Selected Engagements

Representative Engagements.

A selection of engagements, anonymized for confidentiality. The situation we were brought into, the role AP played, and how the work was approached.

Private EquityPE-Backed Agency Network

Portfolio Transformation

Stabilizing a mid-hold agency network while placing its permanent leadership

The Situation

A private equity firm had acquired a regional agency network that was underperforming against the value-creation plan. Leadership gaps, operational drift, and unclear market positioning were constraining growth midway through the hold.

Approach

  • 01Deployed a FRAKZ fractional COO to hold operations steady while the permanent search ran
  • 02Mapped organizational capabilities and isolated the critical leadership gaps
  • 03Redesigned delivery operations around AI-enabled workflows
  • 04Built a go-to-market plan for expansion into adjacent categories
  • 05Placed a permanent CEO and senior operating leaders from the AP network

AP's Role

Interim operating leadership via FRAKZ, running alongside a permanent C-suite search across the portfolio company.

Outcome

Operations were held steady under interim leadership while the permanent executive team was placed from the network. The portfolio company entered its next board cycle with a re-based delivery model and a clearer growth thesis.

SaaSSeries C SaaS Platform

Market Expansion

Entering adjacent categories without diluting the core business

The Situation

A vertical SaaS platform had saturated its initial market and needed to move into adjacent categories without diluting its positioning or overextending the team.

Approach

  • 01Analyzed the landscape across adjacent verticals
  • 02Developed a positioning architecture that could flex across categories
  • 03Built pipeline infrastructure for a multi-vertical sales motion
  • 04Embedded a fractional CRO to lead expansion while hiring the permanent team
  • 05Created a partner-channel strategy for categories requiring domain expertise

AP's Role

Fractional commercial leadership to lead category expansion while a permanent go-to-market team was built.

Outcome

The platform entered adjacent categories with a positioning system and pipeline motion it could run without diluting the core business, and stood up the permanent commercial team to own it.

AgencyMarketing Holding Company

AI Transformation

A shared AI operating layer across five agencies that had resisted standardization

The Situation

A holding company wanted AI-enabled workflows across five agencies, each with a different stack, culture, and set of client requirements. Earlier attempts at standardization had stalled.

Approach

  • 01Audited workflows across the agencies to find the highest-impact opportunities
  • 02Designed a shared AI layer that could adapt to agency-specific needs
  • 03Ran a change program with embedded champions at each agency
  • 04Sequenced the rollout by capability maturity rather than internal politics

AP's Role

Delivery-operations leadership for a cross-agency AI rollout.

Outcome

The holding company moved from stalled, agency-by-agency experiments to a shared AI operating layer in production — working systems inside each agency rather than another standardization mandate.

BrandChallenger CPG Brand

Sponsorship Portfolio

Competing for attention against larger incumbents through structure, not spend

The Situation

A challenger CPG brand needed sponsorship visibility to compete with category leaders on a fraction of their budget. The established properties were priced out of reach.

Approach

  • 01Mapped undervalued properties across sports, entertainment, and culture
  • 02Developed partnership structures beyond standard media buys
  • 03Negotiated hybrid deals combining sponsorship with content and commerce
  • 04Built activation playbooks to make each partnership work harder

AP's Role

Partnerships and sponsorship leadership, from property identification through deal structuring and activation.

Outcome

The brand assembled a sponsorship portfolio it could actually afford and activate, competing for attention against far larger incumbents through structure and creativity rather than raw spend.

Scenarios of Inevitability

We've Seen This Before.

Eight patterns we see repeatedly — the situations AP is brought into, the role we play, and how the work gets done.

Talent & Teams
CMO — PE-Backed Agency.

A PE portfolio agency needs a CMO with experiential and brand credentials. Placed from the network before the role goes public.

Representative engagement+

A PE-backed experiential agency at month 22 of the hold needs a CMO whose profile matches the portfolio's brand ambitions. AP runs a retained search from inside the network and places the final candidate before the role is ever posted publicly. Management team quality is secured ahead of the next board review.

Value Creation LeverManagement team quality · hiring velocity · network access
Talent & Teams · Fractional
PE Portfolio Transformation.

A PE portfolio agency underperforming at month 18. Fractional ops lead installed, permanent search runs in parallel.

Representative engagement+

A PE firm's agency portfolio company is behind plan at month 18 of the hold. AP installs a fractional ops lead to own delivery continuity while the permanent VP Client Services search runs in parallel. Operations steady under interim leadership, and the permanent hire lands into a business that's already been righted.

Value Creation LeverManagement team quality · operating efficiency · hold-period recovery
Go-to-Market
Pipeline for a Media Tech Company.

Qualified pipeline across agency, brand, and publisher categories. Network activated, structured pilot, weekly qualified meetings.

Representative engagement+

A media technology company needed qualified pipeline across agency, brand, and publisher categories. AP activated its network, ran a structured pilot program, and delivered weekly qualified meetings against a defined ideal customer profile. Relationships across the major holding companies, leading publishers, and key brand teams opened within the program window.

Value Creation LeverTop-line growth · relationship-led pipeline · structured cadence
Go-to-Market
Category-Crossing SaaS.

Infrastructure SaaS into pharma. End-to-end commercialization against a defined ICP.

Representative engagement+

An infrastructure SaaS firm entering the pharma category needs full commercialization infrastructure — ICP definition, sequencing, partner activation, and pipeline development. AP runs end-to-end against the defined ICP. Qualified opportunities surface early in the engagement and the category entry is established without a permanent CRO hire.

Value Creation LeverMarket expansion · category entry · pipeline infrastructure
Delivery
Holding Company AI Rollout.

Six portfolio agencies, no shared baseline. Embedded operators plus Belgrade support ship a standardized AI layer.

Representative engagement+

A holding company with six portfolio agencies has no shared AI baseline. Adoption is uneven, tool sprawl is real, and the operating leverage isn't showing up. AP embeds operators across each agency with Belgrade support to ship a standardized AI operating layer. The holdco has shared infrastructure to build on. The agencies have working systems, not slide decks.

Value Creation LeverOperational AI · margin expansion · cross-portfolio leverage
Delivery
Cost-to-Serve — PE-Backed SaaS.

Support burning hours on repetitive tickets. AI service layer installed; freed capacity shifts to retention.

Representative engagement+

A PE-backed SaaS business is burning support hours on repetitive tickets that pattern-match to a handful of categories. AP installs an AI service layer with escalation paths to human agents for edge cases. Support load on the repetitive volume falls while customer satisfaction holds steady, and the freed capacity shifts to retention work that was previously impossible to staff.

Value Creation LeverCost-to-serve reduction · capacity reallocation · operational AI
Partnerships
Sponsorship Stack — Holdco.

An experiential agency holding a Tier-1 sports property needed to monetize it across six clients. AP structured the deal architecture.

Representative engagement+

A global experiential agency holding rights to a Tier-1 sports property needed to monetize it across six brand clients. AP structured the sponsorship architecture, brokered the brand-side deals, and operated the commercial framework across both cycles — turning a held property into structured, brand-side sponsorship revenue across the client roster.

Value Creation LeverProperty monetization · sponsorship architecture · commercial deal flow
Partnerships
Branded Content Partnership.

A global beverage brand entering executive media. AP brokered the multi-issue branded content partnership.

Representative engagement+

A global beverage brand wanted scaled presence in the executive media space. AP brokered a branded content partnership between the brand and a top business newsletter property, structuring the deal terms across a multi-issue, multi-cycle framework with recurring commercial structure.

Value Creation LeverBranded content · two-sided representation · recurring deal structure
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