CFO Hiring and Structure

• CFO hiring is shifting from scale credentials to speed and cash discipline
• Weak CFO performance often traces to missing operating structure, not talent
• First-time CFO appointments are rising as AI reshapes finance roles
• Incentive design is shifting to annual EBITDA-percentage structures

‍

Executive Search and Succession

• Shore Capital builds CEOs internally through a structured CXO rotation program
• Sequencing now runs plan, then capabilities, then roles, before the org chart changes
• Executive success now hinges on evidence of past execution, not pedigree
• Sponsors are planning CEO succession from day one, not reacting mid-hold
• CEO resistance remains a barrier to appointing Chief Transformation Officers

‍

First-100-Days Execution

• Execution in the first 100 days, not the strategy, now drives value creation success
• Unrealistic 100-day plans plus poor data quality are directly linked to weaker exits
• Playbooks now tie durable value creation to disciplined planning, governance, and speed

‍

Pricing and Revenue Growth

• Pricing and packaging remain a high-impact, underused lever
• Dedicated pricing advisory practices are now launching for PE-backed software firms
• Revenue growth now drives 57 percent of value creation, nearly double its 2019 share
• Operational margin improvement drives over half of portfolio EBITDA growth

‍

AI Adoption and Organization

• Blackstone's Anthropic spend rose 21x in a year; Clearlake added Databricks, OpenAI, Google Cloud, and Anthropic partnerships in a month
• Firms with a dedicated AI value-creation leader jumped from 7 to 32 percent in a year
• Stalled AI value is consistently traced to leadership and structure, not the technology
• Scaling AI value needs one unified operating model, not scattered pilots
• Durable competitive advantage still lags despite the adoption surge

‍

Capital Markets and Returns

• Multiple expansion drove just 8 percent of 2025 buyout returns, down from 46 percent
• Entry price discipline, not market tailwinds, now determines buyout fund returns
• Middle-market deals between $25M and $100M rose 56 percent in count in Q2
• The largest PE investors show a persistent regional home bias

‍

Notable Deals and Transactions

• Grant Thornton acquired CBIZ, building a large-scale professional services platform
• L Catterton bought a stake in HYROX from Infront
• Vidia Equity acquired H&G to build a recycling technology platform
• Summa Equity reported 44 percent EBITDA growth across its portfolio

‍

Thanks to Mark Jansen, Shannon Talbot, Tim Gerrells, Shaun Stevens, Lindsay Guzowski, Zachary Wingett, Trevear Thomas, Jason Shaw, Reed Gaskin, Nikki Newton, Robert Friedman, Chris Barber, Jacob Furbee, Ricky Jain, Lance DeWitt, Helana Robbins Huddleston, Lucas Bechtle, Guillermo Flor, Fred Ebrahemi, Jimmy Bijlani, Chris Immelman, Asif Rahman, Erik Boender, Jim Bailey, Uttaran Chakrabarti, Christopher DiNitto, Philipp Kraft, Miles Feinberg, Steve Budd, Ashley van Heel, Antoine Munfakh, Matt Heinz, Sam Tidswell-Norrish, Andrii Gorokhov, Jonathan O'Leary, Maeve Foley, Yannick Elhag, Jason Spencer, Alex Glueckler, Sebastian Esser, Stephanie Caspar, Nicola Ebmeyer, Maria Campos Silva, Chris Reilly, and more for contributing insights to this edition. Find the full list of posts and voices on LinkedIn:

‍