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Private Equity ServicesFounding team

Day one

Buyer, offer and route built from day one

How BowMerge turned deep integration expertise into positioning that still holds today

Founding team, private equity services, United States. Two operators who had run acquisition integrations from the inside, with no defined buyer, no offer and no route to market. The commercial foundation built alongside the company.

The buyer

MDs at US mid-market PE firms

Named in week one

The offer

Faster synergy capture, higher returns

Outcome, not features

The shopfront

One voice, profiles to website

Rebuilt to the offer

Route to buyer

Targeted lists, sequences, DM plays

Built and running

Month to monthYou own everythingShipped work every week
  • Inc 5000#442
  • 100+brands
  • £152M+delivered
  • 4-weekfirst-workflow guarantee or month 1 free

The Challenge

Sohail and Raheel Jooma had the rarest thing in their market and the least useful version of it. They had run acquisition integrations from the inside of a private-equity-backed software business, so they knew exactly where value leaks after a deal closes. What they did not have was a way to sell it. The firm was new. There was no defined buyer, no offer anyone could repeat back to them, no shopfront, and no route to the people who write the cheques. Two operators with genuine expertise, and nothing pointing at a market.

The Turning Point

The obvious move was to describe the software and hope the market worked out why it mattered. That was the trap. Private equity managing directors do not buy platforms, they buy the number the platform moves. Until the offer was written in the buyer's own economics rather than the product's features, nothing downstream would land, so the whole engagement started at the offer instead of at the marketing.

What We Built

A done-with-you build across the founding period. It opened with a full-day working session that did four things in order: named the buyer as managing directors at mid-market private equity firms in the US, built the pain matrix underneath them (synergy capture, time pressure, investor scrutiny, integration complexity, the loss of control that comes with all of it), established that this buyer moves on pain relief rather than aspiration, and from that wrote the offer as a single sentence about faster synergy capture and higher fund returns. The positioning decision that followed set everything else: sell the value captured, not the time saved. Then the shopfront was rebuilt to that one sentence, personal profiles, company page and website copy together, so a buyer landing from any direction met the same story. On top of it went a content structure covering top, middle and bottom of funnel, and an outreach engine: targeted lists of the named buyer, sequenced messaging, and the direct-message plays that turn a first reply into a conversation. Weekly working sessions and open access between them, with a commitment to answer any question within a working day.

The Hard Part

The hardest part was asking two genuine experts to stop leading with their expertise. Their instinct was to explain the mechanism, because the mechanism is genuinely good and it is what they are proud of. Every draft wanted to drift back to what the system does. Holding the offer at the buyer's outcome, fund performance, rather than the product's capability took repeated correction, and it was the single change everything else depended on.

What we built

  • Buyer definition and pain matrix: managing directors at US mid-market private equity firms, and what actually keeps them awake after a deal closes
  • Offer written as one sentence in the buyer's own economics: faster synergy capture, better fund performance
  • Shopfront rebuilt to that sentence: personal profiles, company page and website copy carrying one story
  • Content structure across top, middle and bottom of funnel, so the profiles had something to publish
  • Outreach engine: targeted lists of the named buyer, sequenced messaging, and the direct-message plays that open conversations

Before vs After

Metric

Before

After

The buyer

Named in week one

Private equity, broadly
MDs at US mid-market PE firms

The offer

Outcome, not features

What the system does
Faster synergy capture, higher returns

The shopfront

Rebuilt to the offer

Three versions of the story
One voice, profiles to website

Route to buyer

Built and running

None
Targeted lists, sequences, DM plays

The thing that surprised them

The positioning outlived the engagement. BowMerge goes to market today as the value creation team for lower middle-market private equity, promising that they do the work while their clients make the calls. They wrote that themselves, long after the sessions ended. It is the same shape that came out of the first day.

Honest read

This one carries no revenue figures, and it would be easy to invent some. The founders never shared their numbers, so there are none here. What there is: a named buyer, an offer, a rebuilt shopfront, an outreach engine, a co-founder saying on camera that the company grew significantly larger because of the work, and public positioning that still carries the shape today. That is the honest extent of it.

