Kodus Group provides discreet strategic advisory to founders, CEOs, and boards of growth-stage companies — on the handful of operating decisions each year that have outsized effects on what the business looks like in five.
Six partners. Engagements measured in months, not weeks. References on request, not on the website.
We narrowed the firm to the work where partner experience matters most. Each practice is led by a partner who has done the work as an operator, not only as an advisor.
Counsel on operating-model design, executive-team composition, and the structural changes that make a 60-person company capable of becoming a 300-person company without breaking what made the first 60 work. We work with the founder/CEO and the head of people; we do not run searches.
Sell-side and buy-side advisory for founder-owned and PE-backed businesses in the $20M–$250M EBITDA range. Strategic framing, valuation diligence, process design. We do not run banker beauty contests; we work as an extension of the board's M&A committee through close.
Counsel to first-time CEOs and operators making the transition from functional leader to general management. Standing biweekly counsel; topics determined by what's actually on the desk. Not coaching. Not interim. Partner-as-thought-partner for the work only the CEO can do.
Kodus Group is six partners and a small bench. We do not employ associates. We do not staff junior consultants on engagements. The partner you meet at intake is the partner you work with through close.
We take on a small number of engagements at any time, deliberately. The work is dense, often confidential, and benefits from sustained partner attention.
Our partners spent the first decade of their careers as operators — heads of finance, COOs, founders, division presidents. The advisory practice is the second act, and it is shaped by what we wish we had had access to in the first act.
"We are useful to the small number of clients we can give full partner attention to. We are not useful to anyone else."
We do not market. The firm grows by referral from existing clients and from a small network of trusted advisors (lawyers, accountants, board members) who know what we do and what we don't. We do not publish thought leadership, attend conferences, or run a podcast. We are not building a brand. We are doing the work.
We do not pitch. We do not respond to RFPs. The first conversation is a confidential exchange; if there is fit, we move to a written engagement letter. If there is not, we will refer you to firms we think will serve you well.
We do not name our clients. Not on this site, not in press, not on partner LinkedIn pages. References are provided on request, in writing, after a confidentiality agreement is in place.
You crossed 75 people, the seams are starting to show, and the structure that got you here is not the structure that gets you to 300. Six months of biweekly counsel; you make the calls, we pressure-test them.
The board is contemplating a strategic event in the next 18 months. We do the work that comes before the banker pitch — strategic framing, valuation diligence, process design. Bankers come in when the question is "which banker," not "should we sell."
You stepped into the GM role from a functional leadership role. The pattern recognition for this seat takes 18 months to build. We are biweekly counsel during that window. Not coaching, not interim — partner thought-partnership.
The engagements we run touch decisions that are not public yet — sometimes for years. The firm exists because we are trusted to hold confidential information well. We do not name clients, do not discuss live work outside the room, and structure the firm to make leaks structurally unlikely.
We do not take operating control of client businesses. We do not occupy board seats. We do not become the CEO. Our job is to make the call you are about to make a better-informed call than it would have been without us. The call itself is yours.
Engagements are quoted as a monthly retainer with clear scope. M&A engagements include a success component tied to a transaction closing. There are no hidden fees, no project surcharges, and no incentive for us to expand the work beyond what is genuinely useful to you.
We turn down more engagements than we accept. We refer the ones we turn down to firms we believe will serve the work better. We treat "this is not a fit for us" as a partner-level decision, not a sales-process loss.
The most efficient path is a brief email from you describing the situation you are contending with and, if applicable, the person who suggested you write us. We read every introduction and respond within five business days. Initial conversations are held under a standing confidentiality understanding.
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