AI for Private Equity and Portfolio Companies

The cheapest EBITDA in your portfolio is the work nobody should be doing by hand.

Tiger Tail makes the companies you are buying, holding, or selling more AI-native, so they run leaner and exit stronger. We embed inside portfolio companies, find the operational drag, and build the AI systems that lift margin and free up the team. Done-for-you, owned by the company, live in weeks rather than quarters.

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Buy-side & sell-side · Built for the hold period · The company owns the systems
The problem

The math behind the manual work

60%+

Of private equity value creation now comes from operational improvement, not multiple expansion or leverage. The returns are made inside the business.

Bain
20–40%

Of the work inside a typical portfolio company is manual operations a system should handle. That drag sits directly on margin.

100 days

Is where value-creation plans are won or lost. The automations that ship in the first quarter compound for the entire hold.

Where AI moves the needle

The systems that do the work

We work with PE firms and their operating partners across the deal lifecycle. Whether you are diligencing a target, running a 100-day plan, or preparing an asset for exit, we make the business measurably more efficient with AI and leave systems the company actually owns.

01

AI operational due diligence

Before you close, we assess how AI-ready a target is and where automation can add EBITDA after the deal. You get a clear, quantified view of the operational upside and the cost to capture it, so it is priced into your thesis rather than discovered later.

  • AI readiness and automation-opportunity assessment of the target
  • Quantified EBITDA and margin upside, with cost-to-capture estimates
  • Risk review of data, systems, and key-person dependencies
  • Delivered on your diligence timeline, sized for the deal
02

100-day AI value-creation plan

In the first 100 days, we turn the thesis into working systems. We prioritize the automations that move margin fastest, build them, and stand up the operating cadence so the gains compound through the hold.

  • Prioritized value-creation roadmap tied to the investment thesis
  • First automations live inside the first 100 days
  • Operating dashboards so the deal team can see the impact
  • Built on the company's stack, owned by the company
03

Portfolio company efficiency and margin lift

Across the hold, we make portfolio companies run leaner. AI handles the manual operations, finance, sales, and back-office work that quietly caps margin, so the team scales output without scaling headcount.

  • Workflow and back-office automation across the company's operations
  • AI in finance, sales ops, and customer operations to lift throughput
  • Headcount leverage: more output without proportional hiring
  • Repeatable playbooks you can run across the portfolio
04

Exit readiness and sell-side value story

Before a sale, we make the asset more attractive and easier to diligence. AI-native operations, clean data, and documented systems raise the quality of earnings and support a stronger multiple and a smoother process.

  • AI-native operations that strengthen the equity story
  • Clean, documented systems that hold up under buyer diligence
  • Margin improvements that show up in the numbers, not the deck
  • Knowledge captured so the business is not dependent on a few people
The AI Gameplan

Four weeks. One roadmap. Your first system live before week five.

01

Discover

We dig into how your business actually runs and where time and money leak out.

02

Immerse

We get inside your workflows, tools, and data to understand the real constraints.

03

Synthesize

We turn what we found into a prioritized plan and an AI readiness scorecard.

04

Roadmap & Build

You get a clear roadmap, and we start building, with your first system live before week five.

Built on your stack

We connect to the tools you already use

NetSuiteQuickBooksSalesforceHubSpotWorkdaySnowflakePower BITableauMicrosoft 365Google WorkspaceDocuSignZapier

Illustrative example · lower-middle-market buyout · services portfolio company · 120 employees

We brought Tiger Tail in during the first 100 days to capture the operational upside our thesis assumed was there. They built the automations in finance and customer operations we had planned to hire for, and the margin showed up in the numbers by the next board meeting. When it is time to sell, this is now part of the story.
+4 ptsgross margin within two quarters
30%less manual back-office work
0added headcount to scale output
FAQ

Common questions

Do you work with the PE firm or the portfolio company?

Both. We are engaged by the firm or the operating team and we embed with the portfolio company to do the actual build. The firm gets visibility and a repeatable playbook. The company gets working systems it owns.

How does this fit a hold period and an eventual exit?

We start with the highest-margin automations so the impact shows up early, then build through the hold. By exit, the company runs on documented, AI-native systems that strengthen the equity story and hold up under buyer diligence.

Can you move on diligence timelines?

Yes. Operational due diligence is scoped to your deal clock. You get a quantified view of the AI and automation upside, and the cost to capture it, before you close.

Will this create dependency on you?

No. Everything we build is owned by the portfolio company, documented, and handed to the internal team. We are there to build capability, not to become a permanent line item.

How is this priced?

Diligence and value-creation planning are scoped to the deal and the plan. Implementation is priced against the upside we have quantified together. We bill month-to-month with hold-period terms. The intro call is free.

Let's talk

Find the operational upside in your next deal

Book a call. We will show you where AI can lift margin across a target or a portfolio company, what it costs to capture, and how it strengthens the exit.

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