01 · For independent agencies
Financial, operational and ownership restructuring for independent agencies. Three partners, six months, one flat fee, and the funding arranged alongside the plan.
02 · The problem
Independent agencies carry three problems at once. The billing cycle traps the cash. The operating model was built for headcount the clients no longer pay for. The founder's exit waits for a buyer who has stopped buying. They arrive together, and they are usually sold to three different advisers.
Growth eats working capital before it reaches the P&L. Debt arranged for last decade's billings sits above the business, and the bank prices the covenant, not the client list. The agency is not unprofitable. It is illiquid.
Planning, production and reporting layers built for retainers that became projects. Clients taking work in-house on one side, AI on the other, and an operating model that absorbs neither. Cost programmes buy a quarter. They do not buy a new model.
Management ready to lead, a founder ready to step back, and no structure or capital to make the transfer. An earn-out from the last cycle, a bank that will not fund a buy-out, and a valuation gap nobody has named. The ownership question left open costs more than any cost line.
03 · What we do
Most advisers sell one of the three and hand off the rest. We hold all three, because in an agency they are one problem: the cash decides what the model can become, and the ownership decides whether any of it gets funded. DryDock Partners is backed by financial partners to fund what we recommend.
Buy time and reset the capital structure.
Rebuild the margin model, then the organisation that runs it.
Resolve who owns it and how it is governed.
04 · The method
One method, five phases, a fixed end. Because the agency is in dock, all three pillars start in week one instead of queueing behind each other.
Balance sheet, organisation and ownership model. The structural weaknesses, dated; the cash position dated within the first fortnight.
One roadmap in which restructuring savings fund the margin and the growth.
Hands-on. The organisational redesign implemented with your team; migration to AI-ready environments.
Cap table optimised, restrictive debt removed, control changed so the agency can grow.
Training and governance frameworks so your teams run the new operation alone.
05 · The funding
A restructuring plan that nobody can fund is a report. DryDock Partners is backed by financial partners, so the balance sheet, the operating model and the ownership transition are financed while they are redesigned.
A closed funding programme for independent agencies: growth funding, publisher early-payment programmes and debt restructuring, arranged by DryDock Partners with its banking partners.
By invitation or application. A partner reads every request.
06 · The partners
Two of us spent twenty years on buy-and-build and organisational design, one inside WPP, one as the founder of Candid Platform. The third designed ships before he designed finance systems. The fourth helped build an international media and technology group through acquisitions, and brings the investor's eye. The people you meet do the work. Six months, then we are gone.
07 · The boundaries
These are commitments, not preferences. If any of them is wrong for you, better to know now than in month three.
No director role, no board seat, no delegated authority. Your team decides, commits and communicates.
Three partners do the work. No analysts, no rotating team, no juniors learning on your agency.
Restructuring and transformation only, with a firm-wide cap on concurrent engagements.
No case study, no logo, no reference call without your written consent. It is also why you see no client names on this site.
Six months, then we are gone. The plan, the rhythm and the governance stay with you.
08 · The fit call
A named partner takes the call. You describe the agency; we tell you straight whether we are the right firm, and what we would look at first. If we are not, we say so, and tell you what we would do in your place anyway.
Then a free 45-minute diagnostic with your numbers, and a one-page read-out. Even if it says: you don't need us.
