Operating partners for investors, boards & founders

Operators who have built, scaled, and exited. Now building your company.

We have run the companies, raised the capital, and signed the exits. Gardner Advisory puts that same senior attention inside your business, on the one constraint actually holding growth back. Operating partners, not consultants — engagements run from fractional to fully embedded.

Discuss your priorities See what we solve
8 exits between us
~$1B largest
$993M Datamonitor acquisition
40+ years in the operator's chair
30,000+ companies on software we built
What we solve

You already know something is stuck. We find what it actually is.

The companies we work with have proven something real and hit a wall they cannot get past with the team and the playbook that got them here. Four conversations come up again and again.

We built something real, and growth flattened.

Acquisition cost keeps climbing, the channel mix stopped working, and nobody can say which lever moved last quarter's number. We rebuild the demand engine and the unit economics under it.

Growth has plateaued
We need to raise, and we are not ready.

The technology is credible and the story is not. Governance is thin, the metrics do not hold up in diligence, and the milestones are about runway instead of enterprise value. We make the company investable before capital is engaged.

Raising in the next 12 months
Everything still runs through the founder.

Revenue depends on one person's calendar. There is no operating system, no bench, and no way to grow without breaking. We install the team, process, and cadence that make growth repeatable.

Founder is the bottleneck
We have the clinical proof and no commercial engine.

The evidence is strong and adoption is slow, because the product has not been fitted to the workflows and incentives of the people who have to buy it. We build the commercial model and the sales motion that carries it.

Healthcare, pre-commercial

If one of those is your quarter — or the quarter of a company in your portfolio — that is the conversation. We will tell you what we would do about it before anyone signs anything.

The Partners

Two generations of operators.

Four decades of boardrooms, capital, and healthcare on one side. Fifteen years of customer acquisition, ecommerce, and applied AI on the other. Most firms give you one or the other.

Thomas E. Gardner

Thomas E. “Tom” Gardner

Founder & LLC Manager · Healthcare

Four decades building category-defining healthcare companies as CEO, chairman, and investor, across consumer health, healthcare technology, data, and regenerative medicine.

  • Access Health — CEO; acquired for ~$1B
  • Datamonitor — CEO; London Stock Exchange IPO
  • MMIT & IntegriChain — founding chairman
  • Omeza — founder, former CEO
Bryan Gardner

Bryan Gardner

Partner · Growth, Marketing & AI

Three-time founder with two exits. Fifteen years building demand and revenue across consumer, software, and education companies, from vertically integrated brands with their own retail to DTC and marketplace: lead generation, conversion, full-funnel marketing, ecommerce, and the revenue roadmaps behind the plan. Builds agentic AI systems now applied across the portfolio.

  • LimeSpot — operating partner since under $200K in revenue; grown past $5M
  • Waiakea — $30K/month to $51M/year; advisor & shareholder
  • RMU — under $1M to $30M+/year; operating partner 10+ years
  • Crown & Flint — founder/CEO; eight figures in three years; acquired 2019
  • Matterlab — education enrollment marketing; cost per lead cut >70%
  • WeeSchool — founding investor & operating partner, start through exit to Teaching Strategies
Capabilities

Four disciplines. Ten specialist units. One operating standard.

Each unit is led by an operator who has done the job and carries the Gardner Advisory name, GA for short. This is the bench behind the partners: you engage the partnership, and we bring senior operating leadership to whatever the problem requires.

01

Capital & Finance

Make the company investable, then finance the milestones that change enterprise value.

GA CapitalCapital formation, governance, investor communications
Bob Enck
Gardner FinancialFractional CFO leadership
Katie Chiaro
02

Growth & Commercial

Build the demand engine, the narrative, and the sales motion that carries them.

GA GrowthDemand and lead generation, conversion, full-funnel and lifecycle marketing, ecommerce, revenue roadmaps
Bryan Gardner
GA CommunicationsStrategic narrative and market leadership
Partnership-led
GA Medical SalesContract sales to clinicians managing chronic disease
Valerie Pesson
03

Leadership & Scale

Make growth repeatable and founder-independent.

GA LeadershipExecutive development, talent assessment, organizational effectiveness
Rob Toomey
GA ScaleupTeam, process, and systems for operating scale
Tom & Bryan Gardner
04

Technology & Evidence

Turn data into decisions, and decisions into systems that perform at scale.

GA TechnologyFractional CTO leadership, agentic AI, applied data systems
Bryan Gardner
GA Data ScienceAdvanced analytics and real-world evidence
Zweli Tunyiswa

SiRQ Studio™

Our company-formation venture studio, launching new enterprises through an initial $20M fund now being raised. Where we build rather than advise.

