Your portfolio companies are already experimenting with AI. We help them turn it into recurring EBITDA.
Built for private equity sponsors who need exit value faster than they can hire for it.
Blackbox Zero works alongside one of your portfolio companies to learn its processes, data, and existing AI tools, then puts AI into its highest-cost workflow. We streamline the process, deploy AI agents at specific steps, and release the hours people now spend on manual work, quantified in dollars the company can reinvest in growth or apply to its budget. The best fits are high-volume back-office work: invoices, orders, claims, collections, and customer requests. The program runs 12 weeks, with checkpoints at weeks 2 and 6 to stop if the agreed target is out of reach. Half the fee is paid by week 6. The other half scales with results at week 12 (fee capped at target).
Target share of the team's hours released, quantified in dollars from the company's own data.
Of the company's team time needed, on average. No one is assigned full time.
Of the fee is contingent on measured results.
You have a mandate to deliver measurable AI results. Your portfolio companies may not have the team to deliver them.
Mid-sized sponsors run lean by design. A small value-creation team, if it exists, covers a whole portfolio and is stretched too far to give each company the focus it needs. Portfolio companies run their back offices with people who already have full jobs, and many are not large enough to warrant full-time AI expertise. Meanwhile, the sponsors who moved early are seeing results: 66% of private equity leaders now report AI benefits within 12 months, up from 34% a year earlier.
Competition for deals has raised the bar.
Sponsors paying today's prices need about 12% annual EBITDA growth to earn the return 5% delivered a decade ago.
Most AI is still in pilot.
Only 5% of private equity respondents have fully integrated AI into operations, while 45% are still piloting.
The team is already over capacity.
The people who would run an AI project internally are the same people closing the books, chasing receivables, and answering customers.
Sources: FTI Consulting, 2026 Private Equity Value Creation Index (June 2026). Bain & Company, Private Equity Midyear Report 2026. Grant Thornton, Private Equity Insights: 2026 AI Impact Survey Report (April 2026).
Anyone can buy the tools. Few have the hours or experience to turn them into quantified savings.
Getting concrete savings from AI deployments requires three things at once: someone who measures the results the way a controller would, someone who configures the tools the company already licenses, and someone who redesigns the process so the freed hours can be redeployed. In a lean company, all three of those jobs land on people who already have a full schedule and other higher priorities.
We do the work alongside the company's team for 12 weeks, prove the results using the company's own numbers, and hand everything over at the end so the team owns and runs it.
We work at the sponsor's request and on the company's terms. The company's team sees every number first, decides how released hours are used, and owns the process when we leave.
Paid on results
Half of the fee depends on the measured result.
Built on what the company owns
We start with the AI the company already licenses and get more from tools that have not yet paid off.
Ready for diligence
Every released hour is quantified in dollars and tied to the general ledger, so the EBITDA impact can be traced and defended in a quality-of-earnings review.
The company's data stays put
We work inside the company's systems, under a mutual NDA.
Three steps. One workflow. Twelve weeks.
Step 1: Measure
We measure how much work flows through the company's back-office processes and how long each item takes, using its system data. We pick the workflow that would benefit most, and agree a target with the CFO.
Checkpoint 1: If the numbers do not support a target, the project stops.
Step 2: Prove
The new AI process runs alongside the team on live work, with no impact on customers. The company sees accuracy and time saved every week.
Checkpoint 2: If the results do not point to at least half of the agreed target, the project stops.
Step 3: Deliver
The tested workflow goes live, the remaining work is reorganized around it, and the released capacity is measured against the week 2 target and documented for the CFO.
The company is billed as each step proves itself.
| Step | When it is billed | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Step 1: Measure | At the start | $15,000 (25%) |
| Step 2: Prove | At the start of week 3, only if you continue | $15,000 (25%) |
| Step 3: Deliver | At the end of week 12, based on measured results | Scaled, up to $30,000 (50%) |
| Total at target | $60,000 |
| Outcome | Cumulative total paid |
|---|---|
| Stop after Step 1 | $15,000 |
| Stop after Step 2 | $30,000 |
| Step 3 reaches 75% of the target | $45,000 |
| Step 3 meets or beats the target | $60,000 |
Step 3 scales on a straight line from half the target (+$0) to the full target (+$30,000).
Pricing shown is an example for one workflow at one company. Larger or multi-site scopes are quoted after Step 1. Any software licenses are paid directly by the company.
Easy to start. Easy to stop. Limited team involvement. Paid on results.
Two stop checkpoints
If the numbers are not there at week 2 or week 6, the project stops and the company pays only for the steps completed.
Half the fee depends on results
The Step 3 fee is earned only against the released capacity the CFO signs off.
Limited team involvement
About 8 hours a week from the company's team, with no one assigned full time.
Early visibility to quantified results
Weekly numbers start in week 3, measured on the company's data, so everyone knows early whether it is working.
What is one workflow improvement worth at exit?
Every recurring dollar of EBITDA is worth about eight at a typical middle-market exit. Enter four numbers for one back-office workflow at one of your portfolio companies. The other numbers are adjustable assumptions.
Even at the smallest workflow we take on, 5,000 items a month, the fee pays back within a year at the default assumptions.
Management decides how released capacity is used: absorbing growth or add-on volume without new hires, not backfilling attrition, or moving people to revenue work. The first two show up in EBITDA directly. The third shows up when it lifts revenue. Assumes 160 productive hours per employee per month.
Strong candidates have:
Chris Cook, Founder and Managing Partner
Former IBM Vice President and Deputy Chief Auditor, CFO of IBM UK and Ireland, and Controller of IBM Japan. Created IBM's first AI audit program and reviewed & approved client AI deployments as a member of the AI Ethics Board. Chris measures AI savings the way a controller closes the books.
CFA charterholder · Yale SOM MBA · BU Computer Science · Audit Committee Financial Expert
Book a 20-minute fit check.
Bring one portfolio company and one workflow, with ballpark numbers. You will know whether it qualifies, and what the improvement could be worth at exit. There is no cost, and no data to send in advance.
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Prefer email? ccook@blackboxzero.com or connect on LinkedIn.