Lift Run-Rate EBITDA Before the Sale
Twelve months from exit. Every point of EBITDA matters. This 60-day sprint surfaces the saves a generic OE engagement misses, executes the top three to five inside the window so they land in the trailing twelve months a banker markets, and hands the operating partner a diligence-ready savings narrative a buyer can validate. Fixed fee plus success-based on documented savings.
Pre-Exit Is Different from Mid-Hold
Twelve to eighteen months from exit, the question stops being "how do we transform this business" and starts being "how do we lift run-rate EBITDA before the banker sets the multiple." Different motivation, different decision-maker, different output. The customer is the operating partner — not the portco CEO chasing transformation — and the buyer is a banker-defensible savings number, not a strategy deck.
Generic OE engagements do not fit. They run too long, they identify saves the portco never executes, and they leave the savings narrative as a forward-looking commitment a buyer-side QofE team will discount on first read. The window the trailing twelve months requires is sixty days — not nine months — and the deliverable a banker references is realized savings with GL evidence, not a slide that says "$X identified."
This sprint is the pre-exit-specific answer. Surface the saves, document them to a buyer-side standard, execute the biggest in the window, and hand the operating partner a diligence-ready narrative that lifts the multiple — on the timeline that matters before the sale.
What Sponsors Get
How the Sprint Runs
Sixty days. Discover, quantify, execute, document. Operating partner briefed bi-weekly.
Discover Savings
FinOps lead, automation engineer, and a procurement-savvy contractor go through op-ex line by line. Vendor renegotiation candidates, cloud spend optimization, license consolidation, automation hotspots, and headcount/role rationalization. We surface a long list of saves so the prioritization conversation has weight behind it.
Quantify & Document
Each save scoped, sized, and run-rated — annualized, not one-time. We separate identified-and-actionable from identified-and-noisy, and we draft the diligence narrative as we go so a buyer-side QofE team can validate the math without re-doing the work.
Execute Top 3-5
The biggest, cleanest saves get executed in the window — vendor letters sent and counter-signed, licenses retired, automations live, role changes effective. Realized savings show up in the trailing twelve months that the banker takes to market, not as a "we plan to" footnote in the CIM.
Diligence-Ready Narrative
One-page exhibit a buyer-side QofE team can validate. Cost-takeout playbook handed to the portco CFO with the unfunded saves still on the list. Operating partner gets a documented annualized savings number defended in writing and tied to GL evidence.
The Cost-Takeout Package
Eight artifacts. Realized saves in the window. Diligence-ready narrative for the CIM.
Cost-Takeout Playbook
Vendor renegotiation hit list, cloud spend optimization, license consolidation, automation hotspots, and headcount/role rationalization. The full long list — not just the saves we executed.
Documented Run-Rate Savings
Each save sized as annualized run-rate with the GL evidence and the assumptions behind the number. Documented to the standard a banker uses in the CIM, not the standard a slide uses on a Tuesday.
Top 3-5 Saves Executed
Largest, cleanest saves implemented in the 60-day window. Realized in the trailing twelve months that the banker markets — not as a forward-looking commitment a buyer can discount.
Diligence-Ready Savings Narrative
Single-page exhibit a buyer-side QofE team can validate. The artifact that turns a savings claim into a multiple-supporting fact in the CIM.
Vendor Renegotiation Letters
Drafted and sent under the portco CFO signature with the leverage points called out. Counter-signed concessions become run-rate savings the same week.
Cloud & License Audit
Cloud spend optimization, idle resources, right-sizing, and license consolidation across overlapping vendors. Saves that compound month over month for the rest of the hold.
Automation Hotspot Map
Process automation candidates ranked by labor displacement and payback. Specific enough to scope into a Sprint, not a generic "we should automate" deck slide.
Operating-Partner Readout
Live readout to the operating partner with the realized saves, the in-flight saves, and the unfunded list. Hand-off to the portco CFO so the long tail keeps landing after we leave.
Why Pre-Exit Sponsors Choose Proactive Logic
Success Fee Aligned to Documented Savings
Fixed fee plus success-based on documented annualized savings. The structure is the marketing asset — sponsors do not have to defend a generic OE engagement to LPs when the upside is tied to the number a banker will reference.
Banker-Defensible, Not Slide-Deep
Every save is documented with GL evidence, contract excerpts, and run-rate assumptions. A buyer-side QofE team can validate the savings narrative without re-doing the underlying work.
Execute, Not Just Identify
Most cost-takeout engagements stop at the deck. We execute the top 3-5 saves in the window so they show up in the trailing twelve months a banker markets — realized, not promised.
PE-Native, Pre-Exit Specific
The customer is the operating partner — not the portco CEO chasing transformation. The output is a banker-defensible savings number that lifts the multiple, on the timeline that matters before the sale.
Request Your 10-Minute Diagnostic
Find out where EBITDA improvements are hiding in your portfolio. Our diagnostic identifies your top 3 operational efficiency opportunities and maps them to your hold-period timeline.
- No pitch deck — just a focused look at where you're leaving value on the table
- Projected EBITDA impact per lever, mapped to your timeline
- Quick wins you can execute in the first 30 days
Twelve to Eighteen Months From Exit?
Schedule a 30-minute call with a PE-fluent lead. We will confirm scope, fixed fee plus success-fee structure, and start date — and tell you whether a Cost Takeout Sprint or a Tech Data Room Sprint is the right next move.
Schedule Your Call