Invest DIRECTLY with Confidence

Family offices are increasingly making direct investments, and for good reason: better returns, more control, lower fees. According to UBS Global Family Office Report, 78% of family offices now make direct investments, up from 62% five years ago. The average family office allocates 32% of its portfolio to direct investments. But direct investing requires capabilities that most family offices haven't built yet—and the capability gap between sophisticated and unsophisticated direct investors is widening.

You need deal sourcing that goes beyond your network. You need due diligence that goes deeper than a founder's pitch. You need portfolio monitoring that goes further than quarterly board decks. Jeff Cline's PROFIT AT SCALE methodology builds the complete technology infrastructure that enables family offices to invest directly with the same rigor and capability as top-tier venture and private equity firms—without the overhead.

The direct investment capability gap creates both risk and opportunity. Family offices that invest directly without proper infrastructure—relying on personal networks for deal flow, informal evaluation processes, and quarterly updates for monitoring—underperform significantly. They see fewer deals, evaluate them less rigorously, and discover problems too late. Conversely, family offices with sophisticated direct investment infrastructure consistently access better deals, make better decisions, and achieve better outcomes.

Jeff Cline builds direct investment technology across three pillars. Pillar one is Deal Sourcing and Screening—technology systems that scan startup databases, monitor funding signals, track technology trends, and surface opportunities matching your investment criteria. This dramatically expands your deal flow beyond the warm introductions that most family offices rely on, while AI-powered screening ensures you only spend time on the most promising opportunities.

Pillar two is Due Diligence Infrastructure—structured evaluation frameworks, automated data gathering, and technical assessment capabilities that bring rigor and consistency to every investment decision. This includes financial analysis tools, technical due diligence frameworks (Jeff Cline has evaluated 200+ companies for investors), market analysis, and reference check processes. The result is due diligence that's both faster and more thorough than ad-hoc evaluation.

Pillar three is Portfolio Management—real-time monitoring dashboards, automated reporting from portfolio companies, and performance analytics that give you continuous visibility into how your direct investments are performing. This includes integration with portfolio companies' financial and operational systems, automated alert systems for concerning trends, and benchmarking against comparable investments.

The Increase/Decrease framework optimizes direct investment returns. We INCREASE your Scalable Demand Engine for deals by building sourcing technology that surfaces opportunities you'd never see through personal networks alone. We create Efficient evaluation Teams by automating research and providing structured frameworks that make your investment professionals more productive. We amplify IP Value and Exit Multiples by building portfolio monitoring capabilities that enable active, data-driven support of portfolio companies.

On the DECREASE side, we reduce Cost by preventing bad investments through rigorous due diligence and by optimizing portfolio company performance through active monitoring. We reduce Risk by ensuring consistent, comprehensive evaluation of every opportunity and continuous monitoring of every investment. And we reduce Operational Strain by automating the administrative aspects of direct investing—deal tracking, reporting, and data management.

How It Works: The engagement begins with a Direct Investment Capability Assessment—evaluating your current deal sourcing, evaluation, and monitoring processes against best practices. We then design your Direct Investment Platform—the technology infrastructure that supports the complete investment lifecycle from sourcing to exit. Implementation is phased, typically starting with the area of greatest need (usually deal sourcing or portfolio monitoring). If you're also concerned about cybersecurity or exploring AI strategy, those capabilities layer on top of your direct investment infrastructure to enhance security and analytical power.