Your technology is either creating value or destroying it. Most leadership teams can't prove which.
We are a Technology Operating Partner. Embedded technology leadership for the seats running finance, security, compliance, and operations inside PE-backed mid-market companies. Full-stack governance, strategy, and execution that adds to what your team already does. One accountable relationship designed to end the proposal treadmill: the cycle where every new requirement triggers months of vendor evaluation and pushes the work that moves the business further out.
Start from where you sit
CIO / IT Strategy
I took the seat. The documentation did not come with it.
CFO / Finance
I approve technology spend. I cannot prove what it bought.
CISO / Security
I have the mandate, not the firepower or the budget.
CCO / Compliance
Compliance is bolted on at audit time. I want it in the architecture.
COO / Operations
Technology gets handed to ops before ops is ready for it.
All roles →
Board, CEO, IT Leader, PE Operating Partner. Same starting question.
How engagement unfolds
Initiative first. Program second. Portfolio scale when it fits.
Most relationships begin with a fixed-price Initiative because committing to the durable form on day one is the wrong shape for either side. Once the Initiative confirms the fit, the Program tier continues the work on quarterly cadence. PE-backed funds with multiple portcos can start one level up.
01
Start with an Initiative
Fixed scope, fixed price, two to six weeks. Walk away with the artifact on the date you signed up for.
See the catalog →
02
Continue as the Program
Four tiers matched to organizational complexity. The durable Operating Partner relationship. Annual commitment, monthly billing.
See Tiers & Pricing →
03
Run a Portfolio Diagnostic
Fund-level engagement for GPs and operating partners. Same scoring framework across every portco. Six to ten weeks.
See the Diagnostic →
The problem
Technology is the most consistently mispriced variable in mid-market business.
Every other function in your business runs inside an accountability framework. Sales has a pipeline. Operations has output metrics. Finance has a P&L. Technology runs on uptime, ticket counts, and "operating well" assertions, and gets funded on faith.
The board can't see it
Technology gets discussed every meeting and never actually governed. The board has fiduciary accountability for risks it has no independent visibility into.
The CFO can't measure it
Approving a budget without a framework for evaluating the return. Every IT initiative arrives with a technical justification, not a financial one.
The team can't move on it
The Proposal Treadmill™ typically runs 2 to 4 months from problem to vendor, and the cycle repeats. By the time the engagement starts, the problem has compounded into three more.
What we do
One relationship. Three reasons it pays for itself.
Not an MSP. Not a fractional CIO. Not a consulting engagement. A Technology Operating Partner: embedded, accountable, financially aligned, and structurally able to move fast.
The core relationship
Technology Operating Partner
An always-on relationship with one accountable owner across the entire technology function. Strategy, architecture, security, compliance, change management, and IT operations running as one team, on one cadence, with one voice to the board. The financial discipline you apply to every other function in the business, finally applied to technology.
What we replace
The Proposal Treadmill™
Every time technology exceeds internal capability, the same 2 to 4 month cycle repeats. Solicit, evaluate, negotiate, onboard, ramp, start over. Every vendor begins at zero. The institutional memory always belongs to the client. We absorb the treadmill. One relationship with the context, the team, and the cadence to skip the cycle entirely.
The outcome
Compounding Value Creation
The drivers work the same for any organization. Three categories where technology either creates value or destroys it, every quarter. We quantify the opportunity on day one, deliver against each category, and report progress to the board on the same cadence as every other function in the business.
How the program runs
Three modes. One relationship. The treadmill never starts.
A Technology Operating Partner does not pick one of these modes. We carry all three at once, switching based on what the business needs in that moment. That is the difference between an embedded relationship and a transactional one.
Prevent
The default state. The treadmill never starts.
Embedded in your operating cadence: weekly operations, monthly steering, quarterly board reporting. Strategy, architecture, security posture, and vendor performance under continuous management. The work that prevents the next 2-to-4-month proposal cycle from ever needing to begin.
Resolve Directly
When something arises, we act.
