Our services · Growth strategy consulting
Growth strategy consulting for technology companies
Agree where the business is going, then choose the route: build it, partner for it or buy it. We test each route with your customers and your market, and turn the choice into a plan your board will back.
For the leadership teams of software and technology businesses and the investors behind them. A partner leads every project.
Our view
Corporate strategy is where you plant the flag, but the route must remain flexible.
Les Elby, Partner, January 2026. Read Les’s article on planting the flag
When clients call us
Four moments when a growth plan needs a fresh look
Growth has slowed
Revenue is still rising, but more slowly, and the leadership team does not agree why.
A new investor wants a new plan
The investment case has to become priorities the team can deliver and the board can track. How we work with investors
Too many options
New markets, new products and acquisitions all look possible. The team can do two or three of them well.
An exit in two to three years
The growth story has to hold up when buyers and their advisers test it. Exit strategy for tech companies
The routes
Three routes to the same goal
Plans usually combine routes. The work is choosing the mix and the order, and agreeing what would make you change course.
Select a route to see what it takes.
Where you are today
Your goal in three to five years
Build
- Keep customers
- Sell more to them
- Win new ones
- New markets and products
Build: grow from what you have
What this route needs
Product, sales and customer teams with room to take on more, and the money to fund them.
What we test
Customer interviews, win and loss reviews, pricing, and bottom-up sizing of each new market.
Where we help
The growth strategy and plan, with the customer research behind it.
Partner
- Channel partners
- Technology alliances
- Routes into new countries
Partner: reach customers through others
What this route needs
Partners who already sell to your customers, and an offer they can sell without you in the room.
What we test
Which partners your customers already buy from, and what each would need to make your product worth their time.
Where we help
Choosing which partnerships to pursue, and the commercial case for each.
Buy
- Acquisition strategy
- Target map
- Approach and diligence
- Completion
Buy: acquire the growth
What this route needs
Funding, someone to own the integration, and a clear view of what you are buying and why.
What we test
The companies in your market that could be bought, screened against the strategy, then tested before you commit.
Where we help
Buy-side M&A from target search to completion, with commercial due diligence where the deal needs it.
How the work runs
Four stops, agreed with you at the start
We agree the scope and the timetable with you before we begin.
1. Diagnose
A Business X-Ray of the market, your customers, your competitors and your numbers. What the X-Ray covers
2. Set the goal
Where the business should be in three to five years, agreed with the leadership team and the board.
3. Choose the routes
Build, partner or buy, sized and compared, with the evidence for each.
4. Plan and deliver
Owners, milestones and measures, and the signals that would make you change route.
Where we start
The Business X-Ray
Before we recommend a route, we look at six layers of the business, so everyone round the table works from the same facts.
Select a layer.
Market
How much room is there to grow?
What we look at
Market size and growth, built from the bottom up, and the trends working for and against you.
What it tells you
How much headroom your plan can realistically assume.
Customers
Who buys, why, and who might leave?
What we look at
Segments, buying reasons, retention and expansion, from interviews with customers, former customers and prospects, and from your data.
What it tells you
Which customers to grow with, and where revenue is at risk.
Competitors
Where do you win, and where do you lose?
What we look at
Direct and adjacent competitors, pricing, switching costs and the AI-native companies moving into your market.
What it tells you
Where your position is strong enough to build on.
Product and proposition
Is the offer clear, and is the product heading the right way?
What we look at
What customers value, what they would pay more for, and how your roadmap compares.
What it tells you
What to build next and what to stop.
Go-to-market
Does the sales engine fit the ambition?
What we look at
Your ideal customer profile, pricing and packaging, channels and the sales motion.
What it tells you
The changes that would make growth cheaper to win.
The numbers
Is growth efficient?
What we look at
Historical trading, revenue mix, recurring revenue, retention and unit economics.
What it tells you
Which growth is worth paying for, and what the plan can afford.
The customer layer
We ask your customers, not only your team
Customers know why they bought, what they would pay more for and what would make them leave. Their answers show where the business stands today and where its next growth will come from.
We interview customers, former customers and prospects, using the same method as our Voice of the Customer research.
- Why they bought
- What they would buy next
- What would make them leave
- How you compare
Published evidence
22%
median growth in private B2B SaaS in 2025, down from 25% in 2024. Companies with net revenue retention of 100 to 110% grew five percentage points faster than those at 90 to 100%.
Source: SaaS Capital, 2026 Private B2B SaaS Company Growth Rate Benchmarks (2025 data, more than 1,000 companies).
What you get
A plan short enough for the board to read and specific enough to act on
We keep it short on purpose, so the board reads it and the team uses it. You will not get a long report.
A shared view of where the business stands
The market, your customers, your competitors and your numbers, in one place.
The routes, sized and compared
Build, partner and buy, with the evidence for and against each.
A plan the board can back
Priorities, owners, milestones and the measures you will track.
Customer evidence behind each recommendation
The board can see where each priority came from.
Growth plan
Board version
Where we will be in three to five years
The routes: build, partner, buy
The first priorities
Owners and milestones
The measures the board will track
What would make us change route
Illustration
From plan to deals
When the plan includes an acquisition
When a growth plan includes buying a business, we can run that part too. We advised Causeway on its acquisitions of Reference Point and of one.network from Bridgepoint.
Your partners
The partners, from first meeting to final plan
Les Elby
Partner
Mat Truche-Gordon
Partner
We sit on technology boards today
Our partners sit on the boards of technology companies, and have sat on the boards of others we helped to scale.
We have run strategy and M&A inside technology businesses
The plan is written by people who have had to deliver one.
We will tell you if it won’t work
Strategy work fails when a leadership team is not ready to make the choices it points to. If we think that is the case, we say so at the first meeting.
Some of the companies and investors we have worked with
Common questions about growth strategy consulting
What do your growth strategy services cover?
Where the business should be in three to five years, the routes that will get it there, and the plan to deliver them. We look at the market, your customers, your competitors and your numbers, then help the leadership team choose.
We are PE-backed. When should we review the plan?
Soon after investment, ahead of a board planning cycle, when growth slows, before a move into new markets, or when the value creation plan needs testing with evidence from outside the business. How we work with investors
What is the Business X-Ray?
Our structured review of a technology business across six layers: market, customers, competitors, product and proposition, go-to-market, and the numbers. It is the first step of a growth strategy, and you can also commission it on its own.
How is growth strategy different from commercial due diligence?
Commercial due diligence tests a business before you invest in it or buy it. Growth strategy is for a business you run or already own, and decides where it should focus next. Commercial due diligence for technology acquisitions
Can you help if the plan includes an acquisition?
Yes. We can map the market for targets, approach them and run the deal through to completion. Buy-side M&A advisory
Can you stay on while the plan is delivered?
Yes. Some clients keep us on for strategic growth advisory once the plan is agreed, to review progress with the board and to help with any acquisitions.
Further reading
Start a conversation
Talk to a partner about your growth plan
Tell us where the business is and where you want it to be. We will tell you plainly whether we can help.
