For private equity funds, portfolio boards and software CEOs
For private equity funds, portfolio boards and software CEOs
The role
An operating partner sits between the investor and the management team and owns a mandate with a measurable target. Not a report. Not a deck. A number, and responsibility for moving it.
Most advisory work stops at the diagnosis. An operating partner mandate does not. The point of the role is to take direct, time-boxed responsibility for a defined part of the value creation plan, work inside the business alongside the existing management team, and hand back a function that runs without you.
That is a different posture to consulting, and it requires someone who has held the executive role rather than only advised on it. Corinium Advisory is led by Robin Smith, who has owned revenue and operations in software businesses from pre-revenue to more than £200M ARR, across bootstrapped, venture backed, private equity owned and publicly listed ownership models, in the UK, EMEA and the Americas.
Mandates are taken on a single portfolio company or across a portfolio, and are scoped to a defined timeframe. The best outcome is the one where the team no longer needs the mandate.
Scope
Scoped to the value creation plan, not to a standard consulting menu. Most mandates concentrate on two or three of the following.
Getting the shape of the business right for the stage it is at: spans of control, functional boundaries, decision rights, and the management cadence that makes a plan survive contact with a quarter. Growth and contraction both expose the same structural cracks, and both need the same discipline to fix.
The infrastructure that makes performance legible: pipeline definitions that mean the same thing twice, forecast hygiene, a data layer the board can trust, and a tool stack that serves the process rather than replacing it. Usually the fastest route to EBITDA improvement in a business that has grown faster than its systems.
Pricing and packaging, segmentation, sales process, quota and territory design, and the transition beyond founder-led selling. For US headquartered businesses, this extends to standing up and leading a first commercial presence in EMEA, which Robin has done from a Y Combinator startup through to a venture backed scale-up.
Aligning teams, retaining the key people, integrating operations and getting the value creation thesis moving before the honeymoon ends. Robin led due diligence and integration across four acquisitions as Chief Operating Officer of Regnology.
Board packs that surface the real questions, KPI architecture that ties to the investment thesis, and the reporting cadence that keeps investor and management expectations in the same place.
Assessing the team you have against the plan you have signed up to, defining the roles that are genuinely missing, and supporting founders through the move from doing the work to owning the outcome.
Who this is for
You do not need another strategy deck. You need someone who has sat in the chair, run the team and delivered the number.The principle Corinium Advisory is built on.
FAQ
A consultant is accountable for a deliverable. An operating partner is accountable for a result. The mandate carries a measurable target tied to the value creation plan, the work happens inside the business alongside the management team, and success is judged on whether the metric moved, not on whether the report landed.
Most run between three and twelve months, scoped to a defined outcome and timeframe at the start. Shorter interventions are available on a day rate where speed matters more than continuity, and longer standing arrangements suit funds who want operating capability available across a portfolio.
Yes. For funds without a full in-house operating team, a standing mandate provides senior operating capability on demand across several assets, concentrated on whichever company needs it most in a given quarter.
Also from Corinium Advisory
Non-executive director and Chair appointments on the boards of B2B and vertical software companies. Currently available for new UK board roles.
Board rolesBuy side and sell side diligence on software assets for private equity funds, credit funds, lenders and corporate acquirers, plus single expert consultations.
Due diligenceTwenty years scaling B2B SaaS and enterprise software across the UK, EMEA and the Americas. Former Chief Operating Officer of Regnology.
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