Investment & Value Creation
Operator-investor judgment, applied with discipline.
23.5 Strategies advises capital partners — sponsors, family offices, independent sponsors, corporate development teams, lenders, and boards — across the moments where value is created, protected, or impaired. Five lanes of work, run from the operator-investor seat.
Why Capital Partners Engage
The perspective outside the model.
Most diligence is run backwards from the price. The cases that hold up start the other way around — from the operating model, the management team's first 90 days, and what has to be true for the thesis to compound.
23.5 Strategies sits in the operator-investor seat — bringing P&L credibility, investor literacy, and senior advisory judgment to the work that bankers, lawyers, and big-firm consulting cannot or should not own. Engagements are scoped tightly, run by senior operators, and oriented around the inflection moments where judgment compounds.
The five lanes below organize where the firm engages. Each is sized for the way capital partners actually work — read first, decide next, execute deliberately.
Lane 01 · Investment & Value Creation
Investment Lens
An operator-investor read on where value can be created, protected, accelerated, or impaired.
The Problem
Most investment theses are built backwards from price. The cases that hold up start the other way around — from market structure, asset quality, commercial position, capital discipline, and leadership capacity read together as a system. Capital partners need a perspective that respects the model and the operating reality at the same time.
What We Help With
- Read market structure, asset quality, and commercial position as one system
- Pressure-test the value creation path against operating reality
- Identify where margin compounds versus where it is structurally exposed
- Translate macro and policy exposure into capital-decision implications
- Build the investment narrative that boards and lenders can actually defend
Typical Situations
- Fund evaluating a complex industrial, energy, or infrastructure platform
- Family office or independent sponsor sharpening a thesis before committing capital
- Corporate development team preparing a strategic alternatives review
- Portfolio company entering a new operating cycle and the capital partner needs a fresh read
- Lender or board requiring independent operator perspective on a deteriorating asset
Approach
- 01Frame the investment question in the language the capital decision actually demands
- 02Build the system read — market, asset, commercial, capital, leadership — together, not in silos
- 03Identify the two or three variables that actually determine the outcome
- 04Test the thesis against downside, friction, and execution drag
- 05Deliver a defensible narrative — for IC, board, lender, or counter-party
Proof
- — Operator-investor judgment grounded in 20 years of operating and advisory experience
- — Read across energy, fuels, infrastructure, manufacturing, chemicals, and capital-intensive industrials
Lane 02 · Investment & Value Creation
Acquisition Support
From thesis through close — pressure-testing value creation, operational and commercial diligence, integration architecture.
The Problem
Acquisitions break in the gap between the deal model and the operating reality of the asset acquired. The financial diligence is good; the operational, commercial, and management read is where most theses underperform — and that is where senior operator perspective compresses risk before close.
What We Help With
- Sharpen the investment thesis and the value creation path
- Operational, commercial, and management diligence beyond the financial model
- Architect the post-close operating model before it has to perform
- Map carve-out, JV, and integration risks against execution capacity
- Build the 100-day plan that the management team can actually run
Typical Situations
- Sponsor evaluating a complex industrial, fuels, infrastructure, or manufacturing asset
- Corporate considering a carve-out, JV, or strategic combination
- Repeat acquirer with a thesis pattern that is underperforming and needs a sharper read
- Independent sponsor needing operator validation on a thesis to attract LP capital
- Capital partner preparing for a competitive process and needs differentiated diligence
Approach
- 01Read the thesis as the operator and the investor at the same time
- 02Pressure-test the value creation levers against the operating reality
- 03Identify the commercial, customer, and people risks the financial diligence does not surface
- 04Architect the post-close operating model and the 100-day plan
- 05Stay engaged through close and the first operating window if useful
Proof
- — $7B+ in transaction advisory and execution
- — Diligence experience across operator, investor, and corporate seats
Lane 03 · Investment & Value Creation
Operator Partnership
Standing alongside management through the operating window that matters — stabilization, execution, capital event, or transition.
The Problem
Some moments don't call for another consulting engagement. They call for an operator-grade partner who can stand inside the leadership cadence — read what's working, name what isn't, and help the team carry the program forward without taking ownership away from the people who have to live with the outcome.
