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renaissance
Two small groups facing each other across a modest table in a vast sunlit hall, long window shadows on the stone floor and one document set bound in red.

IB · Investment banking

Prepared for market, before the process.

The operating story, data room, and buyer objections handled so the company enters from strength.

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Plate /07a — the table

12–18 mo Before the process
14 days First diagnostic
120 days To value capture

01 · Selected outcome

What the work produces.

A small negotiation table with two facing parties at the base of a vast sunlit hall, tall windows rising above, a red-banded document set on the table. Plate /07b — the table
IB · /07 Investment banking

The banker should inherit a prepared company, not cleanup

Exit preparation works best before a process starts.

Data room Ready before the banker
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02 · The bridge

Two fluencies, one scorecard.

The board-language term, the plain-language line, and the engineering metric that actually moves it.

Value narrative
The story a buyer believes is the story the operating data can defend line by line under confirmatory diligence.
cohort_retention · reliability_SLO
Data-room quality
Clean IP assignment, contract hygiene, and reproducible metrics remove the objections that compress a price at the table.
ip_provenance · metric_reproducibility
Two water glasses facing each other across a polished table with a red-banded document set squared between them, tall windows reflected in the wood. Plate /07c — the table
A bare lime-plaster wall in warm bone tones raked by low golden light, trowel texture reading as soft topography and shadow deepening to warm charcoal at one edge.
Exit preparation works best before a process starts. We build the operating story around finance hygiene, founder extraction, contract cleanup, data-room quality, and the buyer objections that need answers before market launch.
Justin Leader · CEO, Human Renaissance
Hands pinning the next card to a planning wall of blank index cards joined pin to pin by one taut red thread.
Plate /31 — the red threadEvery card owned and dated.

03 · How the engagement runs

Running the Investment banking engagement.

Open a phase for the detail.

Phase 01 Diagnostic Assessment Days 1–14

We baseline the operating system against the value-creation thesis.

  • Constraint baseline in dollars
  • Decision-rights and cadence audit
  • 90-day scorecard wired to current systems
Phase 02 Operating Plan Days 15–21

The diagnostic becomes a sequenced plan with owners and dates.

  • Per-constraint move with a target
  • Committee and decision-rights design
  • 30 / 60 / 90-day cadence
Phase 03 Implementation Days 22–90

An operator runs the plan from inside the system.

  • Weekly reviews with the accountable executive
  • Interim leadership where the constraint demands it
  • Rolling scorecard against baseline
Phase 04 Value Capture Days 91–120

We hand the system back with a measured lift and a clean transition.

  • Final scorecard against baseline
  • Permanent leadership transition plan
  • Documented playbook and decision map

04 · Related intelligence

Field notes that support the work.

Read the briefs
A leather ledger open on a pull-out board beneath its shelf, red ribbon across abstract ruled pages.

Brief · IB

The 12-Month CAC Payback Rule Is Costing You the Enterprise

A 12-month blended CAC payback often hides a starved enterprise book.
Brass caliper jaws just open beside a red-tipped scriber on soft felt.

Brief · IB

Your AI Model Is Worth $0 If You Can't Trace the Training Data

Acquirers discount AI IP up to 60% when data provenance is murky.
A red-handled lifting tool lying in fine plaster dust with the cast's pale edge soft behind.

Brief · IB

The $5,000 Signature: Why CEO Spending Approval Caps Your Software Company at $20M ARR

A $5K approval threshold feels like discipline at $20M ARR.

05 · Before the first call

Operator-grade answers.

  • Do you replace an investment bank?

    No. We prepare the company before and alongside the process. The banker owns market execution; we make the operating story, data room, and diligence posture stronger.

  • When should exit preparation begin?

    Ideally 12-18 months before a process. That gives enough time to fix founder dependency, finance hygiene, customer concentration, IP documentation, and technical debt.

Five colleagues seen from behind at a wall of pinned cards in early light, one pointing at a single terracotta card among the blank ones. Plate /30 — the standup
A panelled door ajar at night spilling warm lamplight across a herringbone floor, the corner of a worked desk visible through the gap.

Start here

Find the constraint before the quarter hardens.

A 14-day diagnostic. No retainer until we agree on the work.

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