~$80m
Built from start-up in 5 years,
500 employees, and
1,000 customers
~$40m
Realized across five separate divestitures
2
Turnarounds led as the incoming executive
4
Acquisitions executed and integrated
Credentials by the Numbers
30
Years of Experience
6
Businesses Founded
2
Turnarounds Completed
4
Acquisitions Made
UNREALIZED POTENTIAL
You back companies because you see their potential. But potential and performance are not the same thing, and the gap between them is typically a combination of issues that can be fixed. When a portfolio company's growth slows, the real reasons are often not obvious, but they can be uncovered.
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HEP works alongside your portfolio company CEOs to find what is limiting growth and to fix it. The result is a stronger business, a leadership team aligned on the priorities, and tangible improvements in key areas that are critical to ARR growth.
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The best results come when a CEO is bought into the process rather than threatened by it. HEP is engaged as an operating partner to the leadership team, not an auditor sent to grade them. That distinction is what allows employees, customers, and the CEO to be candid, and candor is what creates real insight.
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A CEO with a trusted, experienced operator in their corner gets recommendations grounded in what has actually worked, and someone who will stay to help implement them.
Your Portfolio's Growth Has Stalled
There's a reason. We find it and we can fix it.
WHAT HEP DOES FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO
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Finds what is limiting growth, through an anonymous company-wide survey, confidential interviews, conversations with customers and lost prospects, recorded sales calls where available, and a hard look at the numbers
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Delivers a prioritized set of recommendations, separating the changes that can be made quickly from the ones that will take longer
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Where the CEO wants execution rather than recommendations, stays on to implement
WHAT YOU RECEIVE
The CEO gets a written assessment and a structured readout. You get your own brief covering the key findings, the recommendations, and an objective view on the potential for the business if they are acted on.
WHO IS DOING THE WORK
Thirty years founding, scaling, and turning around B2B technology and services businesses. Five separate exits from one company built to ~$80m. Two turnarounds as the incoming executive. Most recently, a 56% increase in ARR for a B2B software and services client.
TWO WAYS TO ENGAGE
Most start with the Growth Accelerator Roadmap, a fixed-price diagnostic over four to six weeks, so you and the CEO can judge the work before committing to anything longer. Where the business wants execution, HEP engages as a fractional Chief Growth Officer on a six-month basis. Both are set out below.
GROWTH ACCELERATOR ROADMAP
Almost everything you learn about a portfolio company comes through the CEO, which is how it should work. But no CEO has the time to review revenue generating assets, work through what customers and lost prospects actually think, and understand what the sales team is running into day to day. That work takes weeks, and it competes with running the business.
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The Roadmap does it for them. Employees answer an anonymous survey and speak confidentially. Customers and lost prospects are asked directly. Where sales meetings, demos, proposal reviews, and negotiations have been recorded, those show what actually happened rather than what anyone remembers.
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Conducted over four to six weeks, the Roadmap tests all of it against the numbers, the collateral, and the way the business is actually set up to sell. The CEO receives a detailed assessment and a structured readout. You receive a separate brief covering the key findings, the recommendations, and an objective view on the potential for the business if they are acted on.
A Clear Picture of What's Holding the Business Back and What to Do About IT
WHAT'S INCLUDED
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Structured interviews with the CEO, leadership team, key salespeople, and other relevant stakeholders; designed to surface candid insight, with all individual feedback kept confidential and anonymized
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​Review of recorded sales calls, demos, proposal meetings, and negotiations where available, to see how the value proposition lands and where deals stall
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Assessment of your current value proposition, competitive positioning, and market differentiation
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Review of your website, marketing collateral, and sales presentations against buyer expectations and competitive standards
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Analysis of your pricing model and its alignment with market positioning and margin goals
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Review of your sales compensation structure and its effectiveness in driving the right behaviors and outcomes
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Evaluation of current marketing initiatives and demand generation activity
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Assessment of existing go-to-market partnerships and channel opportunities
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Where relevant, a review of cost structure and resource allocation - identifying areas where investment can be redeployed toward higher-return growth activities
INVESTMENT
Under 50 employees
$15,000
50 to 149 employees
$20,000
150 to 499 employees
$25,000
500+ employees: custom quote.
Fixed price. No hourly billing, no change orders. Delivered remotely over four to six weeks. Option to have the report findings presented to the CEO in person (T&E charged at cost).
ONGOING PARTNERSHIP
From Roadmap to Execution
The Roadmap ends with a set of recommendations and the order to work through them. Some can be handled by the existing team. Others need someone who has done the work before, and adding a permanent hire to find out is an expensive way to test it.
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HEP engages as a fractional Chief Growth Officer on a six-month basis, at one of three levels depending on how much involvement the business needs. Execution remains a shared effort in every case, since your team will be running it after HEP has gone.
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Every engagement includes a monthly written report covering work completed, hours applied, and progress against the priorities agreed at the outset. Where you want it, that report comes to you as well. Unless separately agreed, all services are delivered remotely.
INVESTMENT
Advisor to the CEO
$5,000
10 hours per month
​​Regular working sessions with the CEO through the month, with availability in between. Execution stays with your team.
Embedded
$8,500
20 hours per month
​​​Weekly cadence with the CEO and leadership team, with hands-on involvement where it will make the difference.
Operator
$14,000
40 hours per month
​​Working alongside the CEO and the team, with HEP directly involved in executing the priorities.
THE PROCESS
What happens next
1
​A short call to discuss the portfolio company and what you are seeing.
2
​An introductory conversation with the CEO to establish fit and willingness. HEP will not proceed where the CEO is not bought in.
3
A fixed-price Growth Accelerator Roadmap, scoped and agreed in writing, delivered over four to six weeks.
4
A structured readout to the CEO, and a separate brief to you.
5
Where warranted, a six-month engagement to execute against the roadmap.
TRACK RECORD
Most people who advise CEOs on growth have never carried a number or signed a payroll.
Thirty years of building, buying, fixing, and selling businesses is what HEP brings to the table.
Thirty Years as a Founder and CEO
Founded, built, and sold in five parts
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Built to ~$80m, 500 employees, and 1,000 customers in five years across five business lines, then divested each one separately for a combined ~$40m.
Partnership access larger competitors could not get
Secured a Dell partnership as a start-up that had never been done before.
Two turnarounds as incoming executive
Entered an unfamiliar industry and doubled sales inside six months.
Twice the size of any deal in the company's history
Repositioned the offer, mapped 20 use cases, built the proposal, led negotiations.
BEYOND GROWTH
Growth Is Rarely The Only Question
Companies at an inflection point are usually weighing cost structure, capital, and strategic options at the same time. HEP has founded, funded, acquired, divested, and restructured businesses across thirty years, and can engage on those questions alongside the growth work rather than referring them out.
Cost Reduction & Restructuring
Capital Raise Preparation
Acquisitions and Divestitures
Financial Modeling
Discuss a portfolio company
A short, direct conversation about what you are seeing and whether a Roadmap is warranted. No cost and no obligation.
Alan Hixon | info@hixon-ep.com | 469.319.2652
BOOK A CALL
A short, direct conversation about what you're seeing and whether a Roadmap is warranted.
Hixon Enterprise Partners LLC
539 W. Commerce St #1025
Dallas, TX 75208
Tel: 469-319-2652