We grew our company significantly larger because of your insights and what you've been able to bring to the table.

Sohail Jooma

Co-Founder, BowMerge

Why It Compounds

Get Chosen first, then Get Found and Get the Meeting on top of it. The order is the whole lesson. The offer was written from the buyer's economics, so the profiles, the company page, the website and the outreach all had one thing to say and said it the same way. The durable test came later: BowMerge still goes to market today as the value creation team for lower middle-market private equity, with the promise that they do the work and their clients make the calls. Different words, built by them, and the same shape that came out of the first session. Positioning that survives its author is positioning that was right.

Inc. 5000 No. 442: TNT Growth, 2025 list of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies (Josh Stylianou, MD)Inc. 5000Nº442U S A2025AMERICA'S FASTEST-GROWING PRIVATECOMPANIES

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The proof

Don’t take my word for it. Take theirs.

Founders at different stages, in different sectors, naming themselves. The same operator behind every result, on camera and on the record.

B2B demand-gen agency
“The speed they operate at, the accuracy, the depth of knowledge — just second to none.”

“It’s a little like watching Formula 1 — the precision, the speed. Well done. Thank you.”

GoDemand — B2B IT & telecoms demand generation

Stéphane WestManaging Director, GoDemand

Inc. 5000 agency · $277k → $500k/mo
“Josh is an absolute killer.”

I ran the revenue engine for TNT Growth. Twelve months later: revenue and profit both up 80%, the team doubled, and 442nd on America’s fastest-growing private companies.

Adam TreboutatFounder & CEO, TNT Growth

Solo founder · People Ops
“The advice, guidance and ongoing communication Josh gives me is next to none.”

“So reassuring to know you’ve got a friendly, supportive person at the end of the line whenever you have a question.”

Laura PagetFounder, Novature Solutions

Accountancy practice · pipeline built
“Josh got right inside my business — and now it works a dream.”

I had all the expertise but no real pipeline — my leads were patchy and inconsistent. Now I’m winning new clients with the offer and systems Josh built me.

Jonathan DennisManaging Partner, JLD Accountancy

Leadership consultancy · founder
“I gained so much clarity, focus — and real confidence in what I do.”

Referred to Josh for LinkedIn, I stayed for strategic positioning. He adapted to me and my needs — and made it easy to keep running it myself.

Véronique VallièresFounder, COPE.Consulting

Private equity services · built from day one
“We grew our company significantly larger because of your insights.”

“We took it very much as a learning lesson given your expertise. We definitely look forward to working again in the future.”

Sohail JoomaCo-Founder, BowMerge

5.0 on Google

What clients say

Strategy and implementation in the same person.

In just a few hours, we refined the high-level positioning for my business AND got practical with tools I could implement the same day. Leads started flowing within weeks.

Veronique Vallieres, Founder at Consulting

Veronique Vallieres

Founder · Consulting

Learned so much, content wise and mindset wise.

Josh didn’t just show me what to do, he rewired how I think about sales and marketing. The shift in approach changed everything about how we attract clients.

Richard Wood, Founder at Creative Agency

Richard Wood

Founder · Creative Agency

Helped me realise the full potential of my company.

I was struggling to gain traction. Josh mapped out exactly where the revenue was hiding and built the systems to go get it.

Laura Paget, Director at Novature Solutions

Laura Paget

Director · Novature Solutions

Didn’t just give me a plan and disappear.

I didn’t have a strong offer and leads were patchy. Josh helped me build an offer people actually want and set up a simple system to get leads coming in. It changed everything.

Leslie Coelho, Founder at Luminustra · Software Agency

Leslie Coelho

Founder · Luminustra · Software Agency

Just as invested in our success as we were.

The guidance and time invested went far beyond what we paid. 3x profitability within a month, we’re now on a path we’re proud of.

Leslie Dennis, Business Owner at Construction

Leslie Dennis

Business Owner · Construction

I see a completely different future for the business now.

Josh helped me shape a clear, compelling offer, take it to market, and set me up with leads. Without his support, I wouldn’t have won the client I did.

Jonathan Dennis, Managing Partner at Accountancy Firm

Jonathan Dennis

Managing Partner · Accountancy Firm