About the Client

Paving the Way to Growth 

This growth equity investor is all about helping high-growth environment, social, and governance (ESG) friendly consumer brands get the backing they need to succeed. It leverages its rich sector expertise, extensive networks, and significant investment experience to help portfolio companies generate strong long-term returns. 

The Situation 

Looking for Financial Modeling Expertise

Since its inception, the firm has always been a small, lean operation — making the most out of the resources at its disposal. But in late 2021, it realized it would need to expand its team to capitalize on current market opportunities. 

To help support the number of investments the firm wanted to make, it decided that onboarding a due diligence and financial modeling expert would be key to its success. The firm needed help reviewing potential growth equity investments and monitoring existing investments. 

In particular, it was looking for a professional with 1-5 years of experience, strong writing skills, and comfortable using Microsoft Office suite of tools. Because the firm only needed about 10-20 hours worth of work per week for a 6-12 month period, it was decided that instead of onboarding a full-time employee, it would be best to consider an independent consultant. 

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The Solution 

Onboarding a Financial Modeling Expert On Demand 

After conducting market research for an on-demand talent acquisition platform, the private growth equity firm came across Graphite. Intrigued by the ability to find an independent consultant within 24-48 hours, and given the quality of the expert network, the firm requested a call with an Account Executive (AE). 

The AE connected with the hiring manager at the firm to give them a closer look at the platform, how the expert vetting process works, and how to use the platform to communicate with experts using the in-app messaging and video conferencing tools. A look at how payments and how project hours are tracked in the system was also discussed with the hiring manager. 

Excited by the depth of the network and ease of finding and onboarding talent on demand, the hiring manager agreed to set up another call to discuss the role in more detail: deliverables, KPIs, expectations, ways of working, etc. The AE synthesized this information into a job description and posted the project on Graphite after receiving a sign-off from the investment firm’s hiring manager. 

Within 24-48 hours, 14 experts were identified. The AE took a closer look and presented a shortlist of four candidates that best met the project requirements. Excited at the prospect of onboarding a financial modeling expert quickly, the hiring manager arranged calls with each candidate, digging into their expertise and experience in more detail before choosing who to bring on board. 

The expert they chose had significant experience across investment, banking, private equity, strategy, and EEE. Moreover, their experience aligned perfectly with the firm’s mission— they’d previously provided financial modeling support to a women-focused luxury activewear retail and e-commerce business. 

The Result ‍

Providing Crucial Financial Modeling Expertise To Support Investment Strategy

Once onboarded, the expert quickly began supporting the investment firm with a range of strategic financial analysis support services. This included reviewing potential new investments, monitoring existing portfolio companies via financial modeling, industry and market research, and developing a deep understanding of each startup’s customers and competition.

The expert turned companies’ figures into easily understandable, presentable charts. Additionally, they reviewed due diligence materials to support go/no-go investment decisions and prepared detailed investment decks in PowerPoint. 

Thanks to the expert’s ongoing support, the company could capitalize on fruitful market opportunities that would enable it to drive growth for the firm and its clients. Through Graphite, not only was the firm able to find a reliable candidate to reach its goals, but it also saved $180,000 by onboarding an independent expert vs. a full-time employee. 

Since this engagement, the private equity firm has continued to use Graphite as a reliable partner for onboarding talent on demand. To date, the firm has completed two additional projects on Graphite, with two active projects currently underway.