Senior in the work
The person you hire is the person who does the work - the research, the model and the call at the end. We bring in the right experienced specialists as the decision requires - never a pyramid by default.
Independent strategy & transaction advice
Analysis is abundant.
Judgement is scarce.
In a world increasingly awash with data and analysis - from colleagues and computers alike - knowing which to trust, and when to move, is what stays rare.
For the CEOs, boards, owners and investors who decide before the evidence is in - and want a straight, independent read before they commit.
Since 2002
strategy under uncertainty
Partner-run, beyond the pitch
clear ownership and accountability
Board & committee ready
evidence built to withstand scrutiny
Fixed fee, defined end
no open-ended meter
The buying moment
The most important decisions arrive before certainty does.
By the time it reaches you, the answer can feel half-decided. Management has a preferred outcome. The deal has momentum. You are inundated with analysis and points of view - none of it settling the one question that actually makes the decision.
That is where Lion comes in - an independent view on not just how to proceed, but whether to at all.
Your board is split on a call that really matters.
A deal is riding on assumptions no one has rebuilt.
A fast-moving market is outrunning your planning cycle.
A major investment has backing - but not yet a case that survives scrutiny.
Three kinds of decision
The work starts with a decision.
Not a workstream.
01
Strategy under uncertainty
What is changing enough to matter - and what should you do now?
Independent strategy for markets moving faster than the planning cycle: enter or wait, build or buy, scale or stop.
02Transactions & investment
Is the case real - and what would make you walk away?
Commercial and vendor diligence, investment cases and capital raises, run on the deal clock. The management case is rebuilt, not defended.
03Major capital commitments
What scale does the evidence support?
Demand, economics and opportunity cost tested before a board or sovereign institution commits capital it cannot easily recover.
Selected decisions
The right evidence for the decision - and for whoever signs it off.
Transaction · Founder-led group, MENA
PE raise → IPO
raise supported; since listed
A founder-led grocer’s capital raise, proven through three hard years.
An operating record blurred by three years of shocks, rebuilt into a case investors backed - and the company has since listed.
Read the case study ↗︎
Corporate strategy · FTSE 100 multinational
6,400 cities
one global demand model
A city-by-city growth strategy for a FTSE 100 consumer goods company.
Where the next decade of demand sits, mapped city by city - and sales and marketing re-steered to follow it.
Read the case study ↗︎
Transaction · Mid-market PE
8-figure exit
to one of six PE bidders
Vendor due diligence on a digital marketplace sale, in five weeks.
Four marketplaces, a live process and a thin US evidence base - one million rows and 60 interviews rebuilt the equity story.
Read the case study ↗︎
Capital commitment · Gulf
9-figure capital allocation
A stadium resized to put capital to better use.
Demand supported 25,000 seats, not 40,000. Capital moved from empty capacity into yielding assets instead.
Read the case study ↗︎
Why Lion
Independent enough to recommend less.
Advice is only worth having if the answer can be no. Lion is not paid to build you the biggest programme - only to find what the evidence actually supports.
Evidence you can inspect
You can see what is fact, what is estimate and what is judgement - and exactly which assumptions would break the case.
Useful after we leave
Everything is documented and handed over, so your team keeps the capability - not a dependency on Lion.
Discreet by design
Your situation stays confidential, from the first conversation to the record afterwards.
Practitioner depth
The frontier, first-hand.
For thirty years software was bolted onto the economy. Now the economy itself is being written in code: intelligence, money and contracts alike - real capital, thin evidence and rules being rewritten while you decide.
Lion pairs board-level strategy with AI systems built and shipped in client work, and digital-asset capital held through two full market winters since 2017.
See where that pattern recognition comes from↗︎Around the site
What we do sets out how we engage and the fixed-fee model. Expertise covers the four arenas we work in. The record lives in Case studies, twelve decisions spanning transactions and capital commitments. Thinking collects the essays. About introduces Elliot, the founding partner.