Operator
Understanding of assets, economics, and execution — the muscle that converts a strategy into compounding results.
The Firm
A boutique advisory for consequential decisions.
23.5 Strategies advises leaders, owners, and investors at the intersection of strategy, capital, operations, and transformation.
$0B+Transaction advisory and execution
$0MM+Growth value unlocked
0 yearsGlobal operating and advisory experience
Fortune 0-testedStrategy, commercial, communications, and execution judgment
Proof — Substantiated
What the headlines actually represent.
Numbers without shape are marketing. Each headline below sits on a paragraph that names the work it draws on — the engagement types, markets, and operating contexts that earn the claim, without disclosing the client behind it.
$7B+
Transaction advisory and execution
Buy-side and sell-side advisory, corporate carve-outs, joint-venture structures, and capital raises across energy, fuels and distribution, industrial services, infrastructure, and capital-intensive platforms.
$150MM+
Growth value unlocked
EBITDA and enterprise value uplift across operating and advisory roles — phased value-creation programs, commercial optimization, working-capital and reliability programs, and post-close 100-day execution.
20 years
Global operating and advisory experience
P&L ownership, commercial leadership, corporate strategy, corporate development, and senior advisory across the energy value chain, capital markets, and complex physical platforms.
Fortune 100-tested
Strategy, commercial, communications, and execution judgment
Engagements reporting into Fortune 100 leadership teams, boards, and capital partners — under the disclosure, governance, and execution standards those organizations require.
Note ·Figures reflect cumulative work product across operating, advisory, and corporate development roles over the firm's 20-year track record. Specific transactions, employers, and client engagements are not disclosed individually out of professional discretion and standing confidentiality obligations. Anonymized illustrations of method and judgment are available in Selected Work.
We help leadership teams move from complexity to clarity, from strategic intent to operating reality, and from decision to disciplined execution.
Brand Promise
Why 23.5
Built for leaders operating in the real world.
Investor
A capital partner's focus on value, timing, and risk — and a clear-eyed view of when judgment matters most.
Strategist
Ability to connect macro forces with practical decisions, sequencing moves that compound rather than just look productive.
Executive Communicator
Counsel built for boards, investors, and senior leadership — discreet, sharp, and ready for the room.
What We Believe
Five working convictions.
- 01
Perspective — seeing around corners, understanding cycles, connecting macro and micro.
- 02
Alignment — strategy, capital, people, systems, and execution moving as one.
- 03
Advantage — turning insight into measurable enterprise value.
- 04
Discipline — avoiding noise, hype, and half-formed strategy; focused action.
- 05
Operator credibility — grounded in how businesses actually run, not just how slides look.
Who We Work With
Five audiences for whom the decision matters.
CEOs and Founders
When the decision matters, 23.5 helps leadership teams see the system, identify the value levers, and act with discipline.
Investors and Private Capital
We help investors understand where value can be created, protected, accelerated, or impaired — and what the operating reality will actually allow.
Corporate Strategy and Commercial Leaders
We connect market insight to commercial action — pricing, segmentation, channel, and operating cadence — without losing strategic perspective.
Boards and Senior Leadership Teams
We help leaders make complex decisions explainable, executable, and defensible — for the board, the team, and the capital partners.
Energy and Industrial Executives
We understand capital-intensive, asset-heavy, stakeholder-sensitive businesses where strategy must survive contact with physical reality.
What Sets the Firm Apart
Concentration over volume.
- Operator-led advisory
- Investor-literate judgment
- Commercial and strategic depth
- Execution orientation
- Cross-functional perspective
- Complex sector expertise
- Discreet senior-level counsel
How the Firm Operates
A senior practice, run as a platform.
The firm is led by Bryan Kaus and supported by a curated bench of senior operators, advisors, and specialists engaged selectively as the work warrants. Engagements are scoped tightly, run by senior practitioners, and oriented around the inflection moments where judgment compounds.
Most mandates are delivered directly by Bryan; for engagements that benefit from specific subject-matter depth — energy operating, fuels and distribution, infrastructure project finance, chemicals and materials, power and grid, or sector specialists — work is run alongside vetted bench partners under tight quality control. The model lets the firm carry institutional weight without the overhead — and lets clients work with the same senior practitioner from first call through close-out.
Open roles and the contractor bench are visible at /careers.
Signature Frameworks
How the firm structures judgment.
The four lenses below are working tools, not marketing artifacts. Each is a way the firm reads complex situations — used inside engagements to surface where value compounds, where capital should move, what to act on, and what to let pass.
They are documented because a boutique firm should be able to say how it thinks, not just what it has done — and because the same lenses, applied with discipline across engagements, are what make the work repeatable.
Framework
The 23.5 Value Lens
Market position, asset quality, operating model, capital discipline, and leadership capacity — read together, not in isolation.
Framework
Angle of Advantage
Where strategy, timing, capability, and capital meet. The diagnostic for finding the tilt that changes the outcome.
Framework
Cycle-to-Action Framework
A structured way to read where the market is, what it means for the business, and what leaders should do next.
Framework
Operator-Investor Diagnostic
A disciplined review of enterprise value creation opportunities through both operator and capital partner eyes.
Frequently Asked
For the briefest of briefings.
- What does 23.5 Strategies do?
- Twenty Three Point Five Strategies is a boutique advisory firm that helps companies, investors, founders, and leadership teams navigate strategy, capital, transactions, commercial performance, and high-stakes execution.
- Who does 23.5 Strategies advise?
- CEOs, founders, boards, private capital sponsors, corporate strategy leaders, commercial leaders, and senior leadership teams — particularly in complex, capital-intensive sectors.
- What sectors does 23.5 Strategies focus on?
- Energy, industrials, chemicals and materials, infrastructure, fuels and logistics and commercial markets, and founder-led and private capital-backed businesses.
- Who founded 23.5 Strategies?
- Bryan Kaus founded the firm to bring integrated operator, capital advisor, and executive counsel judgment to consequential business moments.
- What makes 23.5 Strategies different?
- Operator-led advisory, investor-literate judgment, commercial and strategic depth, execution orientation, and discreet senior-level counsel — concentrated on the decisions that matter rather than the volume of analysis.