perspectives
Our point of view
Whitepapers
The Business Underneath
Data shows the business you run, rarely the one on the door: what two near-identical companies with a 4x revenue gap reveal about the systems underneath.
How to Build a Modern PE Firm
Six changes that separate a firm from a fund, for sponsors who know the spreadsheet-and-leverage era is over and the next decade will be won operationally.
The Claymore Way
Marketing is the last thing we fix, not the first: why most companies that ask us to fix marketing have a data and operations problem wearing its clothes.
Hostage Funds
A new framework for PE governance failure: what happens when a sponsor cannot raise the next fund but still controls billions in assets nobody can move.
The Brand Tax
Why the brand cut you make in year one is the problem you inherit in year three, and how to tell disciplined cost control from borrowing against the exit.
Bridging the Gap
Why marketing reports never reach the metric the deal team paid for, and how to rebuild reporting so campaign results reconcile to the investment case.
The Gathering Storm
Why private equity's crisis is deeper than it looks: compressed distributions, record portfolio backlogs, and what it will take for sponsors to survive it.
Marketing as an Asset Class
The PE operating framework that treats a portfolio company’s marketing engine (data, stack, acquisition system) as a balance-sheet asset priced at exit.
Reading Cialdini Wrong
The principles work. The way the digital industry uses them does not: why persuasion tactics keep showing uplift while the underlying business stays flat.
Perspective
Why is the Operating Partner role challenged?
Most operating partners face a fundamental constraint: influence, not authority. Even when the firm owns the portfolio company, they still approach the CEO as an outsider. If the CEO doesn't see the value, they move on. No mandate, no ownership, no accountability for execution.
That constraint is why Claymore is built the way it is. We don't advise from the outside. Our teams embed, build, and run the work, accountable for the number rather than the recommendation.
