The L1–L5 maturity framework for middle-market PE.
Copilots make people faster. They don’t move the P&L. We pinpoint the workflows where AI creates the most enterprise value, then prove each one with a targeted 90-day pilot: production-grade, measured, and built to scale across the business.
Almost everyone has reached L1: chat and copilots. Almost no one has reached the tiers where AI actually moves EBITDA. The distance between those two curves is the opportunity.
Chat and copilots are a first step, but the lift is capped and it never reaches the P&L. Letting people “play with AI” feels like progress. It’s not the same thing as banking it.
Same workflow, different question: who does the work. That's the line between a faster headcount and a cheaper function.
A company is in L2 if its data platform, function-level AI deployment, and governance posture match the L2 definition. We complete the classification in a two-hour working session: no survey, no scoring rubric.
An AI agent runs a whole workflow step; a human reviews. Cost-per-task replaces cost-per-seat, the point where a function gets faster and cheaper at once.
BOD’s role: This is where we enter. L3 is where workflow economics compound, so we anchor here, then expand down to the substrate and up to orchestration.
Explore L3The same diagnostic that places one company on the map places all of them: every PortCo segmented by maturity and use-case clarity, every workflow ranked against a banded use-case inventory. The work is identified and priced before anything is built, and what ships in one company transfers to the next.
A read-only scan across the top ten places every company on the portfolio map: who’s ready to build, who needs one gap closed, who waits. Days, not a quarter of workshops.
Nine use-case categories, banded in basis points with time-to-value and confidence. Each PortCo’s workflows rated against the inventory; the highest-conviction work goes first.
Proven workflows move between PortCos as packaged skills with the right context, no standardized data structures required. Every workflow shipped makes the next one cheaper.
Implementation cost, run cost, time to tier, and EBITDA lift: published, defensible, ready for an IC. Notice where the curve bends: L3 and above.
| From → To | Impl. Cost | Time | Run Cost (add) | EBITDA (cum.) | Revenue (software) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing → L1 | $150–350K | 3–6 mo | $80–200K | 50–150 bps | N/A |
| L1 → L2 | $350–750K | 6–9 mo | +$400–900K | 150–450 bps | 1–3% |
| L2 → L3 | $750K–1.75M | 9–12 mo | +$1.2–2.8M | 350–950 bps | 4–11% |
| L3 → L4 | $1.5–3.5M | 12–18 mo | +$2.5–6M | 750–1,850 bps | 9–26% |
| L4 → L5 | $3–8M+ | 18–24+ mo | $10M+ | 1,450–3,350+ bps | 19–51% |
Calibrated to $50–500M revenue middle-market companies. Ranges, not promises.
Not a deck of maturity adjectives, but a diagnostic an IC can act on: the tier you’re in, the tier to target, the six-dimension read, and the 90-day move.
