Your technical operating partner — before, during, and after the deal.

We serve as your retained technical operating partner across the portfolio—providing technical air cover for leadership departures, stalled roadmaps, post-close diligence variance, and AI-era delivery modernization.

The operating model is intentionally temporary: stabilize, diagnose, cover the capability gap, install the durable solution, and exit. Jason leads the relationship and executive judgment, backed by an expanding bench of senior technical talent deployed directly into portfolio situations.

Discuss an Operating Partner Engagement

Retained engagement · from $15K/month · diligence, sprints & licenses scoped separately

The Gap in the Standard Model

Technical diligence names the risk. It rarely helps you fix it.

In lower middle-market vertical SaaS, technical execution drives underwriting quality, Day One readiness, and post-close value creation. But the standard model stops at a report: the risk gets identified, the provider leaves — right when planning and execution begin. The questions that decide the outcome go unanswered:

what you're actually buying, technically
whether the engineering team can execute the roadmap you're underwriting
where the architecture is scalable, fragile, or overbuilt
what has to be fixed before close, on Day One, and in the first 90 days
what AI-era delivery is available — and what it's worth
how to govern internal AI toolchains and unify engineering visibility across PortCos during ownership

The Heavy Chain Model

One technical partner, retained across the deal lifecycle.

Stabilize → Diagnose → Cover the Gap → Install the Durable Solution → Exit

Scoped per Deal

Transaction Support & Technical Air Cover

We consolidate external technical diligence and carry it into execution. When post-close reality differs from diligence, a key technical leader departs, or a critical roadmap stalls, we step in to stabilize delivery, cover the operating gap, and install the permanent solution. We connect underwriting directly to execution instead of handing you a static report.

Assessment · Sprint · License

PortCo AI Toolchain Standardization

Funds are shifting from ad-hoc tech advisors to formalized Technical Operating Partners. We institute standardized internal AI toolchains, testing harnesses, and automated quality gates across PortCo engineering teams—modernizing delivery on live funded projects and measuring velocity with before-and-after baselines.

Included in Retainer

GP Enablement & Unified Visibility

We establish unified technical reporting across your portfolio so GPs can track engineering velocity, internal AI toolchain adoption, and delivery risk more consistently—without forcing artificial metrics onto teams with different stacks. We back that with executive peer advisory, IC defense, and institutional memory across your SaaS transactions.

Why Heavy Chain

Traditional diligence identifies risk. We help you execute against it.

We identify technical risk, convert it into an operating roadmap, and provide technical air cover whenever execution is at risk. With portfolio management teams our posture is insider and intentionally temporary: we stabilize the situation, help install the permanent team and systems, and exit. Led by Jason Vertrees with an expanding bench of senior engineering specialists, we give funds technical optionality without permanent consulting drag.

The Engagement

A retained seat at the fund — then work scoped to demand.

A GP-level retainer gives your investment and operating teams standing access to senior technical judgment: triage on active deals, sequencing across the portfolio, and a clear read on when something stays advisory versus becomes a scoped workstream. It starts as a 90-day engagement, built to convert into an ongoing relationship.

From $15K / month

Scoped separately

Pre-deal technical diligence & Day One operating plans
Technical air cover for leadership departures & transitions
Interventions for stuck roadmaps, migrations & troubled rewrites
PortCo AI delivery assessments, modernization sprints & ETC licenses
Bolt-on technical M&A integration & platform consolidation
Post-failure recovery, codebase stabilization & quality resets

Deal and PortCo work scales with what you're actually doing, so the retainer stays focused on the fund-level seat.

Discuss an operating partner engagement.

Tell us about your fund and your vertical SaaS portfolio — where you're deploying, what technical diligence you buy today, and where execution is constraining the thesis. We'll tell you plainly whether the model fits.