Board Advisor, Fractional CRO & GTM Strategy
I help founder-led technology companies build the business a trade buyer or private equity investor will pay a premium for. I modernise the brand, simplify the message, bring discipline to the sales forecast and uncover IP worth protecting, drawing on more than 35 years in B2B and B2C technology sales and marketing leadership.
Two ways to engage
Value creation from the board. I work with founders, boards and investors to set the commercial strategy that drives valuation, then hold the business to it on the road to a trade sale or PE investment.
A go-to-market that scales and stands up to diligence. I design the sales and marketing engine and, as your Fractional CRO, run the revenue team myself until a permanent CRO is in place.
Where I focus
Most of my work comes back to the same five areas. Each one improves how the business sells today and how a buyer sees it tomorrow.
What buyers pay for
Two businesses with the same turnover can sell for very different prices. The difference is how much of that revenue a buyer believes will still be there, and growing, after they own it.
From today to transaction
Revenue, pipeline, customers and go-to-market reviewed against what acquirers and investors will test.
The few go-to-market changes that improve revenue quality and the multiple most.
The plan executed through your team, with fractional leadership where it is needed.
Metrics, data room and equity story prepared for commercial due diligence.
A first conversation is 30 minutes, no charge, and usually enough to tell whether I can help.
Services
Board advisory, go-to-market strategy and Fractional CRO leadership, with one aim: a founder-led business that is ready for a transaction, and worth more to a trade buyer or private equity investor when the time comes.
Board Advisor & NED
I spent more than a decade as Founder Partner and Director of Base Media Cloud, and was CEO and a Director of id7 through its acquisition by Fusion-io. I have been through a number of mergers and acquisitions, including Arcada, acquired by Seagate Software and later by Veritas. I know what a board needs from a founder, what a founder needs from a board, and what buyers look for when they arrive.
As a board advisor or NED I bring sales and marketing judgement to boards that are strong on product, finance or investment but light on commercial operating experience, and keep the business focused on the metrics that will be tested in diligence.
The commercial priorities that move valuation, set against your exit or investment timeline and challenged every quarter.
Preparing the business for a trade sale or PE process well before advisers are appointed.
Revenue, customer and pipeline data organised to answer the questions buyers will ask.
A growth narrative grounded in evidence, that a buyer or investor can underwrite.
Identifying technology, data, processes and know-how that can be protected, packaged or licensed to add value.
A sounding board for the CEO on structure, hiring and the decisions a transaction brings.
Go-to-Market Strategy
I design go-to-market strategy for technology companies selling B2B, B2C or both, through a direct enterprise team, through partners, or a mix of the two. I have worked on every side of the channel: for leading storage and backup vendors, a large international VAR, and cloud SaaS managed service providers. The output is a plan the board signs off and the team can run.
Where a company needs someone to deliver it, I lead sales and marketing hands-on as a fractional Director or CRO until a permanent leader is in place. I have led direct enterprise sales as a Director and built channel programmes from nothing, so the strategy is written by someone who has carried the number.
A brand refreshed to reflect where the business is going, with the impact to match in market.
Account strategy, qualification, deal reviews and executive-level selling for larger, longer-cycle deals.
Partner selection, programme design, recruitment and enablement, where partners are the right route.
One clear proposition that customers, partners and your own team can repeat, and marketing tied to pipeline, not activity.
Stage definitions, CRM hygiene and a forecast built on evidence, reported the same way every month.
Structure, compensation plans and hiring, with fractional leadership until the right hire is made.
Fractional CRO
Many founder-led companies need a Chief Revenue Officer before they can justify, or attract, a permanent one. As Fractional CRO I take accountability for the revenue number and run sales, channel and marketing as part of your leadership team, a set number of days each week.
It is often the most direct route to exit readiness: the forecast becomes reliable, the revenue engine stops depending on the founder, and a buyer finds a function that already works. When the time is right, I recruit my permanent successor and hand over cleanly.
I am currently Fractional CRO for Assurestor, a UK channel-only cloud backup and disaster recovery provider.
I own the forecast call, the pipeline reviews and the number the board sees each month.
Direct enterprise sales, partners and marketing led as one revenue function, with one plan.
Structure, compensation plans, coaching, and recruiting the team, including my own replacement.
A revenue pack the board and investors can rely on, built around the metrics a buyer will test.
Hands-on in the largest opportunities and partner negotiations, alongside your team.
Processes, data and people left in place, so the function runs without me.
