A senior operator in your corner. In writing.
Not a coach. Not a board seat. An operator who takes a real number, works 100% async so timezone is not a tax, and reserves live calls for the two or three decisions a quarter that genuinely need one.
That is Value Creation Partner.
Same operator, plus a 40-person firm to execute. valuecreationpartner.com is Mario with DevriX behind him; this page is Mario alone.
How we work: async by default. Written memos, Loom, shared docs, on your timezone. Live calls are optional and billed separately at $1,000/hr on escalation only (bet-the-company decisions, negotiation prep, executive conflict). Everything else stays in writing.
When this engagement makes sense
A senior leader departed and the role does not need a full-time hire yet.
The CEO is wearing the operations or technology hat and it is costing the rest of the business.
A specific outcome is on the line (a turnaround, a scale-up, an integration) and the org needs senior horsepower for 6 to 12 months.
You are 8+ hours off the portco's timezone and standing calls are a burden neither side wants.
An existing advisor is giving advice on scheduled calls, not driving outcomes between them.
A sponsor wants senior operating capacity in the portfolio without the full-time cost and without a weekly meeting on the calendar.
The people you can ask are the people with an interest in the answer. The management team wants headcount. The vendor wants the project. The banker wants the deal. Your partners are as busy as you are, and asking them costs political capital. The traditional fix is a retainer built around a standing weekly call, which is expensive for everyone and useful for almost no one. What actually helps is one senior person, no stake, on your timezone whenever you write, who answers in writing you can forward and only asks for a call when writing has genuinely stopped working.
The deliverables
A number I own
We agree what it is before we start. Forecast accuracy, pipeline conversion, platform delivery, whatever the real problem is. It goes in the monthly note.
Async access, defined SLA
You send the question in writing (email, shared doc, or Slack). You get a considered written answer inside your tier's SLA. No standing meetings, ever.
Loom and memos, not slide decks
Reviews, walkthroughs, and reads land as short Looms and one-to-two-page memos. Board-forwardable. Auditable. Watchable on your commute.
A monthly written note
What moved, what did not, what I would do next, and what I think you are getting wrong. Delivered before the board pack, so you can read it and disagree in writing before we ever talk.
Calls only on escalation
Live calls happen only when written work has stalled on a real decision, negotiation prep needs tone, or an executive conflict needs a live third party. Billed at $1,000/hr, 30-minute minimum, on top of the retainer.
The team behind me when you need it
If the answer is 'this needs building,' DevriX exists and you do not start a new procurement cycle. The build side lives on valuecreationpartner.com.
I do not sell the build.
Advisory is delivered by Growth Shuttle. Implementation, when it is needed, is delivered by DevriX: forty people, $1.45B in GMV under management. These are separate entities, and the separation is deliberate.
It means that when I tell you the platform needs rebuilding, I have no financial interest in being the one who rebuilds it. DevriX exists and I will say so. You are equally free to hire someone else, and sponsors regularly do.
An advisor employed by the firm that sells the fix is not an advisor. He is a salesman with a diagnostic. That is not what you are buying here.
The engagement
A paid engagement, never a cold commitment
Every retainer begins with a Written Brief, a Pre-LOI Check, or a diligence. I will not commit to owning a number I have not looked at, and you should not commit to a retainer on the strength of a sales call. Whatever you paid for that first engagement is credited in full against the first month.
Land, in writing
Read the numbers. Written interviews with the team where possible, one 60-minute live call per stakeholder where it is not. Agree the number I own. Install the async cadence.
Run, async
Async on the questions as they come up, inside the tier's SLA. Monthly note lands before the board pack. Calls only when the escalation triggers actually fire.
Decide
Joint review, in writing, followed by an optional 30-min call. Continue, adjust the number, or hand off cleanly. Three-month minimum; most engagements run 9 to 12.
How this is priced
Async Lite
One founder or exec who needs a sounding board and written reviews. One workstream at a time.
Async Core
An active portfolio company or growth-stage team with weekly written work across multiple workstreams.
Async Executive
PE portfolio company, multi-workstream operator work, or an exec team using me as an async chief of staff.
A good fit if
- Mid-market CEOs running ahead of their leadership bench.
- PE portfolio companies in the first year of the hold.
- Independent sponsors who closed without an embedded operating team.
- Family offices with direct holdings that need senior operating capacity.
- International teams where the portco and the sponsor are 6+ hours apart and standing calls are a burden.
Probably not if
- ·You want a standing weekly call. Those are not offered here; buy them elsewhere.
- ·You want someone to agree with you. I will not, and you will resent paying for it.
- ·You want a name on the cap table or the board deck rather than an operator.
- ·You are not willing to give an outsider a real number to own. Without that this is just expensive conversation.
Ten months, async. Forecast accuracy moved from 60% to 82%. Two live calls that quarter.
A PE-backed services company needed senior operating capacity after a CRO departure and a finance leader managing accounting more than operations. The retainer ran for ten months on the Async Executive tier: written weekly revenue review installed, forecast accuracy moved from 60% to 82%, CRO and CFO searches scoped and closed. In one representative quarter we had two live calls, both invoked by the sponsor for negotiation prep. Everything else ran in writing.
Three fixed tiers from $6,000/mo. 100% async. Live calls are an add-on at $1,000/hr, escalation-only. Three-month minimum. Always starts with a paid engagement first, credited against month one.
What buyers ask
What often comes next
Ready to move?
From $6,000 per month · async work at ~$600/hr blended · live calls billed separately at $1,000/hr, escalation-only