue, by source | The only number that moves EBITDA. |
| Cost per signed job | What each dollar of marketing actually buys. |
If the company cannot produce these from its CRM today, that is the first finding. A buyer at exit will ask for the same numbers, with the evidence behind them.
When we are the wrong call
Who should not hire us
The company already has someone who owns signed revenue and answers for it weekly. The gap is one channel, such as search or paid social. Hire that specialist.
Marketing reports more leads, sales reports a weak quarter, and nobody can show where the money went between the two. The plan above starts there.
Timur runs the diagnosis himself, and the team that builds the system comes with him.
Start here
Send one portfolio company. Get the leak map.
Tell us the company, what it sells and what the board expects this year. Timur replies personally and says plainly whether we are the right fit.
4 questions, about a minute. No cost. Timur replies himself.signed in one quarter, up 109%. Home improvement
lower cost per booked appointment at 12,000+ a month. Health insurance
Sources