Preparing a digital mental healthcare provider for sale

Zenith surged during the pandemic as mental‑health awareness spiked and quickly became a regional leader in B2B2C therapy. Once the corporate‑wellness market neared saturation, revenue remained healthy but growth stalled, prompting the founder to explore a full sale.

Early talks with potential buyers generated interest yet fizzled. Without a single, consistent set of information about the business or a structured data room, conversations lost momentum before they could reach terms.

1. Building a Clear Story for Investors

Alehar’s first step was to weave all of Zenith’s numbers—historical revenue, cohort trends, and cost drivers—into one integrated model with a multi‑year forecast. We then built a comprehensive, index‑driven data room including an extensive information memorandum (IM) in under three weeks, giving the founder a professional diligence package for renewed outreach.

2. Pivoting from Exit to Partnership

During fresh discussions with a U.S. family office, the founder saw an alternative to a full sale: accept a minority investment, keep operational control, and leverage the investor’s network for U.S. expansion. Alehar reviewed a deal structure that balanced liquidity for the founder, upside for the investor, and funding for growth, then reviewed the commercial terms of every round of red‑line edits until close of the transaction.

3. Preparing for the U.S. Launch

With capital secured, we produced a market‑entry plan covering user and revenue projections, marketing spend, and expected customer‑acquisition costs. The plan set clear milestones for breakeven and defined the capital tranches needed to reach scale.

4. Strengthening the Core Business

Alehar now runs monthly management review meetings (MMRs) with Zenith’s leadership. In each session we deep‑dive into performance data, surface risks and opportunities, and drive key decisions that keep the business on track.

MMR insights unlocked several levers:

• ‍Working‑capital release: Streamlining receivables terms from customers and billing cycles freed cash for U.S. launch marketing.
• ‍Sales‑force revamp: Pipeline analysis showed client acquisition was slowing because the sales team was understaffed and under‑incentivized. We designed a tiered commission plan that rewards both new‑logo wins and upsells, and supported hiring to double headcount over six months.
• ‍Entity restructuring: Preparing for the United States highlighted tax and IP‑ownership challenges in the original structure. We scoped alternatives and, with outside counsel, implemented a new holding‑company setup that simplifies cross‑border operations.

5. Broadening into Direct‑to‑Consumer

Zenith also wanted to complement its corporate contracts with individual subscriptions. We assessed pricing, marketing channels, and churn risk; the resulting pilot is live, with early retention tracking ahead of plan.

Zenith moves into its next phase with fresh capital, a detailed U.S. expansion roadmap, and a sharpened domestic operation. Sales incentives are now fully aligned with growth targets, cash reserves cover the first stage of market entry, and the revamped entity structure puts the company on a strong footing for future growth. Alehar remains closely involved, leading the monthly management reviews, providing ongoing financial oversight and strategic support to keep the plan on course.

Zenith’s journey shows how a well‑crafted narrative, rigorous financial preparation, and flexible deal design can turn a stalled exit process into a springboard for global scale, and how sustained partnership keeps that momentum alive.