Reducing the risk between capital and traction on direct investments.
Most direct investments are lost in the eighteen months between capital deployed and first repeatable revenue. A commercial layer for that period, available before the check and after.
Trusted alongside:
A direct bet at seed or pre-Series A is rarely lost on product.
It is lost in the stretch to first revenue.
The exposure is not where most diligence is looking:
- •Investors back the team and the thesis. Neither tells you whether the company can reach its customers repeatably.
- •The standard response, a senior commercial hire, succeeds less than half the time at this stage.
- •The loss does not appear in early reporting. It appears later, as a markdown on a position the investment committee had reason to believe was performing.
Legal diligence looks at structure. Financial diligence looks at numbers. Product diligence looks at the technology. Commercial readiness is the layer that decides whether the bet survives, and it is the layer most direct investors are not equipped to assess in-house.
Three ways this work reduces risk
They all work together to protect the position from the moment capital is committed.
Before the check
Commercial diligence
An independent commercial read on a company under consideration. The conclusion sits alongside legal and financial diligence. The investment committee uses it to decide whether the commercial thesis the founder is presenting is real or theoretical.
After the check
Commercial activation
Two weeks inside a portfolio company that has been backed but has not yet found a repeatable way to reach customers. The deliverable is a documented commercial plan for the first ninety days. The founder executes against it without further dependency.
Across the portfolio
Portfolio coverage
The engagement is structured so it can be deployed across multiple companies in a direct portfolio without becoming a budgetary conversation. A single failed senior commercial hire costs more than five engagements combined.
Before the check
Commercial diligence
An independent commercial read on a company under consideration. The conclusion sits alongside legal and financial diligence. The investment committee uses it to decide whether the commercial thesis the founder is presenting is real or theoretical.
After the check
Commercial activation
Two weeks inside a portfolio company that has been backed but has not yet found a repeatable way to reach customers. The deliverable is a documented commercial plan for the first ninety days. The founder executes against it without further dependency.
Across the portfolio
Portfolio coverage
The engagement is structured so it can be deployed across multiple companies in a direct portfolio without becoming a budgetary conversation. A single failed senior commercial hire costs more than five engagements combined.
Where this engagement fits
Direct investment activity at seed or pre-Series A, held to the next round or to a markdown. Legal, financial, and product diligence already covered in-house or through trusted external counsel. Commercial readiness identified as the dimension least equipped to assess internally. A preference for a written assessment the investment committee can act on, rather than a retainer, an ongoing dependency, or a deck.
How the work is done
The engagement runs for two weeks. Two formats, depending on when it is deployed.
Before investment
Strategic Sprint
€8,000 · two weeks
An independent commercial read on a company under consideration. The investment committee receives a written conclusion that sits alongside legal and financial diligence and informs the decision to invest.
After investment
Strategic Sprint
€8,000 · two weeks
A commercial plan delivered inside a portfolio company that has been backed but has not yet reached repeatable revenue. The founder receives a documented ninety-day plan to execute against, with weekly milestones the investment committee can hold the company to.
In both formats, the deliverable is a written document the investment committee or the founder can hold, act on, and refer back to. The engagement ends when the document is delivered. There is no retainer and no ongoing dependency.
Results this work has produced
€3M ARR
A pre-Series A SaaS without a repeatable commercial motion. Within twelve months, €3M ARR. The next round followed on stronger terms.
€8M pre-seed
A pre-revenue company in need of a thesis the market could underwrite. The commercial work produced the traction that supported the valuation.
Acquired
Built the commercial function that took the company from early traction through to acquisition by Mesh Group.
Who is behind this work
The zero-to-one stage rewards invention rather than optimization. Senior hires from larger companies are trained to refine systems that already exist. At this stage, nothing exists to refine. The work is to build the commercial function from nothing, while thinking clearly about risk, capital, and the legal structure underneath every decision.
A career in banking law, including years at Barclays and Deutsche Bank, gave me the discipline to assess risk and structure properly. The fifteen years since, building commercial functions inside venture-backed companies, gave me the operator experience to invent what does not yet exist. Both disciplines apply at this stage.
I work as a founder, not as a consultant.