100-Day Protection — Post-Close Operator Deployment for Lower-Middle-Market PE | LeadScape™ Partners
100-Day Protection · Post-Close Operator Deployment For Operating Partners · Lower-Middle-Market PE

The deal closes.
The risk begins.

The deal team goes home. The management team is uncertain. The field does not know who is in charge. The 100-day clock is already running — and the deal thesis is most fragile in this exact window.
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A straight answer on fit. No deck. No pitch.

Thirty years operating in the green industry. Three-time landscape company founder. Walking operations inside companies from $2M to $20M+ in revenue. Fluent in the language of the deal team, the board, and the field — the three audiences an Operating Partner is briefing simultaneously during the 100-day window.

The 100-Day Risk

The deal thesis is most fragile in the first 100 days.

Research on post-close performance consistently shows 5–10% EBITDA drift in the first 100 days when leadership is uncertain. On a $14M revenue / $2.3M EBITDA platform — the most common landscape PE deal — that's between $115K and $230K of EBITDA put at risk in the window where the deal thesis is supposed to be taking root.

Most of this drift is invisible until it shows up in the first board package. By then, the deal thesis is already explaining itself rather than executing.

Sources: McKinsey post-close performance research, HBR M&A integration studies, and observed patterns in green-industry platform acquisitions across 80+ companies audited.

EBITDA AT RISK · 100-DAY WINDOW
$14M revenue / $2.3M EBITDA platform · 5–10% drift range
Missed revenue capture from change orders not chased
$28K–$48K
Margin compression from deferred operating decisions
$32K–$64K
Early team attrition during leadership uncertainty
$26K–$58K
Operational decisions deferred and compounding
$29K–$60K
Conservative 100-Day Exposure
$115K–$230K
Per platform. Compounding into year-one EBITDA.
What Breaks First

Not the strategy.
Execution.

The deal thesis you underwrote isn't undermined by markets, customers, or strategy in the first 100 days. It's undermined by an uncertain operating layer. The pattern is consistent.

01

Decisions slow.

The departing leader's authority dissolves. The incoming leader hasn't arrived. Mid-level managers escalate decisions that used to get made in the field, and the operating partner becomes the bottleneck for things that should never reach the portfolio level.

02

Institutional knowledge walks.

Where equipment is in rotation. Which crews work well together. Which clients tolerate weather delays. The handshake on pricing for the strip mall on 41 that's been at the same number since 2019. None of it documented. All of it in the departing leader's head.

03

Reporting becomes reconstruction.

Without an operating cadence, every board cycle is a one-time data hunt. Same numbers don't appear in the same format twice. The IC asks reasonable questions that take a week to answer. Confidence in the deal model erodes in the silence.

04

The new CEO inherits ambiguity.

When the permanent CEO finally starts, they walk into a hole. Their first 30 days get spent learning what's broken by breaking things. The thesis they were hired to execute is already three months behind. Most of them recover. Some don't.

Investment

One rate.
Three scenarios that show the math.

Pricing is anchored to the deal economics of $5M–$20M landscape platforms. All-in. Travel built in. No variable billing. No expense layers.

Standard Rate · All-In
$60,000 / month
90–120 day typical engagement window. Optional 30-day overlap with permanent CEO at standard rate, prorated.
Founding Engagement Rate
$48,000 / month
For initial platform engagements in exchange for case study development and reference access. ~20% off standard. Limited slots.

Three example scenarios across the deal range.

Engagement fee shown as % of total deal value — the lens an Operating Partner uses to defend stabilization spend.

Scenario A · Entry

Smaller standalone or platform foothold.

Independent sponsor or first add-on. Bandwidth-constrained Operating Partner.
Revenue ~$9M
EBITDA ~$1.4M
Implied deal value (6×) ~$8.5M
EBITDA at risk (8% drift) ~$112K
Engagement length 90 days
Rate (founding) $48K / mo
Total fee $144K
% of deal value 1.7%
Scenario B · Core Most common

Standalone platform acquisition.

Sweet spot for the engagement. Standard rate. Mid-range platform with full thesis at risk.
Revenue ~$14M
EBITDA ~$2.3M
Implied deal value (6×) ~$14M
EBITDA at risk (8% drift) ~$184K
Engagement length 90 days
Rate (standard) $60K / mo
Total fee $180K
% of deal value 1.3%
Scenario C · Larger

Platform with roll-up potential.

Larger platform or platform anchoring a multi-acquisition strategy. Extended engagement window.
Revenue ~$20M
EBITDA ~$3.2M
Implied deal value (6×) ~$19M
EBITDA at risk (8% drift) ~$256K
Engagement length 120 days
Rate (standard) $60K / mo
Total fee $240K
% of deal value 1.3%
How the math works: EBITDA at risk reflects research-backed 5–10% post-close drift in the first 100 days when leadership is uncertain (8% used here as a conservative midpoint). Deal value uses a 6× EBITDA reference multiple for landscape platforms in this range. Fee shown as % of total deal value because that's the lens Operating Partners actually use to defend stabilization spend to their IC.
What's Included

Engagement structure.
Defined before day one.

