Pre-Deal Advisory: The Success Multiplier
Create Optionality.
Multiply Value.
Own the Outcome.
We help venture and private equity financed companies during critical times.
Macondray Hill works with founders, executives, and investors to prepare companies for their most important transactions. We provide pre-transaction readiness, expand optionality, and enable better processes and outcomes.
What We Do
Advisory for Growth Companies
at Critical Moments
Pre-Deal Advisory
Prepare your company for M&A, strategic investment, or partner discussions—before the bankers arrive.
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Capital Raise Strategy & Execution
Sharpen your investor narrative, refine financials, and engage the right investors with clarity.
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Strategic Partnership Development
Build high-value corporate relationships that drive growth and future acquisition.
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Optionality Assessment & Strategic Positioning
Clarify your landscape, goals, and pathways—capital, M&A, or hybrid.
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Investment Banker Selection & Preparation
Choose the right banker and arm them with positioning, materials, and clarity to drive outcomes.
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Executive Advisory & Board-Level Support
A strategic consigliere for founders and boards at moments of inflection.
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Deal Process Navigation & Term Sheet Support
Unbiased, second-opinion guidance through active deal discussions.
Why Macondray Hill
How We’re Different
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Real-World Framework:
Best practices gleaned from decades working with growth companies.
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Experience on All Sides:
Banker, strategist, founder. We know every angle of the table.
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Objectivity:
Rational, impartial guidance—focused on outcomes, not fees.
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Flexible Engagement:
Investment banker know-how, without the overhead or lock-in.
Gil Ahrens
Founder
Gil Ahrens has spent over 25 years advising high-growth companies in the innovation ecosystem. Most recently Global Head of Venture & Growth Company Coverage at Deutsche Bank, he has also held senior roles at J.P. Morgan, Piper Jaffray, and Wells Fargo.
Prior to Wall Street, he served as a strategic planning executive at Sanyo Electric Company in Japan and co-founded an award-winning consumer electronics start-up.
Gil holds degrees from New York University (BA, Psychology) and Boston University (MBA), studied music at the New England Conservatory, and is the author of three books.
To learn more, please visit gilahrens.com.
Read perspectives at gilahrens.substack.com.
Perspectives
Leadership is increasingly lonely and isolating
Novelty is easily confused with quality
Stability is a relic of nostalgia
The best don't always win
Alliances are conditional
Scars build character
Perception is reality
Trust is elusive
Life is not always fair
The only way out is through
Capital markets are unforgiving
The cost of inaction is usually regret
The best is yet to come...if we make it so
Kindness costs nothing yet the returns are massive
What you do is likely less important than HOW you do it
Critical Truths
IPOs and dream acquisitions rarely happen
M&A should be an early consideration, not a final consolation
A “waiting for buyers” strategy leads to suboptimal outcomes
Bankers excel at running competitive auctions, less so in creating initial buyer demand
Pre-Deal prep done right creates optionality … & higher valuation
The Outcome Failure Zone
Poor preparation destroys optionality & valuation
Single Bidder …Maybe
Weak Standalone Growth Narrative
Over-Reliance on IPO
as the Only Path
Lack of Optionality
Inadequate Strategic Relationships
Inability to Raise Strategic Capital
Poor Documentation
+ DataRoom Readiness
Ineffective Utilization
of Investment Bankers