Context

Neil: I’m the Founder and CEO at Waterscan, having founded the company in 1994.

Neil: We received investment from Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) during in the middle of 2024, and got to know Coppett Hill during the due diligence process as they were introduced by LDC. We enjoyed our interactions with them during the DD process – they were very engaging and made sure everyone was comfortable with the work they were doing. ​ After the deal we invited them to join the post-completion strategy workshop to discuss some of the areas they highlighted as value creation opportunities during the deal. Coppett Hill were therefore the natural people to support us in unlocking some of those opportunities as we’d got to know them well, and they’d build up a good understanding of the business.

Neil: We generally wanted to get things moving quickly after the investment, in particular how quickly things moved through the sales pipeline. Also help to prioritise which marketing and sales activities we should focus on and lastly improve CRM adoption for the sales team.

Neil: The work had an immediate impact. They had a set of recommendations, 80% of which we’ve already actioned within the first three months after the project. We asked them to help us with two further projects helping to embed some of the work that they did with our team and on building the data platform and dashboards. They’re now helping us to improve our revenue operations as part of an ongoing retainer.

Neil: They helped us to prioritise what was going to have the most impact and cut through the noise. As a team we have lots of ideas, but what Coppett Hill provided was focus and clarity, giving us confidence to focus on fewer but higher value activities.

Neil: Their people are great to work with. They focus on the most important and impactful things rather than just telling you what they think you want to hear.

Neil: I’d recommend them to all CEOs regardless of the owner or time horizon. If your business wants to improve go-to-market then the work they do is incredibly valuable. But equally I get that if it’s done in year one it can have the most impact.

Neil: I think they could have been clearer with the proposal initially for the post-deal value creation work, in terms of what the timeline was going to be and what involvement they’d need from the management team. There weren’t necessarily surprises, but it could have been clearer upfront.

Neil: I’d say engaging. It feels like a nicely embedded relationship now where if I have a question I can call them, and we can debate it. It’s been a great success so far, and I hope it continues to be like that for the next phase.