Deliverables & Cadence

  • Operator in the seat — full COO / platform leadership authority from day one
  • Operational Assessment Report by end of week two, board-ready
  • Decision Rights Document — mapped across the org, week three
  • SOP library for the highest-risk processes (12–18 documents)
  • Board cadence — same numbers, same format, every meeting after week two
  • Transition Memo for the incoming permanent CEO at exit
  • Optional 30-day overlap with permanent hire, prorated at standard rate

Engagement Terms

  • Onsite cadence — 3.5 days weekly Mon–Thu, Friday remote
  • Travel — built into the rate, no separate billing
  • Deposit — 33% on signed engagement letter
  • Balance — equal monthly installments, ACH or wire, Net 15
  • Cancellation — either party with 30-day written notice
  • Authority — defined in the Statement of Work before day one
  • Insurance — $2M Professional Liability, $1M General Liability, COI provided
Right Fit

This works in specific situations.

100-Day Protection isn't for every deal or every platform. The discernment is part of what makes it useful when it does fit.

This Fits

Post-close stabilization with real execution risk.

  • Platform has just closed or is about to
  • Leadership gap or transition exists at the platform level
  • Operating partner bandwidth is stretched across the portfolio
  • Execution risk is unclear but real
  • Green-industry operational fluency would shorten time-to-stability

This Does Not

Stable structure or non-operational situations.

  • Founder-led platforms where the founder is staying through the hold
  • Add-ons absorbed by an existing platform COO
  • Platforms below ~$8M revenue / ~$1M EBITDA
  • CFO is functionally running operations — needs only a search backfill
  • Distressed situations requiring a turnaround specialist
Paul Lukert — Operator, LeadScape™ Partners
30 Years Green Industry Operations
3× Landscape Company Founder
80+ Companies Audited
$123M+ Portfolio Oversight
Executive Director, Maxwell Leadership
About Paul Lukert

The operator your portfolio company actually needs.

I've spent thirty years operating in the green industry. As a landscape company owner three times. As a COO. Walking operations inside companies at every stage from $2M to $20M+ in revenue.

The reason this offering exists is because what I needed when I was running my own platforms didn't exist. I needed an operator. Not an advisor. Not a coach. Someone who would sit in the chair with full authority while the search ran.

I built LeadScape™ after learning — slowly, expensively, the hard way — that the absence of operational infrastructure was costing me hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Every engagement I run now is built on what I had to figure out so the platforms I work with don't have to.

For PE engagements specifically, the difference is fluency. I speak the language of the deal team, the board, and the field — the three audiences an Operating Partner is briefing simultaneously during the 100-day window. That bandwidth gets returned to the Operating Partner so it can go toward the value creation plan instead of into stabilizing a leadership gap.

Slow learner. Fast builder. I've already made all the mistakes. I build the systems so you don't have to.
Common Questions

Operating Partners tend to ask the same things first.

What if the engagement needs to extend past 120 days?
Extensions happen at the standard rate, prorated, with no setup fee or re-onboarding. The most common reason for extension is a longer-than-expected permanent CEO search, in which case the engagement simply continues until the new leader is ready. Either party can terminate with 30 days written notice.
What if we want to exit early?
If the permanent CEO arrives ahead of schedule or the platform stabilizes faster than projected, the engagement ends with 30 days notice. The Transition Memo and final deliverables are completed regardless of timing. Unused months are not billed.
How do you handle confidentiality and non-compete?
Mutual NDA signed before the discovery call. Engagement letter includes confidentiality terms, IP ownership terms, and standard PE-appropriate non-compete language for the duration of the engagement plus 12 months on directly competing portfolio companies in the same vertical.
Can you cover multiple platforms in a portfolio simultaneously?
Generally no — the engagement model is designed around being in the seat at one platform with full operational authority. Portfolio-level engagements are scoped differently and typically involve a roving cadence rather than embedded leadership. Worth a separate conversation if that's the situation.
What happens during the 30-day overlap with the permanent CEO?
I shift from operating in the seat to operating beside the new CEO. They make the decisions; I provide context, walk them through what's installed, and stay reachable as questions surface. The goal is to compress their first 30 days into 10. After the overlap ends, I'm available for follow-up calls but not on engagement.
How quickly can you start an engagement?
Typical lead time from signed engagement letter to onsite is 7–14 days. For situations where the deal is closing imminently, scoping conversations can begin pre-close so the engagement begins on day one post-close.
Discovery Call

Tell me about the platform.
I'll tell you if there's a fit.

A 25-minute call. No deck. No pitch. A straight answer on whether 100-Day Protection fits the situation — and if it doesn't, what would.

Schedule the Call
paul@leadscapepartners.com  ·  (571) 800-7776