What We Help With
- Stabilize operations and protect cash through an inflection period
- Execute the value creation plan with operator discipline
- Prepare the business for a capital event — sale, refinance, recapitalization
- Carry the leadership team through a CEO, ownership, or board transition
- Install the operating cadence — KPIs, dashboards, escalation — that survives the engagement
Typical Situations
- Post-close 100-day window where management is intact but the plan needs an operator alongside it
- Capital event preparation where the operating narrative needs sharpening before the room sees it
- CEO transition or new ownership where the cadence is being established
- Stabilization period after an unplanned event — leadership change, market shock, operational failure
- Selective board-level partnership during a multi-year transformation
Approach
- 01Define the operating window — what success looks like, by when, and how it will be measured
- 02Sit inside the leadership cadence as a partner, not in a slide deck as a consultant
- 03Bring operator discipline to the moments that move enterprise value
- 04Install the governance, KPIs, and escalation that outlast the engagement
- 05Step back when the team is running on its own — not before, not later
Proof
- — Fortune 100-tested strategy, commercial, and execution judgment
- — Operator credibility grounded in P&L ownership, not framework theater
Lane 04 · Investment & Value Creation
Diligence
The perimeter outside what bankers and lawyers cover — operational, commercial, and management diligence.
The Problem
Capital decisions fail in the gap between the financial model and the asset's operating reality. The customers, contracts, reliability, supply chain, management capacity, and culture are where most theses underperform — and where investment bankers and lawyers do not, and should not, opine.
What We Help With
- Operational diligence — reliability, throughput, maintenance, supply chain, working capital
- Commercial diligence — customer base, contracts, pricing power, segmentation, churn risk
- Management diligence — capacity, alignment, succession, and key-person concentration
- Operating-model fit — whether the post-close plan is realistic for the team and the asset
- Red flags surfaced early enough to influence price, structure, or walk-away
Typical Situations
- Sponsor in an LOI window needing a faster operator-grade read than a Big 4 commercial diligence will deliver
- Capital partner in advanced diligence who wants senior operator pressure-test on the management team
- Lender or junior capital provider needing an independent operating view
- Re-underwrite of an existing position where the operating story is drifting from the thesis
- Corporate development team in a competitive process where speed and judgment matter more than report volume
Approach
- 01Frame the questions the financial diligence is not designed to answer
- 02Talk to customers, operators, and prior employees where appropriate
- 03Read the operating model the way the future P&L will read it
- 04Surface the two or three issues that actually change the decision — concisely
- 05Deliver findings in the form the IC, board, or lender needs them
Proof
- — Diligence experience across operator, investor, and corporate seats
- — Senior judgment, not staffing leverage — the engagement reads like a co-investor's read
Lane 05 · Investment & Value Creation
Asset Optimization
Reliability, commercial performance, working capital, and operating cadence held together as one program.
The Problem
For asset-heavy businesses, value compounds at the intersection of reliability, commercial discipline, and cash discipline — and erodes at the same intersection when any one of those threads is run as a separate initiative. The work is to hold them together with one operating system, one cadence, and one set of decision rights.
What We Help With
- Reliability and operational excellence — uptime, throughput, maintenance discipline
- Commercial performance — pricing, customer mix, contract structure, margin leakage
- Working capital — AR, AP, inventory, and cash conversion cycle as one program
- Capital allocation discipline — stage-gates, project portfolio, capex governance
- Operating cadence — KPIs, dashboards, escalation, and decision rights
Typical Situations
- Newly acquired industrial, energy, or infrastructure asset entering its first operating cycle
- Mature platform where margin is compressing and the operating model has drifted
- Multi-asset platform needing enterprise standards without losing regional execution
- Pre-sale value-lift program ahead of a capital event
- Recovery program after an operational or commercial event has impaired value
Approach
- 01Diagnose where value is created, captured, and lost across the operating system
- 02Sequence the program — stabilization first, structural improvement next, optionality after
- 03Design the working-capital operating system as one program across AR / AP / inventory
- 04Install governance, KPIs, and a one-page strategic dashboard built to drive decisions
- 05Run the cadence with the leadership team until it owns it without us
Proof
- — $150MM+ in growth value unlocked across operating and advisory roles
- — Phased transformation programs spanning 0–6 months stabilization through multi-year structural moves
How We Engage
Selective, senior, and discreet.
The firm engages selectively. Mandates are scoped tightly, run by senior operators and capital advisors, and oriented around the inflection moments where judgment compounds — capital events, operating resets, leadership transitions, and consequential strategic decisions. Inquiries are treated as confidential.
Engagements
Bring senior judgment to your next consequential capital decision.
The firm engages selectively. If your situation warrants senior counsel, we will respond personally.