Category: Industry Insights
ARM, SaaS, and other sector-specific lessons and trends.
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Why a Consulting Project Did Not Fit A CEO leading a turnaround in a purchased debt business reached out looking for advice on engaging third-party collection agencies. The immediate objective was straightforward enough: reduce fixed cost. The company had already shuttered offices and reduced portions of its internal collection infrastructure. Expanding agency relationships seemed like…
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We developed some genuinely effective outreach tools in the 3P collections world. The model was straightforward: collect more, generate more revenue, improve cash flow. Operationally and economically, everything aligned nicely. Even the revenue recognition under ASC 606 was intuitive enough that the executive team and Board immediately understood it: revenue was earned as a percentage…
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One Board request sounded straightforward enough: explain monthly revenue variance. In the ARM world, we initially approached it using a standard three-factor decomposition: Volume (placements) Liquidity Rate Fee Rate Simple in theory. Except variance attribution models are rarely as objective as they appear. The problem emerged almost immediately: sequence mattered. If volume variance is calculated…
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Shakespeare, through Polonius, warns: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” It’s one of those lines that sounds outdated in a modern credit economy. Credit fuels growth. Borrowing accelerates opportunity. Lending creates return.All true. And yet, spend enough time in the back end of the system—the part where things break—and the line starts to sound…
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I see no shortage of posts aimed at owners warning about valuation gotchas. Founder dependence is usually near the top of the list: no capable lieutenants, no delegation, value looks more like a job than a business. There’s truth in that. But it’s also incomplete. In many early and mid-stage companies, a founder-centric model isn’t…
