Lender-owned company: a first-100-days playbook for the new board

Why the new board should decide on records early

When a debt-for-equity swap closes, the credit fund's portfolio team and the directors it appoints inherit a company they financed but never ran. The first 100 days are crowded: signatories and bank mandates, D&O cover, a management assessment, a 13-week cash flow, a reset operating plan and usually a cost program. Records rarely make that list.

They should, for two reasons. First, the cost program is where history gets lost: tool consolidation, seat cuts and tenant migrations can delete archives that took a decade to build. Second, the new owners need value without new capital. McKinsey's Global Private Markets Report 2026 argues that, with multiple expansion and cheap leverage fading, operational value creation is now likely the primary source of private equity returns. Lender-owners face the same arithmetic, usually with less appetite to fund it. Licensing operational records is one operational lever that needs no capex, new headcount or product work.

The board also controls the one thing SourceX needs before anything moves: an authorized sponsor. The background on how handovers happen is in private credit lenders taking the keys; this page is the board's working plan after the keys change hands.

Which lender-owned companies are worth assessing

The four-gate board test

Put these four gates on the day-60 board agenda. A company should pass all four before the board spends management time on a license.

• Gate 1, baseline: a US company with 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded) and several years of documented operations
• Gate 2, rights: the company created the records, and its privacy policy, customer contracts and contractor agreements permit licensing or can be handled through redaction. Read the privacy policy as written: a January 2024 FTC staff post warns that commitments not to use customer data for undisclosed purposes, model training included, can be enforced
• Gate 3, access: admin credentials sit with current staff and every core system can still export its history
• Gate 4, plan fit: an exclusive AI-training license for an agreed term fits the hold-or-sell plan and the new credit agreement's covenants

The company fit checker is a quick first screen for gate 1, and the who qualifies page lists the full baseline.

The 100-day calendar with a records workstream

If the plan points to a sale within the next year, keep records in scope from the first bidder call, as described in adding a records track to an accelerated sale, and ask your advisors whether a license should come before or after the sale. If it points to an orderly wind-down, liquidating a company with no physical assets covers how records fit when there is little else to sell.

Who signs as authorized sponsor

SourceX works with an authorized sponsor: an owner, CEO, CFO or authorized representative. In a lender-owned company the sequence usually looks like this:

1. The board resolves to explore a license and names a sponsor, typically the CEO or CFO.
2. The sponsor confirms rights and approves the data inventory.
3. Price and terms come back to the board, together with any lender consent the credit agreement requires.
4. The sponsor signs only after the board approves; nothing is binding before that.

Directors appointed by the lenders should keep roles separate. A director who votes on the license and also stands to receive a referral reward should disclose that interest to the board and follow the company's conflicts policy.

How the introduction works

1. Someone close to the company introduces it through a referral link or the referral form: a portfolio manager at the credit fund, a restructuring advisor or an interim executive.
2. SourceX checks size, operating history, the breadth of systems and data rights with the sponsor.
3. The company completes a data inventory covering each system, its years of history and what can be exported.
4. SourceX agrees one all-in price and the terms with the company, including de-identification and redaction rules, before buyers see anything.
5. AI labs and data buyers review; once a company is deal-ready, buyers typically respond within about two weeks.
6. The agreement is signed, data is delivered under the agreed rules, and the company receives a one-time payment, typically within about 60 days of invoicing once a buyer selects the data.

The introducer never exports, uploads or describes confidential records.

What to say to the CEO

How rewards work for a credit fund team

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed. Because the reward is a share of SourceX's fee, it never reduces what the company receives, which matters when the lenders are also the owners.

Decide up front whether any reward would go to the fund, the management company or an individual, and check the fund documents, any fee-offset provisions and your compliance policies first. The rewards page has the current details.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel before acting.

When not to bother

• The company's value lies mainly in consumer personal data or protected health information.
• The records mainly belong to clients, as at an outsourcer handling client data.
• Archives were deleted by an earlier cost program or migration.
• An earlier AI-training license already covers the same records.
• The new credit agreement bars IP licenses and the lenders will not consent.
• The company is heading into a court process, where a debtor in possession, trustee or court will control the decision; for that path see buying a company out of bankruptcy.

Next step

Add the records workstream to the 100-day plan at the new board's first meeting. When a company passes the four gates, register as a partner and introduce it, or have the sponsor the board named apply at sourcex.si/apply.