The Companies

Where we operate, and what moved.

A mix of current engagements, equity positions, and past operating work. In some of these we hold equity; in all of them we did the job.

↗AI ecommerce

AI-powered ecommerce optimization serving DTC and retail brands across Shopify and marketplace channels. Bryan has been operating partner since revenue was under $200K; it has since grown past $5M.

 ↗Premium CPG

Sustainability-led premium beverage brand; online revenue grown from $30K/month to $50M+ per year.

 ↗Outdoor · vertically integrated

Outdoor brand grown from under $1M to $30M+, selling across the US, Canada, and beyond. Designs and manufactures its own skis, bikes, and soft goods, sold DTC, wholesale, and through its own retail and taverns.

 ↗Activewear DTC + retail

Versatile activewear brand spanning two retail stores and a growing Shopify DTC business.

 ↗Consumer app

Photo-book app that turns a family's camera roll into printed books in minutes. Advised on growth and marketing.

 ↗Education marketing

Enrollment marketing for education organizations. Cost per lead and cost per new enrollment cut by more than 70%.

 ↗Senior living

Brain–body engagement platform for cognitively and physically challenged populations across the senior living continuum.

 ↗Dental compliance

The operating system for compliance operations inside dental organizations.

 ↗Clinical intelligence

Operating infrastructure for accountable specialty care, beginning with the $20B+ advanced wound care vertical.

 ↗Smart footwear

The intelligence layer inside footwear: multi-sensor performance, injury reduction, and safety.

 ↗Consumer brand · founded & exited

Founded and operated by Bryan: in-house design, overseas manufacturing under his direct management, customers in 20+ countries. Eight-figure revenue within three years — profitable and debt-free through its 2019 sale to private investors.
Early-learning edtech · through exit

Early-learning platform from the creators of Baby Einstein. Bryan was a founding investor and operating partner from start through exit — built the marketing funnel and trained the first five employees. Acquired by Teaching Strategies, the KKR-backed education company.

Holdings & past engagements: Dandelion Science (digital brain therapy) · Omeza (wound therapies) · ONTYX (payer–provider intelligence, in stealth) · Phorum.AI (AI for drug manufacturing)

Acquirers and public markets in our track record
McKessonLondon Stock ExchangeAccel-KKR Teaching StrategiesSmiths AerospaceABB
Point of View

We have both sat in the chair where the payroll is real, the board is waiting, and the decision cannot be delegated. That is the only reason to hire us. Not a deck. Judgment that has already been paid for once.

01

Start with the outcome

Define the measurable improvement, clinical, commercial, or financial, and work backward to the model that delivers it.

02

Design for adoption

Products win when they fit workflows and incentives. Buyers adopt what makes their own metrics better.

03

Finance the inflection points

Raise against milestones that change enterprise value, not against runway alone. No mission without margin.

Track Record

Eight exits between us.

Access HealthAcquired ~$1B (HBOC → McKesson)
Tom · CEO
DatamonitorIPO, LSE 2000 · later acquired for $993M
Tom · CEO
MMITScaled with WCAS · $1.6B merger with Evaluate
Tom · Founding Chairman
IntegriChainAcquired by Accel-KKR
Tom · Founding Chairman
Base10 SystemsAcquired by Smiths Aerospace & ABB
Tom · CEO
Crown & Flint ↗Eight-figure revenue in three years · sold in 20+ countries · profitable and debt-free · acquired by private investors 2019
Bryan · Founder & CEO
WeeSchoolBy the creators of Baby Einstein · exit to Teaching Strategies (KKR-backed)
Bryan · Founding Investor & Operating Partner
Fly Pedals ↗Patented bicycle product, founded in his early twenties · Kickstarter funded in 2 days · acquired 2018, still sold worldwide
Bryan · Founder & Inventor
How we engage:
1 Diagnose the constraint that actually binds.
2 Frame the options and the economics of each.
3 Build alongside your team as operators.
4 Advance with capital, customers, and partners engaged from strength.
Start a Conversation

Consequential decisions deserve senior attention.

Tell us the constraint. One of us will reply, and it will be one of us.

Tom Gardner

Healthcare, capital, and board matters

tom.gardner@gardneradvisory.com
+1 941 780 5274
Sarasota, Florida

Bryan Gardner

Growth, marketing, and AI matters

bryan@gardneradvisory.com
+1 720 557 5752
Golden, Colorado

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