Bain Squared reviews.

“Bain Squared helped us turn a messy investor narrative into a finance pack we could confidently use in board and fundraising discussions. The ESOP valuation memo was the cleanest piece of governance work we'd produced as a company.”

Service used

ESOP valuation, 409A-equivalent memo

Problem solved

Pre-Series A grant pool needed defensible strike pricing for new option holders and audit sign-off.

Outcome

Strike price accepted by auditor without rework. ESOP rolled out to first 18 hires inside three weeks.

“We came in expecting a templated report. We left with a working model we still use internally to test grant sizing every quarter. They actually explained the math instead of hiding behind it.”

Service used

Intangible asset valuation for restructuring

Problem solved

Brand and customer-list intangibles needed to be carved out for an internal restructuring ahead of a holding-company transfer.

Outcome

Restructuring closed on schedule. Tax position survived first review by counsel with no adjustments requested.

“Most valuation work we'd seen was a number with a story bolted on. This was a story with a number that fell out of it. That difference mattered when we walked the board through it.”

Service used

Purchase price allocation, post-acquisition

Problem solved

Recently acquired subsidiary required PPA across customer relationships, technology, and goodwill ahead of FY close.

Outcome

PPA delivered inside the close calendar. External auditor signed off in a single review cycle.

“They challenged our own assumptions before the auditor did. That was the whole point of hiring them.”

Service used

ESOP valuation refresh, annual

Problem solved

Annual refresh of fair value for option grants, with material change in trading multiples since prior cycle.

Outcome

Refreshed strike accepted at AGM. Used the model to size a top-up grant for senior hires in the same quarter.

“The reporting cadence shifted from monthly surprises to weekly clarity. Our board chair stopped asking for backup files because the pack already had them.”

Service used

Fractional CFO, 9-month engagement

Problem solved

Founder-led finance function. No FP&A. Cash runway visibility was monthly at best and the board was losing patience.

Outcome

Weekly cash and KPI pack live by week four. Hired a permanent Head of Finance in month seven with a clean handover.

“We'd been told we needed a new ERP. They told us we needed a new chart of accounts and a real close calendar first. They were right and it saved us a six-figure implementation.”

Service used

Financial transformation, close redesign

Problem solved

12-day month-end close, three reconciliations failing every cycle, ERP migration paused mid-scope.

Outcome

Close cut to four days. Reconciliations automated. ERP scope re-baselined to a smaller, faster rollout.

“I'd hired fractional CFOs before. This was the first one who acted like an owner instead of a vendor. They flagged things I should have been flagging myself.”

Service used

Fractional CFO, fundraising support

Problem solved

Pre-Series B preparation with no investor-grade data room and unclear unit economics across three markets.

Outcome

Data room ready in seven weeks. Round closed at top of target range with two unsolicited inbound term sheets.

“They came in, they fixed the boring parts of finance that everyone else avoids, and then they left. That's what I paid for. That's what I got.”

Service used

Financial transformation, 6-month engagement

Problem solved

Multi-entity consolidation taking 15 working days. Manual journal volume rising each quarter.

Outcome

Consolidation cut to five days. Manual journals down 60%. Internal team trained and running it solo by month six.

“We'd run two AI pilots before that went nowhere. Bain Squared shipped a working agent into our AR process in five weeks. It's been running for six months and we've stopped calling it a pilot.”

Service used

Agentic AI for accounts receivable

Problem solved

AR aging creeping past 70 days. Two FTEs running follow-ups manually with patchy coverage.

Outcome

AR DSO down 18 days inside one quarter. Both FTEs redeployed to higher-margin work.

“They were the first team that didn't try to sell us a chatbot. They mapped the actual workflow first, then told us which two steps were worth automating. Refreshing.”

Service used

Workflow design + agent build, claims triage

Problem solved

Claims intake taking 48 hours to first response. Triage rules sitting in three different spreadsheets.

Outcome

First-response time down to under four hours. Triage logic now lives in one place and one team owns it.

“What I valued most was that they wrote down what the agent would not do, not just what it would. That made it easy to put in front of risk and compliance.”

Service used

Agentic AI scoping + guardrails design

Problem solved

Internal pressure to deploy AI into a regulated workflow with no clear risk envelope.

Outcome

Approved scope shipped into one workflow. Documented control framework reused for two follow-on use cases.

“They built it, they handed it over, they trained two of my people, and they didn't try to sell us a maintenance contract on the way out. That alone made me a reference.”

Service used

AI workflow build, customer service

Problem solved

Customer service team drowning in repetitive order-status enquiries. CSAT dropping.

Outcome

70% of order-status enquiries resolved without human touch. CSAT recovered to pre-growth-spike levels.