TECHNOLOGY & AI

We find the technology risk nobody has priced, then build the systems that carry the number.

This is the Technology & AI practice at Crescent Capital Advisors. An operator who has held the CTO and CISO seats through a full hold and exit reads the technology in a company before an investor commits, and runs the technology, security, and AI program inside companies where no transaction is in front of anyone. The same practice does both.

TWO WAYS IN

You do not need a transaction to hire this practice.

Hire either practice alone and nothing breaks. The value of one firm shows up at the handoff, not in a bundle.

A large part of this work starts without a deal. A CEO has an ERP decision to make, an AI program that has stalled, or a security posture a customer has started asking about, and there is no transaction anywhere near it. That work is bought here directly. It requires no M&A mandate, and nothing on this page routes it into a transaction later.

THE THESIS

The technology is usually the risk nobody priced.

By the time a deal reaches diligence, the model has priced the market, the multiple, and the management team. The technology gets a paragraph. Then the platform play stalls because every add-on takes nine months to integrate, one engineer owns the system nobody else understands, and the roadmap the CEO presented assumes a team that has turned over most of its engineers in eighteen months. None of that showed up in the model. All of it shows up in the return.

TWO BUYERS, ONE PRACTICE

We speak to both, and connect them.

The operating partner needs the read. The portfolio company needs the systems. Most firms buy these from two different vendors who never speak to each other, which is why the 100-day plan so rarely connects to what the diligence found. We do both, from one seat.

PRODUCTIZED ENGAGEMENTS

Four bands across the deal lifecycle.

Every engagement starts with an assessment.

Fixed-fee. Scoped before kickoff.

HOW AN ENGAGEMENT RUNS

Read the risk, then own the outcome.

1. 01

   Assess

   We read the system before we touch it: PRISM™ across five dimensions, translated into money and time.

   Checkpoint: a written risk map and a walk-away recommendation, even if we are not the team to build it.

2. 02

   Plan

   The findings and the thesis become a short list of moves that move the number: sequenced to the hold, not the punch list.

   Checkpoint: a 100-day roadmap the operating team signs off on before any work starts.

3. 03

   Build & operate

   Embedded leadership builds and runs the systems: CLEAR™ across the hold, with checkpoints tied to the timeline, not an arbitrary quarterly cadence.

   Checkpoint: monthly board-ready reporting and milestone reviews against EBITDA, not activity.

4. 04

   Own it

   We hand your team systems they can run and documentation they own, then step out. No lock-in engineered into the exit.

   Checkpoint: your team operates it without us, and the exit story is already written.

THE ASSESS DELIVERABLE

A page from the diligence memo.

Composite example, drawn from real engagements.

A PRISM™ memo does not read like a code review. Every finding carries a bucket, a dollar consequence, a remediation window, and a confidence level. Three representative findings, de-identified, and below them a full sample memo published in the open, so you can read what an Assess engagement produces before you buy one:

METHOD

Three frameworks carry the work, and a method library sits behind them.

PRISM™ scores a company's technology across five dimensions and prices each finding. CLEAR™ runs the hold, phase by phase, against the same numbers. The AI Operating System puts one governance and deployment model at fund level, so every portfolio company inherits it instead of building its own. The rest of the method is published in full and listed alongside them.

Representative Outcomes

What we have already done.

Technology & AI, one PE-backed analytics platform across a large-cap firm’s hold period. M&A Advisory mandates and the companies inside them are not published here.

PROOF IN PRODUCTION

The receipts sit behind closed rooms.

The engagements behind those numbers (the services-to-SaaS transformation, the org-wide SOC 2 program, the cost and onboarding work) ran under NDA, and the detail underneath them belongs to the client. The outcomes above are real and reported. The specifics live in the room.

How We Deliver

One lead. A vetted bench.

Tools

Featured tools.

Every one of these is free and takes a few minutes. The first is for an owner weighing a sale. The other three read the technology, AI, and governance side of a business, and all of them are built from the frameworks we run on an engagement.

Recent Thinking

From the operators doing the work.

The most recent writing from each practice.

Newsletter

The Portco Brief

A short brief for PE operating and deal teams: how technology is moving the multiple, read in five minutes. New issue most weeks, no filler.

M&A ADVISORY

The people who price these companies work in the same firm.

HONEST ANSWERS

Before you send the brief.

Do we need a transaction to hire you?

No. This practice is hired inside companies that have nothing in the market: an ERP decision that keeps slipping, an AI program that has stalled, a security posture a customer has started asking about, a technology function that has outgrown the person running it. It is also hired by investors reading an asset before they commit. Neither route requires the other, and the founders route starts with the operating problem rather than a deal.

Do you take carry instead of fees?

No. We are a fee-based operating practice, not a fund and not a co-investor. Fixed fee, scoped before kickoff. If you want a technology partner who takes equity in exchange for a discounted rate, we are the wrong team. And we will say so early.

How is this different from a Big-4 technology due diligence?

A Big-4 read is written by advisors who have never run the system they are assessing, and it usually ends at the finding. Ours is written by an operator who has held the CTO and CISO seats through a full hold and exit. And it does not stop at the finding. Every item is translated into dollar impact, remediation timeline, and thesis risk, and the same team can stay to fix it. If you only need a logo on the IC memo, a large firm may serve you better.

What size portco does this fit?

Lower-middle-market to mid-market PE-backed companies, where technology carries real weight in the thesis. A sitting CTO does not rule you out, and much of our hold-period work runs alongside one. A CTO is accountable for the system they built, which makes them the wrong person to grade it for the board, and they have usually gone deep on one or two environments where we have seen dozens across diligence and hold. What we add is the outside read, the comparison set, and the translation into CapEx, EBITDA drag, and multiple impact a GP can act on. Where there is no senior technology seat, we hold it as fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, or CDO. Where there is one, they get air cover and an independent second opinion they can take to the board. If you are a Fortune 100 with a deep internal bench and an operating partner already covering technology, you do not need us.

Do you do the work, or just advise?

Both, and that is the point. The read is real diligence, not a slide. But we also embed and run the systems during the hold (fractional CTO, CISO, CAIO, or CDO) and hand your team something they can operate after we leave. We are not a firm that writes the memo and disappears, and we are not a dev shop that codes without a thesis.

What happens when we exit?

You own everything. We build systems your team can run and documentation they hold, with no lock-in engineered into the relationship. Ahead of a sale, the Exit engagement runs the buyer's diligence playbook against your own asset first, so the findings that would compress the multiple get fixed while there is still time, and the technology story is written before the buyer writes it for you.

What if the answer is 'don't buy'?

Then we say so, in writing. A Gate finding that kills a bad deal is the cheapest outcome on the page. We would rather tell you to walk than write a comfortable memo you pay for after close.

Can you work at the fund level, not just deal by deal?

Yes. The AI Operating System is a GP-level engagement: one governance model, readiness ladder, and deployment playbook that every current and future portfolio company inherits, instead of a separate AI pilot at every portco. It is early, and we are building it with a small number of design partners. If your portfolio is the proving ground it needs, that conversation starts the same way every other one does: send the brief.

Can we start with just the assessment?

That is the front door. Every engagement starts with an assessment, and you walk away with a usable deliverable whether or not we do anything else together. No obligation to continue. If the read is all you need, the read is all you buy.