Go to market for the operating partner

Every lever is priced in except the top line.

Cost is cut. The add ons are closed. The multiple is whatever the market says it is. Organic growth is the one lever left, and it is the one nobody installed.

Sound like your portfolio review

We have heard this in a hundred value creation plans.

The holds keep stretching and the clock keeps running.

For buyout funds, holding periods at exit now hover at around seven years, up from an average of five to six years from 2010 to 2021.Bain, 2026

The return math changed underneath you.

In the 2010s a typical PE investment needed only 5 percent annual EBITDA growth to hit a 2.5X multiple on invested capital. Typical deals now require around 10 to 12 percent to reach the same benchmark over five years.Bain, 2026

The margin story is nearly out of room.

In 2025 European exits, EBITDA margin improvement was 51 percent of EBITDA growth, up from 21.5 percent before 2023, while the top line contribution fell from 78.5 percent to 49 percent.Alvarez & Marsal, 2026

The value creation plan is not landing.

65 percent of surveyed PE fund investors and C level executives achieved less than half the targeted value from plans developed in the past two years.Alvarez & Marsal, 2026

Every firm has the same answer, and the answer is operations.

72 percent of respondents ranked operational improvements as the top value creation lever. When everyone pivots to the same lever, operational excellence becomes table stakes, not an edge.S&P Global Market Intelligence, 2026

What you are weighing, and why it stalls

Every lever you can pull has the same crack.

Cut more cost

Take another pass at the cost base.

But margin already carries 51 percent of EBITDA growth at exit. There is not another 51 percent hiding in there.

Buy another add on

Grow through M&A instead of organically.

But an add on buys revenue, it does not build the engine that produces revenue. A buyer’s diligence prices that difference.

Hire a CRO into the portco

One senior seat to own growth.

But that hire inherits the same broken motion, and the ramp costs a year you do not have in year five of a seven year hold.

An agency per company

Let each portco retain its own shop.

But you get a different motion in every company, a different definition of pipeline, and nothing the investment committee can compare.

Wait for the window

Hold, and time the exit market.

But 32,000 unsold companies worth $3.8 trillion are waiting in line with you, and distributions have sat below 15 percent of NAV for four straight years.

Same crack, every lever: no organic growth engine underneath it. Each one buys time, never top line.

Top line, on purpose

The one lever a buyer has not already priced in.

How the GTM OS answers it, for you

One system, installed company by company.

One OS per portco

The same go to market operating system goes into each company, so growth stops depending on which management team happened to figure it out.

Your dormant pipeline, worked

Signal Activated Growth reactivates the dormant relationships each company already owns. It is the fastest top line available without new spend.

Reporting the IC can read

One definition of pipeline and one scoreboard across the portfolio, so you can compare company to company at board level instead of by anecdote.

A repeatable install

Standard install, standard first 100 days, standard reporting. Company eleven goes live faster than company one, because the OS is the asset.

Proof, from companies like yours

Revenue growth is 54% of value creation. It is also the lever most portfolios never systematize.

54%

of PE value creation comes from revenue growth, against 32% from multiple expansion and 14% from marginGain.pro, 10,000+ investments

167%

more qualified opportunities, for WorkivaRead the Workiva story ↗

network growth in a year, for The Lactation NetworkRead the The Lactation Network story ↗

See the full case studies →

Why now

12 is the new 5. Margin cannot cover that gap.

The return hurdle roughly doubled while holds got longer and the exit queue got deeper.

12%

average annual EBITDA growth now needed for a 2.5X return over five years, where 5% did it in the 2010sBain · 2026

40%

of all companies are now held longer than five years, up from 29% in 2019Bain · 2026

14%

distributions to LPs as a share of NAV in 2025, a fourth straight year below 15%Bain · 2026

The case, in the research

The receipts, not our opinion.

Five findings that explain why the exit math got harder, why margin ran out of room, and why the top line is the lever left.

Bain & Company · 202612 is the new 5. Deals now need around 10% to 12% annual EBITDA growth for a 2.5X return, and 32,000 unsold companies worth $3.8 trillion are waiting for an exit.Read ↗ Gain.pro · 2025Across 10,000+ global PE investments, revenue growth drove 54% of value creation, multiple expansion 32%, and margin improvement 14%.Read ↗ Alvarez & Marsal · 2026In 2025 European exits margin improvement was 51% of EBITDA growth, up from 21.5%, while top line contribution fell to 49%. 65% hit less than half their targeted value.Read ↗ S&P Global Market Intelligence · 2026Operational improvements ranked as the top value creation lever at 72%, as managers pivot away from financial engineering.Read ↗ McKinsey · 202552% of buyout backed inventory has been held more than four years, the highest share on record, across 16,000+ companies.Read ↗

Questions operating partners ask us

Straight answers, with the data.

Why is 12 the new 5, and why does that change my job?

Because leverage and multiple expansion no longer do the work. Bain’s math is blunt: in the 2010s a typical investment needed only 5% annual EBITDA growth to reach a 2.5X multiple on invested capital, and typical deals now require around 10% to 12% over five years. That is not a cost exercise. Doubling the earnings growth rate means organic revenue has to become a system, not a hope.Bain, 2026

We already have an operating partner bench. What is different here?

Your bench sets the plan. The plan still has to be executed inside each company by people who do not do this for a living. 65% of surveyed PE investors and C level executives achieved less than half the targeted value from plans built in the past two years. We are the install layer: one go to market operating system, dropped into each portco, run weekly, reported the same way everywhere.Alvarez & Marsal, 2026

Is this bespoke per company, or can it actually run across a portfolio?

It runs across a portfolio, and that is the point. Each company gets the same five disciplines and the same definition of pipeline, so the investment committee can compare company to company instead of reading twelve differently shaped decks. The market is already moving this way: 58% of firms now deploy resources in the first 100 days, double the 29% a year earlier. A standard install is what makes 100 days realistic.Alvarez & Marsal, 2026

Where does top line come from in year five of a hold, with no new spend?

From the relationships the company already earned and stopped working. Past customers, closed lost deals, dormant CRM contacts, champions who changed jobs. That is your dormant pipeline. Signal Activated Growth watches those relationships for buying signals and triggers outreach the moment one moves, which is the cheapest and most predictable pipeline in the business because the acquisition cost is already sunk.Mabbly, Relationship Revenue OS

Can we just wait for a better exit window?

You can, but you are waiting in a long line. Bain counts 32,000 unsold companies worth $3.8 trillion, distributions to LPs have sat below 15% of NAV for four consecutive years and were still around 14% in 2025, and holding periods at exit now run about seven years against five to six in the 2010s. Waiting is a decision to fund the hold with time you already do not have. Growing the top line is the only version that improves the eventual price.Bain, 2026

See the top line gap, company by company.

See your growth gap ↗ See the revenue proof ↗ See how the OS runs