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Director of Strategic Partnerships
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Opportunity for a Commercial Operator
Introduction
I am looking for one unusually well-connected commercial operator who knows how to open the right doors.
You may already have trusted relationships with business owners, founders, investors, advisers, accountants, lawyers, wealth managers, corporate-finance professionals, acquisition entrepreneurs or founder communities.
You may have spent 10, 20 or 30 years building those relationships.
Now you would like to turn that experience and network into something more entrepreneurial, flexible and valuable.
The Opportunity
My name is Des Vadgama and I help established business owners uncover hidden Enterprise Value.
Often, millions of pounds of potential value are trapped inside:
- Unclear positioning or strategy
- Weak pricing or margins
- Owner dependence
- Underused assets or intellectual property
- Fragmented businesses that could become a group
- Missed acquisition, funding or partnership opportunities
- Poor preparation for succession, investment or exit
My role is to identify the 3 to 5 moves that will increase the value of a business.
Your role would be to identify the right people, relationships and situations where that work will create substantial value, from £1m to £10m+
This is about strategic introductions, partnerships and dealflow—not high-volume cold calling, generic lead generation or sending hundreds of automated messages.
What You Would Do
You would help to:
- Secure warm introductions to established UK business owners and founders
- Develop referral relationships with trusted professional advisers
- Build partnerships with founder groups, investor networks and business communities
- Identify companies approaching growth, funding, acquisition, succession or exit decisions
- Create selected private briefings, roundtables and joint opportunities
- Originate valuable advisory, investment, acquisition and Enterprise Value projects
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You are not expected to deliver the strategic work or close every engagement yourself.
Your particular strength is recognising an opportunity, opening the conversation and bringing the right people together.
Suitable Candidates
This may suit you if you are:
- A former business-banking or commercial relationship director
- An experienced accountant, lawyer, corporate-finance adviser or wealth manager
- A former commercial director or professional-services partner
- An experienced business introducer or dealmaker
- A founder-community or membership-network leader
- A semi-retired entrepreneur with an exceptional network
- A senior business-development professional who prefers relationships to relentless prospecting
Formal qualifications matter less than judgement, credibility and relationship capital.
Successful Candidates
You are likely to be successful when:
- Business owners trust you and take your calls
- You can recognise serious commercial opportunities
- You communicate comfortably with founders, investors and advisers
- You make thoughtful introductions rather than distributing names
- You are commercially ambitious without being pushy
- You value reputation and long-term relationships
- You enjoy creating opportunities where none previously existed
What This Is Not
This is not:
- An entry-level sales position
- An appointment-setting role
- A requirement to bring a database and immediately exhaust it
- A conventional nine-to-five corporate job
- A disguised commission-only telesales vacancy
It is an opportunity to help build a high-value Enterprise Value advisory and dealflow platform from an early stage.
Structure and Rewards
The role will initially be flexible, fractional and results-linked.
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The commercial arrangement will include:
- Participation in fees from relationships you originate
- Recurring income from ongoing client engagements
- Enhanced rewards for larger transactions or successful outcomes
- The possibility of a more substantial long-term position as the platform develops
The precise structure will be agreed with the right person and will reflect the quality of their experience, contribution and network.
This opportunity is better suited to someone motivated by autonomy, relationships and uncapped commercial participation than someone seeking a standard corporate package.
The First 90 Days
A strong start would include:
- Identifying a focused group of potential strategic partners
- Securing several high-quality owner or adviser introductions
- Developing two or three productive referral relationships
- Originating qualified Enterprise Value conversations
- Helping convert the strongest opportunities into paid projects or longer-term partnerships
Quality matters considerably more than volume.
How to Apply
Please do not send only a generic CV.
Instead, send me a brief note answering these three questions:
- What types of business owners, founders or advisers already trust you?
- Give two examples of commercial opportunities you created by connecting the right people.
- Which three relationships, communities or categories of partner would you explore during your first 60 days?
You do not need to disclose confidential names at this stage.
I am looking for evidence of judgement, credibility and the ability to create meaningful conversations.
This could become much more than a job for the right person.
It could become a long-term role helping business owners create millions in additional value - and participating meaningfully in the value we help create.
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