Roundtable Growth Partners

Turning promising performance into profitable growth.

Roundtable Growth Partners helps investors and company leaders accelerate revenue with a low-lift, high-impact method: test ideas in the market, partner where it speeds the work, and acquire when it makes growth faster and safer. We know not every idea works, and that is the point. We prove what does before you commit significant people or capital. Devin Schain, our growth leader, stays accountable from first diagnosis to handoff.

TestingEvidence before capital.PartnershipsSpeed and reach, with shared risk.AcquisitionsTuck-ins that build momentum.

Discuss a growth opportunity See how we work

Where we work: established companies, investment teams and portfolio leaders looking for the next source of profitable growth.

Why Roundtable

Everyone has an equal seat at the table.

The name is the method. The best growth solutions come when the sponsor, the management team, the customer-facing teams and the specialists all have an equal say, and the best idea wins on evidence.

Growth is the objective. We execute with virtual partners and a strong bench of vertical talent, assembled around each mandate rather than carried as overhead. One accountable leader stays on the work from first diagnosis to handoff.

Each pillar puts that principle to work. Tests let evidence decide. Partnerships give others a real seat. Tuck-ins bring new teams to the table with a shared plan.

Where process and systems create value

Three pillars. One goal: faster revenue growth.

Each pillar stands on its own and builds on the others. Test to learn what is real, partner to move faster, acquire to add momentum.

Testing

Know before you grow.

Testing replaces opinion with evidence. We start small, in the market, so you learn what customers will actually buy before adding people or spending significant capital.

Empirical: measurable results against a baseline, with the decision rule set in advance.
Fast: answers in weeks, not quarters.
Lean: minimal cost and headcount until the idea is proven.
Pilots: anecdotal and directional, they show how customers and teams respond in practice.
Safe to fail: weak ideas stop early, and strong ones earn the investment.

Partnerships

Double down on what you do best.

Strategic alliances pair your strengths with a partner’s assets, so you can grow faster without building everything yourself.

Speed: reach new customers, channels or capabilities in weeks.
Lower cost: share investment and infrastructure instead of carrying it alone.
Less risk and liability: staged, scoped commitments, with exposure allocated by agreement.
Focus: lead where your organization is great, and let partners cover the rest.
Three keys: shared values, complementary skills and resources, and above all, alignment.

Acquisitions

Tuck-ins that build momentum.

A tuck-in adds a product, customer base, team or capability to what you already do. Smaller deals close faster and carry less risk, and early wins create momentum for the next step.

Easier to close: smaller, simpler and quicker to diligence and negotiate.
Less risk: smaller checks, a known fit and a bounded downside.
Speed: buy capability and customers instead of building them.
Full process: we help identify targets, finance, price and structure the deal, and build alignment through integration.
Repeatable: a proven playbook, so each deal is easier than the last.

Our approach

Identify. Test. Decide. Scale.

A disciplined sequence helps management see which ideas merit investment and which ones should wait.

Identify

Frame the growth question and shortlist the best opportunities to test, partner on or acquire.

Test

Run the smallest real-world test or pilot that can answer an important customer, partner or economic question.

Decide

Review demand, economics and the quality of the evidence with management and the sponsor. Choose to build, partner or acquire, and state what remains unknown.

Scale

Put people and capital behind what earns it, assign an accountable owner, or stop and carry the learning forward.

Tests produce empirical data. Pilots add anecdotal, directional insight into how customers and teams respond. Together they set how much confidence a decision deserves.

Best practices

How we help you do it right.

We structure the work and teach the practices behind each pillar, so your team can repeat them without us.

Testing

One question, one accountable owner.
Set the metric, budget and decision rule before launch.
Establish a baseline, so improvement is measurable.
Record every result, including the failures.

Partnerships

Put scope, duration, success measures and exit terms in writing.
Choose for shared values, complementary strengths and alignment.
Stage commitments: start small and expand as results earn it.
Settle customer ownership, data, IP and liability early.

Acquisitions

Start with a thesis: why buy rather than build or partner.
Source through relationships and network, not only brokered processes.
Finance, price and structure to align interests and limit downside.
Plan integration before close, with an owner and a 100-day plan.

For investors and portfolio leaders

A commercial growth resource across the investment lifecycle.

For a portfolio company, the question may be where its next profitable revenue engine can come from. For an investment team, it may be whether a new category, platform or acquisition thesis has a credible commercial path.

Devin brings an owner’s perspective to the front of the business: opportunity identification, customer and channel insight, sales strategy, partnerships and business development. When a question needs deeper analytics, technology, finance or operating implementation, the right specialist joins the work.

Across the lifecycle, the pillars give investors a practical path: test a thesis before committing capital, partner to enter new markets with shared risk, and use tuck-ins to add capability and momentum to a portfolio company.

The aim: connect growth ideas to customer evidence, investment choices and accountable execution, while building useful learning across companies where sponsors and management choose to share it.

Ways to work together

Start small, then build on what is proven.

2 to 3 weeks

Growth Opportunity Diagnostic

A ranked growth thesis, its assumptions, economics and risks, and a 90-day plan of tests, partnerships and tuck-in candidates, with owners.

6 to 10 weeks

Validation Sprint

One or two high-value tests or pilots in market, a scorecard, and a scale, revise or stop recommendation.

3 to 6 months

Growth System Build

Turn validated work into repeatable practice: a playbook, operating cadence, partner and talent plan, a partnership or tuck-in pipeline, and handoff.

Part or full time

Embedded Operator

Senior leadership embedded with defined decision rights, to drive a specific growth workstream.

The table

One accountable leader. A bench built for each mandate.

Devin is accountable for scope, decisions and handoff across all three pillars. Specialists join the table only when the work calls for them.

Devin Schain

Growth Leader

Leads each mandate across the three pillars and owns the client relationship, the quality of decisions and the handoff.

Jack Daly

Sales

Sales leadership and sales effectiveness: tests of offers, pricing and channels, and partner-led selling.

Benjamin Lieblich

Finance

Economics, structuring and tuck-in evaluation: the financial case for each test, partnership and acquisition.

Stephen Douglass

Operator

Execution and operating support to turn pilots into daily practice and to integrate partners and acquisitions.

Experience

Built, scaled, sold and governed.

Devin has founded, operated, invested in and served on the boards of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and has learned from ventures that moved too early as well as ones that followed visible demand. He brings growth at inflection points through all three pillars: testing and piloting, partnerships, and acquisitions and tuck-ins that draw on his network.

$120M+Educational Direct revenue, with $40M in free cash flow, before its sale to Providence Equity Partners

$35MOn Campus Marketing revenue across more than 1,100 college relationships

15 yearsFounding and chairing ShalomLearning, serving communities in 10 countries

4Companies built and sold. Case studies are coming soon.

Where could the next growth opportunity come from?

Start with the decision, the customer and the evidence you have. We can identify which tests, partnerships or tuck-ins are worth exploring, and what a focused first step could answer.

Discuss a growth opportunity