# Eighty Twenty

> Operational and commercial performance improvement for mid-market companies and private equity. Offices in Brooklyn, Toronto, Austin, and London. Operator-led: we run the work, not just the recommendation.

Services: PE due diligence and value creation; marketing performance and procurement (agency search, media audit, production cost, contracts, MarTech); AI enablement; IT, software and cloud cost optimization; revenue operations; operating model design.

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- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/auto-renewal-is-a-business-model/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/negotiate-agency-contract/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/retail-media-is-the-new-programmatic/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/saas-stack-vendor-rationalization/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-operators-test-for-any-consultant/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/stop-overpaying-for-cloud/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/100-day-plan-pe-backed-companies/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/log-level-data-the-clause-worth-more-than-the-discount/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/ebitda-improvement-vendor-first/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/transformation-slips-before-technology-fails/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-board-pack-in-an-afternoon/
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- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/revenue-stalling-not-a-sales-problem/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-most-boring-million-in-the-company/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/cloud-spend-eating-margin-2026/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/measurement-is-a-governance-problem/
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- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/outdated-marketing-contracts-drain-performance/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/qsr-franchise-systems-leak-money-in-two-places/
- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/automotive-dealer-network-marketing-and-vendor-cost/
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- https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/pharma-consumer-health-mlr-and-vendor-cost/

