The Newsletter

The Day One Letter. Bi-weekly. Short. Signal heavy.

A bi-weekly intelligence note on Transition Services Agreements for the people who actually negotiate them. PE operating partners. Portfolio operations heads. Value creation team members. Corporate divestiture office leaders. Each issue is one tactic, one benchmark, or one pattern from a recent buyer-side engagement. No filler, no marketing follow on, no curated link round up. The work and the words are written by practitioners for practitioners.

  • Bi-weekly. Two issues a month.
  • Three to five minute read.
  • One tactic or one benchmark per issue.
  • Free. No paid tier. No sponsorships.
  • Unsubscribe in one click, no friction.
What Each Issue Looks Like

One signal. Five minutes. Done.

The format is fixed. Open with the one signal that matters, build the case in five short paragraphs, close with a buyer-side action. No introduction filler, no marketing footer, no curated reading list, no sponsorship.

Topics rotate across the five categories below. The cadence is bi-weekly, on alternating Tuesdays at 7 a.m. Eastern. New issues land in the inbox the night before for the morning read.

  1. i.

    Pricing benchmarks.

    A specific cost-plus mark-up range from a recent buyer-side engagement. What the seller priced. What the redline came back at. What the next sponsor should plan to negotiate.

  2. ii.

    Negotiation tactics.

    One leverage point inside the TSA the buyer side often misses. Exit ramp drafting, knock down obligations, force majeure scope, pass-through validation, audit rights.

  3. iii.

    Day One field notes.

    A workstream level lesson from a recent 90 day program. IT, finance, HR, treasury, procurement, tax, legal, cybersecurity. What went right, what almost went wrong, the move that fixed it.

  4. iv.

    Dispute and remedy.

    A specific SLA breach pattern and the credit recovery sequence that lands the remedy. Built from the buyer-side seat.

  5. v.

    Portfolio governance.

    Standardized governance moves for PE firms running three or more active TSAs. Cadence, scorecards, escalation paths, board reporting formats that travel across the book.

Documentary view of a buyer-side advisor reviewing a TSA pricing schedule
Who Reads It

Built for the buyer-side seat. Read on Tuesday mornings.

The Day One Letter is written for the people who own the TSA from the buyer's side of the table. The reading level assumes the reader has been on a TSA before and is comfortable with the vocabulary. There is no introductory primer aimed at executives who have never carved out a business.

01

PE operating partners

Operating partners running one or more carve-outs across the fund's portfolio. Reading for pricing benchmarks, exit milestones and value creation moves.

02

Portfolio operations heads

Portfolio operations functions standardizing TSA governance across the fund book. Reading for portfolio level cadence and standard templates.

03

Value creation teams

Value creation team members mapping TSA exposure into the VCP. Reading for EBITDA tied tactics and cost reduction sequencing.

04

Portfolio CFOs and CIOs

Portfolio company CFOs and CIOs operating inside a live TSA. Reading for the field notes and remedy patterns from comparable carve-outs.

05

Corporate divestiture leaders

Corporate divestiture office leaders running carve-outs from the seller side, reading for buyer-side patterns to anticipate at the table.

06

In-house counsel

Corporate development and transactional counsel close to the deal. Reading for redline tactics, dispute patterns and pricing positions.

The Day One Letter

Subscribe once. Read for the rest of the carve-out.

Bi-weekly. Free. No paid tier. Unsubscribe in one click. The first issue lands in the next two weeks.