CEO & Founder Evaluation · Principal Diligence
For the board making the call, or the capital underwriting the principal a deal rests on. Fixed fee. Fixed scope. Six weeks for a board, or your deal clock.
Legal reads the documents. Quality of earnings reads the numbers. Commercial diligence reads the market. The person the whole thing depends on rarely gets the same treatment — and where the leader is also the asset, that gap is widest.
As Seen In
Four people telling you the same thing may be one person telling you the same perspective four times. Co-investors, bankers, managers, agents, family — every one of them is paid by the outcome, and every one of them is in the file. Legal and financial diligence assume nothing and verify everything. The work on the person almost never gets held to that standard. We hold it there.
Two products, one method. Which one you need depends on who is asking — a board evaluating a leader, or capital underwriting a principal in a deal.
For boards
You already own the business. The question is who runs it.
A defined candidate set, or a sitting leader, measured against a standard built from the next eighteen months. It informs the decision. It does not make it.
Three documents, one evidence base. Written to hold up if the decision is challenged.
For investors & family offices
You are deciding whether to commit. The question is the person the thesis rests on.
The same method on a deal clock. A company where the leader is the reason it works. An emerging league, a team, a catalog, a name that is the business.
Three documents, one evidence base. Written to hold up if the decision is challenged.
The method: count the roots, not the voices. A voice is who told you. A root is where their view came from. Four voices growing off one root are one source, not four confirmations, and separating the two is most of the job. The full method →
Search. This is evaluation of a defined set, not finding people.
Confirmation. If you want a yes on one person, that is different work and should be priced as such.
An answer you already hold. If the evaluation cannot change the decision, it is theater, and it exposes everyone who commissioned it.
The method is designed to be able to disappoint the party commissioning it. That is the entire point of paying for it.
Music proved it first. In under a decade it went from a risky consumer business to something banks and insurers will lend against. Sports, media, education and the creator economy are the same shape and about a decade behind.
Capital is moving into assets where the value is a person, or a person’s work. That is exactly where the evidence problem is structural rather than occasional, and where the ownership question and the person question travel together. Both get read.
We ran the commercial side of a public company built entirely on famous names — Elvis Presley Enterprises, Muhammad Ali Enterprises, Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment, and the management of Robin Williams and Idol winners and finalists — through its sale to Apollo. North Texas is where much of the next decade of it gets built.
A 30-year operator, advisor, and investor.
Brand management on Dr Pepper and Oreo. Four years at Citi. A $130 million strategic marketing P&L at Sony Music. CMO responsible for a portfolio of more than 200 hours of on-air television across format and unscripted programming. A $40 million P&L as a general manager at MediaMath. The drive-in concert business that put 350,000 fans in 300 venues with Garth Brooks on one night in 2020.
Direct investor and limited partner in two venture funds. Realized exits include Classy, Jackpocket, Geologie, and SpaceX. Companies co-built with founders, where we hold equity and carry operating responsibility: DOC CARES and MusicNIL. We do not evaluate companies we hold a position in.
“From corporate development, to product development, to commercial development, Chris navigates all altitudes to drive the strategy. He is a consummate professional, a strategic thinker, gregarious, inquisitive, and someone I’d like to work with again.”
“Chris is a gifted operator with a rare combination of creativity, a forte for management, and an exceptional vision for the future. In a very short time, he guided our department through a highly successful restructuring while providing stellar stakeholder management and a calming authority.”
“Working with Chris is an absolute privilege. His deep insight, expertise, and judgement around the challenges of entrepreneurial and executive activities make for an incredible combination.”
We take a limited number of engagements each quarter. Your counsel is welcome on the first call.
