Everyone in PE has a “value creation plan”.

It’s usually 40 slides of heroic initiatives, and somehow none of them include the two things that actually move revenue in the real world.

Retention and the front door.

Because the quickest way to create “growth” isn’t another channel, another vendor, another dashboard, another AI pilot. It’s fixing the basics that are quietly leaking money every day.

Churn that everyone pretends is “normal”.
Inbound leads that get a slow reply, a bad handoff, a missed call, a half-assed follow up.
Quotes that never get sent.
Renewals handled like an afterthought.
Service tickets treated like a cost centre instead of the cheapest upsell motion you’ll ever get.

Everyone wants to talk about multiple expansion and pricing power. Fine. But most portfolio companies are losing the game in the first 10 yards.

Bain’s research shows a 5% lift in retention can drive 25% to 95% profit uplift.

That’s not strategy, it's common sense.

If your value creation plan doesn’t have owners, weekly operating metrics, and consequences tied to the basics, it’s not a plan. It’s a bedtime story for the IC.