NewLive in three weeksHow we deploy

Operon for private equity

We transform the industrial companies you own.

We work with private equity firms that buy and run HVAC, mechanical and industrial services businesses. We go into each company you own and take on the work that eats its margins: take-off, email and the workflows only that company runs. On average, what we deploy saves $2.8M a year.

Read: the missing layer in the roll-up
Structural steel erection under tower cranes

Portfolio

5 companies
CompanyStatusWorkflows

Platform company

Mechanical · HVAC

Live

Add-on 01

HVAC service

Live

Add-on 02

Plumbing · Fire

Live

Add-on 03

Electrical

Week 3

Add-on 04

Mechanical

Week 1

Results

What our deployments save

$2.8M

Saved a year, on average, by what we deploy.

Cement works with preheater tower in the hills

Single tools

6 figures

Saved a year by individual tools, each on its own.

Time to live

3 weeks

From kickoff to AI employees at work in the company, with our engineers alongside your team.

Across the portfolio

1 contract

One agreement covers the companies you own. Each new acquisition joins without a new procurement cycle.

Who we work with

We don't build for every private equity firm. We build for the ones that own industrial services companies and help run them.

HVAC and mechanical contractors, electrical, plumbing and fire protection, specialty construction, energy and industrial services. If your firm buys these businesses and works alongside management after close, the work we take on is work your companies already do every week.

What we take on

Inside each company, and across the portfolio.

In each company you own

  • Material take-off

    Equipment and materials counted across the full drawing set, every quantity traced to its sheet, so estimators bid on counts instead of allowances.

  • Email

    Quote requests, vendor replies, RFIs and customer follow-ups sorted, drafted and routed, so estimators and project managers get out of the inbox.

  • Its own workflows

    The process only that company runs, built around how its people already work, not a generic tool they have to adopt.

Across the portfolio

  • Company by company

    What works at one company is set up at the next, so each new acquisition starts from software that is already running.

  • Portfolio view

    What is live at each company, how much it is used, and where each new acquisition is in onboarding.

  • Separate where it matters

    Each company keeps its own workspace and its own data. What is shared across companies is decided by you.

How we work

Start with the workflow that costs the most. Measure it. Roll it out.

  1. 01

    Find the expensive work

    We sit with a portfolio company and pick the workflow where the hours and the money go.

  2. 02

    Put it on live work

    Our engineers set it up alongside your people and have it live in three weeks, measured against a baseline you agree with.

  3. 03

    Roll it across the portfolio

    What works at one company is set up at the next, and every new acquisition joins software that is already working.

For operating partners

See every company you own in one place.

One view across the portfolio: which workflows are live at each company and where each new acquisition is in onboarding. Each company's data stays isolated; what is shared across companies is decided by you.

  • Workflows live, onboarding status and adoption, company by company.

  • Each company in its own workspace, with shared ways of working on top.

  • A single agreement and one forward-deployed team across the companies you own.

Portfolio/Industrial services platform

Companies

Add-on 02

Plumbing · Fire

Live

Pick the work

Build

Live

Scale

Take-off

Live

Estimating

Live

Knowledge

Next up

QA checks

Next up

Archive read in; estimating moving onto the shared model.

All companies

Try one:

From the journal

Reading for operating partners

All posts

Private Equity8 min read

The missing layer in the industrial roll-up

Buy-and-build in industrial services tends to stall where the work lives: in each add-on's estimates, drawings and tribal knowledge. A shared intelligence layer is how a portfolio starts working as one.

Read more

Company6 min read

What a forward-deployed engineer does

We put engineers on site with customer teams, from the first drawings to production. What they do week by week, what they configure, what they bring back to the product, and what to have ready before they arrive.

Read more

Private Equity7 min read

The first 100 days: bringing an add-on onto a shared AI layer

A phase-by-phase playbook for bringing a newly acquired contractor onto a shared AI layer: who owns what, what to watch, and the failure modes that stall it.

Read more

Questions from sponsors

  • Private equity firms that acquire and own industrial services businesses, such as HVAC and mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire, specialty construction and energy services, and stay involved in how they run after close.

  • It is the average yearly saving from what we deploy. Individual tools on their own save hundreds of thousands a year. We'll walk you through how it was measured on a call.

  • No. We don't name the firms or companies we work with, and we'd treat yours the same way. We're happy to go through the work itself in detail.

  • Each company runs in its own isolated workspace, with portfolio-level reporting on top. What is shared across companies is decided by you.

  • One down payment covers the whole cycle at each company, with no additional cost. One agreement covers the companies you own, so each new acquisition joins without a new procurement cycle.

Own industrial services companies? Let's find the work worth handing over.

Tell us about the companies you own and where the manual work piles up. We'll tell you where we'd start and what it should be worth.