What Holds

PE-backed companies are built to perform. But performance and durability are not the same thing.

What Holds is a series about the gap between the two -- the hidden constraints that stall exits, slow growth, and quietly erode value. And why the answer is almost never where people are looking.

What Holds #5 – Engagement has an order

At 12% annual EBITDA growth, there's no slack for disengagement. But most portcos skip straight to capability building before the conditions for it exist.

What Holds #4 – The architecture nobody prices

The financial architecture gets modelled and stress-tested. The human one gets moved to a soft corner. That's where the value goes.

What Holds #3 – The moment the money arrives

When PE backing arrives, companies face a fork in the road. One path builds something that lasts. The other optimises for the exit while the floor quietly falls apart.

What Holds #2 – Extending value, or avoiding the question

As exits stretch and secondary transactions multiply, a harder question emerges: is the structure holding the company, or is the company actually ready to stand on its own?

What Holds #1 – Private equity and the question behind the exit problem

The PE exit problem is real. But behind the macro explanations sits a pattern worth naming: companies pushed to perform before they were built to last.