Maximize value. Minimize risk.
Blau & co. is a private equity and value creation practice. We assess a business across five domains and remain engaged through the operating plan that follows, drawing on twenty years of operating leadership, product and service development, and transaction experience.
What we assess
Revenue quality and durability, pricing power, customer and channel concentration, and whether the growth plan is repeatable or dependent on individuals.
Where demand is moving, competitive position and defensibility, and whether the market supports the seller's growth case.
Delivery and service performance, vendor and supplier dependencies, and the operational commitments contained in customer contracts.
Architecture, technical debt, security posture, build versus buy, and what the systems cost to run at the next stage of scale.
Key person risk, capability against the plan, and retention through the first months of ownership.
We are led by Ari Blau, Managing Partner of Gemini Equity, and work as a multi-disciplinary team across financial, commercial, operational and technical assessment.
Engagement across the full transaction.
Investment thesis validation
We assess whether the business supports the seller's growth case, and whether market conditions support the assumptions in the model.
Confirmatory diligence
A complete assessment across commercial, market, operations, technology and organization. Objective, evidence based, and delivered on the transaction timetable.
Transaction support
Findings ranked by financial consequence: what constitutes a red flag, what warrants a price adjustment, what belongs in a first year capital plan, and what reflects standard industry practice.
Post-close value creation
The operating plan the diligence wrote: revenue optimization, operating structure, and the changes the work identified.
A diversified fund's first move into an unfamiliar sector.
- Client
- Lynx Equity
- Target
- Granite
- Industry
- Fiber optics
- Service
- Due diligence support
- Outcome
- Acquisition completed, 2022
Lynx Equity holds a diversified portfolio of more than fifty companies. It was a sector the fund did not know, and it required experience it did not hold in house, on a compressed timetable.
Working as a virtual extension of the Lynx M&A team: strategic guidance, business analysis and market analysis, plus a full review of the target's commercial position, market, operations, technology and organization.
The analysis gave Lynx what it needed to proceed with conviction. The acquisition closed in 2022.
We found an excellent opportunity to pursue, but since telecommunications was a new vertical for us, we required great depth of insight and experience in a short amount of time.
Value creation follows the transaction.
Diligence establishes what the business is. Value creation is the work that follows, and it accounts for most of the return over a holding period.
Revenue optimization
Pricing, packaging, channel mix and pipeline discipline, aligned to where the market is moving.
More on this → PracticePeople and process
Operating structure, decision rights and delivery cadence, so that decisions are made and the plan is executed.
More on this → PracticeStrategic growth
The next stage of value: adjacent markets, new segments, partnerships, and the capability required to reach them.
More on this →To discuss a business, a transaction or an exit.
Inquiries from founders, investors and advisors are welcome, whether a transaction is underway or still under consideration.