Inside the retainer. No new SOW. No proposal cycle. No vendor search. We have the team, the context, and the institutional memory already. From the moment a problem surfaces to the moment it is resolved, the path runs through one relationship.
Own the Resolution
When the stakes are highest.
Incidents. Failed audits. M&A integrations. Executive transitions. Compliance escalations. When it matters most, we don't escalate to a new SOW. We mobilize. Full-stack response, clear accountability, direct reporting to the board. One relationship. One cadence. No surprises.
Who we serve
Pick the seat you sit in. We'll show you what changes.
Every persona sees a different piece of the technology challenge. Click your role for the version of Preside written for it, in your language and about your priorities.
Mandator
Board / Investor
Technology is the function with the highest stakes and the thinnest board-level visibility.
Sponsor
PE / General Partner
You price deals. Technology risk affects every multiple you achieve.
Sponsor
PE / Operating Partner
IT is the value lever your 100-day plan doesn't address.
Sponsor
CFO / Finance
You fund IT. You just can't hold it accountable the way you hold everything else.
Sponsor
CEO / Business Owner
Technology should be driving the business. You don't have the framework to measure whether it is.
Influencer
COO / Operations
Technology gets handed to you. Nobody checks if you're ready for it.
Influencer
CISO / Security
You have the mandate. You don't have the firepower to match it.
Influencer
CCO / Compliance
Compliance is bolted on at audit time. It should be in the architecture.
Influencer
IT Leader
Your team delivers the work. Strategic credit goes elsewhere. The board sees costs, not contribution.
Not sure which to pick? Take the 5-question path-finder. Personalized recommendation, emailed brief, no call required.
From the library
Briefings, news, and Initiative spotlights.
Executive-grade thinking, occasional news from the program, and walk-throughs of what specific Initiatives actually deliver. Read what fits the seat you sit in.
What the board should be asking about AI before approving the budget.
Microsoft is selling Copilot hard, and every major software vendor has an AI story that lands at the C-suite and reaches the board as a budget line. Most boards approve it. Most boards should be asking more questions first.
Briefing AI · GovernanceAI governance for Microsoft 365: what has to be true before you deploy Copilot.
Copilot does not bypass your permissions. It uses them. Which means everything wrong with your SharePoint permissions, your sensitivity labels, and your data loss prevention policies becomes the AI's problem too.
Briefing Compliance · SecurityRC4 Kerberos is already a compliance violation. Not just a July 14, 2026 problem.
If your organization is subject to HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, NIST 800-53, or CMMC, active RC4 usage in Active Directory is already a control violation today. The July 14, 2026 deadline only makes it visible to auditors.
vs. the alternatives
One relationship that replaces four.
The fractional CIO, the project consultancy, the generalist MSP, the proposal treadmill running underneath them. Each is solving a piece of the problem at a fraction of the structural cost.
| Fractional CIO | One-off consulting | Generalist MSP | Preside | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic advisory | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| Execution capability | Limited (one person) | Engagement-bound | Yes, operational | Full-stack |
| Financial accountability | Depends | Sometimes | No | Built in (ALE + P&L) |
| Change management | No | Rarely | No | Core discipline |
| Security and compliance | Direction, not execution | Snapshot assessments | Reactive at audit time | Continuous, in the architecture |
| Skips the proposal treadmill | Partial | No (the treadmill IS them) | Partial, on tickets only | Yes, by design |
| Pattern intelligence | One person's experience | Firm-wide if any | None portfolio-wide | 100+ orgs · learnings re-applied |
The proof step
Most relationships start with a Preside Initiative.
Quick. One to six weeks depending on the initiative type. Fixed price. Defined output. The initiative is structured so you see how we operate, what we deliver, and whether the chemistry fits before any longer commitment. Most of our Operating Partner relationships begin this way. Some Initiatives are standalone. Most lead somewhere larger.
Start with the program. Or the proof step into it.
Either path leads to the same conversation: whether a Technology Operating Partner is the right structural decision for your business. The 30-minute call is the right first step.