The 100-Day Value Creation Playbook for Tech Buyouts
The first 100 days set the ceiling on the deal. Here's the operator-led value creation plan we use with PE-backed tech portfolio companies.
George Fassett, Jr. · July 9, 2026
Most 100-day plans are diligence decks with dates on them. This one is different because it is written from the operator seat — the person who has to actually hit the numbers after the deal closes.
Day 0–15: Stabilize
- Confirm the top 10 customers are not at risk. Face-to-face where possible.
- Freeze all non-committed hiring and non-strategic spend.
- Stand up a weekly operating cadence: one metrics review, one pipeline review, one issues log.
- Identify the two or three people who cannot leave in the first year and lock them in with retention.
Day 16–45: Diagnose
- Rebuild the revenue quality view: recurring vs. one-time, gross retention, net retention, concentration.
- Rebuild the gross margin view by product and by customer segment. Kill the loss-making tail.
- Run a compliance and security gap assessment — SOC 2, cyber insurance, MSA hygiene. Diligence findings become real work here.
- Interview the top 15 employees. Where is the friction, what is broken, what have they been afraid to say?
Day 46–75: Prioritize
- Publish a one-page Value Creation Plan with three to five workstreams, each with a named owner, a metric, and a quarterly milestone.
- Kill everything not on the page. Focus is the whole game.
- Align the executive comp plan to the workstreams. What gets measured and paid gets done.
Day 76–100: Execute
- Ship the first visible wins — a pricing change, a compliance milestone, a segment exit, a system consolidation. Momentum is a leading indicator.
- Report to the board against the one-page plan, not against a new deck each month.
- Begin the exit-readiness workstream now, not in year four.
What separates winning plans from losing ones
Winning plans have fewer priorities, named accountability, and a compensation model that reinforces both. Losing plans have long lists, matrixed accountability, and a bonus tied to EBITDA in a year when EBITDA is not the constraint.
Download the full 100-Day Value Creation Playbook — templates, cadence, and reporting formats included.