Who we work with

The filter is the problem, not the size of the company.

From founder-led scaleups to global groups. What we look for is a real, expensive problem and a person who owns it, someone who would rather have an operator beside them than an advisor above them.

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One thing in common.

The companies we work with do not look alike on paper. A private-equity portfolio company and a solo operator-founder share almost nothing except this: a problem that matters, money on the line, and a person who will carry the result personally. That person is who we build for. The logo, the revenue and the headcount come after.

Private-equity-backed companies

Portfolio companies on a value-creation clock, and the operating partners and deal teams who answer for the number.

The problem they carry

There is a thesis to hit, a hold period ticking, and an operating plan that has to become real, not just modeled. The board wants evidence, not slides, and it wants it before the next review.

Why they call us

We have sat on both sides of the table. We consolidated a $32M leveraged step-acquisition (goodwill, debt, change of ownership) and we have run the operational turnarounds that actually move the number. We can speak to a CFO or a sponsor in their language, then go and build the thing the plan assumes.

$32M acquisition consolidated · +€3M-a-year turnaround

Scaleups & founders

Founder-led companies past product-market fit that need to ship faster than they can hire.

The problem they carry

Demand is outrunning the team. You need senior operators who build, not a body shop renting you juniors and not a strategy house renting you a deck. You need the thing shipped this quarter.

Why they call us

Operators in front, an AI-accelerated build team behind, so a small senior core delivers far more than its headcount. We grew a regional business, Lagrace Fermeture, to more revenue in three months than in its entire previous year. We move at a speed cabinets cannot match because we are building, not advising.

Lagrace Fermeture: +150% revenue in 3 months

Retail & commerce

Brands and operators turning strategy into shipped product, in-store and online.

The problem they carry

The hard part is the gap between a retail strategy on a page and a thing live, adopted, in every store. Rollout, in-store tech, e-commerce, change, and now being found by AI as well as by people.

Why they call us

Between us is more than a century of IKEA-grown retail and product experience, from the till to the global portfolio. We switched 29 stores to a new system in a day with zero lost sales, put in-store tech live in 150+ stores across ten countries, and kept 450+ mission-critical stores running. We have done the rollout and the adoption, not just the strategy.

29 stores in a day, zero lost sales · 150+ stores live · 450+ kept up

Operators-turned-founders

People who built their own thing and want operators beside them, not advisors above them.

The problem they carry

You have carried a result yourself. You do not want a junior team learning on your time, or a partner who has never shipped telling you how. You want peers who have been there and will tell you straight.

Why they call us

We are operators-turned-founders ourselves, building this firm and our own brands from scratch. No bench, no pyramid, no juniors in the middle. You work directly with the people who have run the thing you are trying to build, and we say the honest thing even when it costs us the work.

You work with the operators directly · a senior core, not a pyramid

Startups

Early teams building their first product, who want operators beside them from the start.

The problem they carry

The first build sets the ceiling: the product, the platform, the way the work runs. It has to be built right the first time, by people who have shipped at scale, while your time and money are still precious.

Why they call us

The door is open. When the problem is real and the founder owns it, you get the same senior operators, scoped to a startup's reality: a sharp first build, a platform that holds at ten times the load, and the visibility to be found from day one.

The same operators, scoped to your stage

When we are not the right firm.

We would rather say it now than bill you to find out. If you want a thick deck and no one on the hook, a body shop renting you junior hands by the month, or the comfort of a famous logo on the invoice more than the result, we are not your firm, and we will tell you so in the first conversation.

We are the right firm when the problem is real, the stakes are high, and you want operators who go to the floor, build the fix, and stay on the hook until it lands.

Recognise yourself?

No deck, no gate. Bring your real problem to a working session with the operators who would own it.

Start a conversation office@the34group.com