## Insights
- [The agency pitch is theatre. Buy the team, not the show.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-agency-pitch-is-theatre/): The people who win the pitch are rarely the people who run the account. If you are choosing an agency on the room, you are choosing wrong.
- [How much should a mid-market company pay its media agency?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/how-much-should-you-pay-a-media-agency/): There is no single right number, but there is a right way to get to one. Here is how agency fees are actually built, where the hidden margin sits, and what a fair deal looks like in 2026.
- [What a decade selling to CMOs taught us about how marketing money is actually spent](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/what-a-decade-selling-to-cmos-taught-me/): We've spent years on the vendor side of the table, inside ad tech and media businesses. Here's what that vantage point shows about where a marketing budget really goes.
- [What does operational due diligence actually cover?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/what-operational-due-diligence-actually-covers/): Financial diligence tests the numbers. Commercial diligence tests the market. Operational diligence tests whether the business can deliver the plan, and where the cost base leaks. Here is what a proper one covers.
- [The CFO is in the marketing meeting now. Good.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-cfo-is-in-the-marketing-meeting-now/): Finance scrutiny of marketing spend has gone from annual to constant. The CMOs who treat that as an opportunity are winning budget. The ones who treat it as an intrusion are losing it.
- [Should we bring programmatic media in-house?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/should-we-bring-programmatic-in-house/): Every few years the in-housing debate comes back. The answer for most mid-market brands is not yes or no. It is: take control of the parts that matter, and stop paying for the parts that don't.
- [Principal media, explained for the people who sign the invoices](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/principal-media-explained-for-people-who-sign-invoices/): Agencies buying media as principal and reselling it to clients is now mainstream. It is not automatically bad. It is automatically opaque. Here is what to ask.
- [How do you audit a marketing budget?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/how-to-audit-a-marketing-budget/): A marketing audit is not a review of the creative. It's a commercial review of where the money actually goes, what it buys, and whether anyone is governing it. Most brands have never had one.
- [Your AI pilot is a license, not a strategy](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/your-ai-pilot-is-a-licence-not-a-strategy/): Most companies we meet have three AI subscriptions, two pilots, and no number. That is not a strategy. It is a cost line waiting to be noticed.
- [Will AI reduce our agency fees?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/will-ai-reduce-our-agency-fees/): Only if you ask. AI has cut the time agencies spend on planning, production, and reporting. Most have kept the savings. The fix is in the contract, not the budget.
- [Agentic workflows: what is real in 2026, and what is a demo](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/agentic-workflows-what-is-real-in-2026/): Agents that take actions across systems are the most oversold and the most valuable thing in enterprise AI right now. Both at once. Here is how to tell the difference.
- [Why Your Media Agency Review Is Long Overdue (And How to Run One Without Blowing Up the Relationship)](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/media-agency-review-how-to-run-one/): Most brands go years without a proper agency review. Here's how to run one that's honest, structured, and doesn't poison the relationship in the process.
- [Private equity’s next lever is the vendor stack, not headcount](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/pe-next-lever-is-the-vendor-stack/): Headcount is the visible cost. Vendors, agencies, software, and cloud are the invisible one, and in most mid-market portfolio companies they are where the recoverable EBITDA sits.
- [The RFP Process Most Brands Get Wrong, And How to Fix It](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/rfp-process-brands-get-wrong/): An RFP is supposed to help you find the best partner. Most of them do the opposite, they select for whoever writes the best pitch.
- [Where the money actually is](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/where-the-money-actually-is/): Twenty percent of the cost base holds eighty percent of the recoverable value. Here is where it tends to sit in a mid-market company, and why nobody has found it.
- [Programmatic Advertising: Where Your Budget Goes and Why a Chunk of It Shouldn't](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/programmatic-advertising-budget-waste/): Programmatic can be one of the most efficient channels in your mix. It can also be one of the most opaque. Here's what's actually happening to your budget.
- [Having a procurement team is not the same as having procurement](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/having-a-procurement-team-is-not-having-procurement/): Most mid-market companies with a procurement function still buy their largest categories without it. The gap is not people. It is mandate.
- [Agency Roster Bloat Is Costing You More Than You Think](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/agency-roster-bloat-cost/): Most marketing organizations have more agencies than they need. The hidden costs aren't just financial, they're operational, strategic, and slow.
- [Auto-renewal is a business model](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/auto-renewal-is-a-business-model/): The clause you did not read is the vendor’s most reliable revenue line. A renewal calendar is the cheapest fix in the company.
- [How to Negotiate an Agency Contract Without Losing the Agency](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/negotiate-agency-contract/): Agency contracts are almost always negotiable. Here's how to get better commercial terms without turning the relationship into a standoff.
- [Retail media is the new programmatic. Same margin, new name.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/retail-media-is-the-new-programmatic/): Retail media networks are the fastest-growing line in many consumer budgets and the least governed. The lessons from a decade of programmatic apply directly.
- [Your SaaS Stack Has a Leak: The Vendor Rationalization Guide](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/saas-stack-vendor-rationalization/): Most organizations are paying for software they don't use, software that duplicates other software, and software nobody can quite explain. Here's how to find the leak.
- [The operator’s test for any consultant: will they run it?](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-operators-test-for-any-consultant/): Recommendations are cheap. The question to ask anyone who wants to advise you is whether they will stay for the negotiation.
- [How to Stop Overpaying for Cloud Without Firing Your Entire DevOps Team](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/stop-overpaying-for-cloud/): Cloud spend is the fastest-growing cost line in most technology budgets and the least understood. The good news is that most of the waste is findable without a full infrastructure overhaul.
- [The 100-Day Plan Most PE-Backed Companies Don't Actually Execute](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/100-day-plan-pe-backed-companies/): A hundred-day plan is a fixture of private equity value creation. Most of them are also aspirational documents that lose contact with reality around day thirty.
- [Log-level data: the clause worth more than the discount](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/log-level-data-the-clause-worth-more-than-the-discount/): Advertisers negotiate the fee and forget the data. The right to your own transaction records is what makes every future negotiation possible.
- [EBITDA Improvement Without Cutting People: The Vendor-First Playbook](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/ebitda-improvement-vendor-first/): When investors push for margin improvement, headcount is usually the first thing they look at. It shouldn't be. The vendor and contract side of the business almost always has more accessible upside.
- [Transformation starts to slip long before the technology fails](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/transformation-slips-before-technology-fails/): Digital transformation stalls when operating discipline is missing. Why programs slow down, how to restore ownership and decision cadence, and why mid-sized firms can capture big gains from today's pace of change.
- [The board pack in an afternoon: what automation actually changed](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-board-pack-in-an-afternoon/): Management reporting was the first workflow we automated in most businesses last year. What changed was not the speed. It was the arguments.
- [Fewer agencies, more senior people. Why the small roster wins.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/fewer-agencies-more-senior-people/): A big roster feels like coverage. It is usually overlap, junior staffing, and a coordination cost that nobody has counted.
- [Revenue Is Stalling and It's Not a Sales Problem](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/revenue-stalling-not-a-sales-problem/): When revenue stalls, the first instinct is to fix sales. Often the problem is upstream, in strategy, pricing, positioning, or the go-to-market structure itself.
- [The most boring million in the company](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/the-most-boring-million-in-the-company/): Licence counts, renewal dates, and commitment levels. Nobody wants to own them. That is exactly why they are worth so much.
- [When cloud spend starts eating margin: the operator's playbook](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/cloud-spend-eating-margin-2026/): Cloud stopped being an IT line item. It's now a margin question, and most leadership teams can't say with confidence what's actually driving the number up.
- [Measurement is a governance problem, not a data problem](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/measurement-is-a-governance-problem/): Every platform will happily measure itself. The question is who owns the model that decides where the next dollar goes.
- [What a good fifteen-minute call sounds like](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/what-a-good-fifteen-minute-call-sounds-like/): We start every engagement with a short conversation. Here is what we are listening for, and what you should expect back.
- [Outdated marketing contracts are quietly draining performance](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/outdated-marketing-contracts-drain-performance/): Outdated marketing contracts inflate costs and weaken accountability. Where value leaks, how to reset agency and platform models, and practical steps to make marketing spend easier to defend.
- [Where QSR Franchise Systems Actually Leak Money](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/qsr-franchise-systems-leak-money-in-two-places/): Food cost and labor get all the attention. The two places a franchise system actually loses margin are the vendor stack negotiated once for hundreds of locations, and an ad fund agreement built for a business the brand outgrew years ago.
- [The Audit Most Dealer Networks Never Run](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/automotive-dealer-network-marketing-and-vendor-cost/): Co-op marketing dollars and dealer technology contracts sit in different departments, get reviewed by different people, and almost never get audited with the same discipline as anything else that size. That split is where the money hides.
- [The Vendor Risk Review Nobody Prices as a Real Cost](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/financial-services-vendor-risk-review-cost/): In regulated financial services, a small marketing tool or SaaS subscription can take months to clear third-party risk review, and almost nobody puts a number on that delay. It shows up nowhere on the P&L, and it shapes decisions anyway.
- [Where Consumer Brands Actually Leak Margin: Agencies and Trade Spend](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/cpg-agency-and-trade-spend-governance/): Agency rosters and trade spend both sprawl for the same reason: a decentralized, multi-market consumer business generates dozens of high-value contracts and nobody is assigned to compare them. The fix isn't spending less. It's knowing what you're actually paying for the same thing across every market.
- [The MLR Review Tax Nobody Benchmarks](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/insights/pharma-consumer-health-mlr-and-vendor-cost/): MLR review exists for good reason, and nobody serious argues it shouldn't. But the extra rounds it adds and the workflow built around it rarely get priced or benchmarked the way any other seven-figure marketing cost would be.