Tools I build
Advice only changes a business when it is built into how people work. So I build the practical tools that put the strategy into daily use, tailored to your business rather than downloaded from a template.
Each one also produces the evidence a trade buyer or investor will ask for in due diligence.
I use AI to build and test these tools faster, so more of the engagement is spent on judgement rather than spreadsheets. The assumptions, logic and conclusions are mine, and client data is handled confidentially and never used to train public AI models.
Pipeline-based forecasts and recurring revenue models covering bookings, churn, expansion and net retention, in a format the board and a buyer can rely on.
Calculators that let sales teams and partners build a quote, see the margin and stay within the discount rules, so pricing is consistent every time.
Short, well-designed feedback and satisfaction surveys that show what customers value, why they stay and where you are at risk of losing them.
About
Board advisor, Fractional CRO and go-to-market strategist. More than 35 years building revenue in technology, across direct enterprise sales and channel, B2B and B2C. Currently Fractional CRO for Assurestor.
Background
My career has been spent on the commercial side of technology: SaaS, cloud infrastructure and data protection, in both business and consumer markets. I have led direct enterprise sales teams as a Director, carried a personal number and closed major accounts myself, and built channel and partner programmes from nothing.
I have worked on every side of the technology channel: for leading storage and backup industry vendors, for a large international value-added reseller, and for cloud SaaS managed service providers. I know how each one makes money, and what makes a partnership work for both sides.
I have been through a number of mergers and acquisitions. I was at Arcada when it was acquired by Seagate Software, which was later acquired by Veritas. I was CEO and a Director of id7 when it was acquired by Fusion-io, one of two businesses I have been part of that Fusion-io bought. I also spent more than a decade as Founder Partner and Director of Base Media Cloud. I have led a company through a sale as its CEO, and seen growth and investment from the boardroom.
Today I help founder-led companies prepare for a trade sale or PE investment. As a founder myself, I understand what is at stake: go-to-market decisions made with the eventual buyer in mind, so that growth today is growth someone will pay for later.
Career
Through two acquisitions
Part of Arcada, the company behind Backup Exec, through its acquisition by Seagate Software, and then through Seagate Software's acquisition by Veritas. First-hand experience of how acquirers value, buy and integrate a sales organisation.
Director & executive roles
Director-level sales roles with leading storage and backup vendors, a large international VAR and cloud SaaS MSPs, including a second business acquired by Fusion-io. Leading direct enterprise sales and building channel alongside it, in B2B and B2C markets.
CEO & Director
Led the company as CEO and sat on its board through its acquisition by Fusion-io: running the business, preparing it for sale and seeing the transaction through.
Founder Partner & Director
More than ten years as Founder Partner and Director of a cloud platform for media workflows, from start-up through growth, with the board-level decisions that come with it.
Board Advisor, GTM Strategy & Fractional CRO
Helping founder-led technology companies prepare for trade sale or PE investment, through board advisory and go-to-market strategy, Currently engaged as Fractional CRO for Assurestor, a UK channel-only cloud backup and disaster recovery provider.
How I work
Every recommendation is tested against one question: will an acquirer or investor value this?
Every engagement starts with the data: revenue mix, retention, pipeline, win rates. The plan follows from what it shows.
Buyers discount businesses that depend on individuals. Processes, people and reporting are designed to run without me.
Boards and founders get a direct view, including when the plan, or the valuation expectation, will not hold.
Sectors
Insights
Short points of view from the work. No frameworks for their own sake.
Founders preparing for a sale often push for top-line growth in the final year. Buyers look past it. They ask how much of that revenue recurs, how much came from a handful of customers, and how much depended on the founder closing it personally.
A smaller increase in recurring, well-spread revenue can be worth more at exit than a larger increase in one-off deals. Decide which growth you want before you go after it.
Commercial due diligence looks backwards. A buyer will want several years of clean revenue data, cohort retention and pipeline history. If your CRM was not kept properly two years ago, you cannot fix that in the three months before a process.
The businesses that achieve the best outcomes start early: they tidy the data, fix the go-to-market weaknesses a buyer will find, and build a track record that supports the equity story.
Board packs usually report bookings against target. That tells you what happened, not what is about to happen. The more useful questions look forward: how much pipeline was created this quarter, where it came from, and how long deals are taking to convert.
Then ask the buyer's questions: what share of revenue recurs, what is net retention, and how concentrated is the customer base? If the board cannot answer those today, a buyer will answer them for you, and price accordingly.
Contact
A first call is 30 minutes, with no charge and no obligation. Send a message below and I will reply personally, usually within one working day.
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