In January 2026, Mayfair Equity Partners hosted a forum for CFOs and finance professionals at our portfolio companies and hosted by Mayfair’s Finance Function Specialists Carly Bleathman and Jo Huddleston, Exit Readiness Specialist Chris Morris, and Associate Director Abbie Robus.
The forum was part of Boost!, Mayfair’s networking and development programme, designed to spark collaboration across our portfolio, strengthen connections, and equip management teams with practical tools and insights. Through a series of curated events, Boost! aims to unlock potential by empowering individuals, adding value to businesses, and shaping the digital leaders of tomorrow.
Why the best sponsors help founders build businesses that thrive under scrutiny at any stage
In a private equity-backed business, scrutiny is not a one-off event. It is a constant companion. The best management teams do not fear that scrutiny, because they are building for the long game. And the best sponsors are not simply preparing businesses for a future exit, but helping founders create companies that can thrive under examination at any stage.
That was the central message at Mayfair’s CFO Summit: exit readiness is not an “exit project”. It is the natural output of a well-run business.
“The goal isn’t to look good in diligence. The goal is to build a business that’s always credible.”
For CFOs, this moves preparation away from panic and towards embedded discipline. The work is the same – robust reporting, clean financials, defensible KPIs, clear documentation, governance that holds up under challenge – but the intent is different. It is not to create a short-term impression but to build an organisation that compounds value year after year.
Many founders are understandably wary of private equity partners who talk too much about exit, creating the impression that they are focused on timing rather than transformation. The best partnerships take a more constructive view, that a successful outcome comes from building a stronger business, not from engineering a moment, and investing in fundamentals early, even when the business is scaling fast.
“Market windows are unpredictable. Your fundamentals shouldn’t be.”
At Mayfair, the philosophy is simple: treat finance maturity and exit readiness as a continuum. From day one of ownership, the objective is to make the business more resilient, more scalable and more credible. Not because an exit is imminent, but because a well-run business creates more strategic options.
This is why we have experienced finance maturity and exit readiness process specialists, supporting portfolio CFOs with structured frameworks, repeatable tools and practical execution support. The focus is not on producing a “deal pack”, it is on embedding systems and processes that strengthen the organisation for the long term.
CFOs know that exit readiness is often treated like a fire drill. It’s not unusual that a scramble begins 12 to 18 months before a process, with teams forced into trying to recreate historical information, reconcile data sources and document decisions made by people who have long since left the business.
The CFO Summit discussions were candid about the cost of this approach. It creates distraction, stress, uncertainty and a genuine operational risk, as well as taking management focus away from the very thing that matters most: running the business.
“If you have to go back three years to rebuild the narrative, you’ve already lost time you can’t get back.”
The long-game approach is the opposite, spreading the workload across the investment period. It treats preparation as business-as-usual, not as an exceptional burden. It builds a monthly rhythm of discipline that, over time, becomes a competitive advantage.
For CFOs, the foundations are familiar but non-negotiable: normalised financials, monthly reconciliations, clean EBITDA bridges, a defensible approach to exceptionals, and a model that is owned by the business rather than built only for a process.
“Make the easy stuff easy, so you have capacity for the hard stuff when it arrives.”
A recurring theme at the Summit was the importance of delegation and ownership. CFOs should not be the single point of failure for every data request or reporting challenge. The best businesses create internal ‘superstars’ who own core elements of readiness; data room structure, reporting packs, KPI integrity and model assumptions and builds capability across the finance function
“Exit readiness is a team sport, not a CFO endurance test.”
The long game also means keeping the equity story alive as a real, data-backed articulation of what makes the business differentiated and why it will win in the future. This is where partnership-led value creation becomes tangible. A sponsor’s role is not to impose a generic playbook, it is to help management identify the handful of levers that truly matter and build the evidence base to support them.
“A great equity story isn’t created in a workshop. It’s built through consistent execution and consistent data.”
The most important reframe for founders and CFOs is that readiness is not about selling, it is about building a business that can be bought. The best businesses are bought because they are clearly well-run, well-governed and positioned for growth, and when that happens, it becomes something the business is ready for.
“A strong business doesn’t chase opportunity. It attracts it.”