## Case studies
- [$14M recovered from a global media and agency estate.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/global-cpg-media-and-agency-audit/): A global CPG company was spending across dozens of agencies, markets, and media partners with no single view of what it bought, who added value, and what senior talent it was actually paying for.
- [A $30M programmatic program, sharpened.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/b2b-software-programmatic-audit/): A fast-growing B2B software company had scaled programmatic from a $20K pilot to roughly $30M a year. The spend was working. The question was where money was going that it shouldn't.
- [Taking control of the programmatic supply chain.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/automotive-media-supply-chain/): A national automotive brand with strong agency partners wanted institutional knowledge and control over where its digital media money went, what it bought, and who owned the data.
- [One global commerce partner instead of a patchwork.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/global-consumer-products-agency-consolidation/): A global consumer products company ran eCommerce and retail media through a patchwork of regional agencies and technology vendors. It needed a single partner capable of global consistency and regional nuance.
- [An agency search in eight weeks, not eight months.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/qsr-agency-search-performance-linked/): A growing QSR franchise group needed a media and digital partner that could support new-location openings across Canada and the US, with compensation tied to performance.
- [Fewer agencies, better people on the account, lower fees.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/financial-services-agency-roster-reset/): A mid-market financial services firm had accumulated a roster of creative, media, and production agencies over five years. Fees had never been benchmarked. The senior people from the pitch had long since moved on.
- [A software stack nobody owned, brought under control.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/saas-license-rationalization/): A PE-backed technology services company had grown through acquisition. Each acquired business brought its own tools. Three years later, the stack had never been rationalized.
- [Cloud spend that had outgrown the business it supported.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/cloud-infrastructure-cost-reduction/): A digital media company's cloud bill had doubled in two years while revenue grew far more slowly. Engineering had no incentive to challenge it and finance had no way to.
- [The 100-day plan, run rather than presented.](https://www.eighty-twenty.co/case-studies/pe-100-day-value-creation/): A sponsor had just closed on a mid-market services business. The deal thesis assumed operational improvement. The management team was capable but stretched, and nobody owned the cost base.

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