Preparation Lab is the cohort engagement Cordis runs for founders in the 12 to 36 month window before a transition. The cohort is the structure that makes the preparation work tractable.
What is in it
A six-month cohort with 12 founders, organized by transition horizon and sector adjacency. The program covers the five axes (customer concentration, key-person dependency, documentation, recurring revenue, decision-rights legibility) in sequence, with each month focused on one operational area.
Monthly office hours with a Cordis Group senior partner and a Cordis Institute senior researcher. Cohort members can bring questions about their own businesses; the office hours are not lectures, they are working sessions.
Playbooks for each of the five axes, with the operational work broken down into 90-day, 180-day, and 360-day milestones. Each playbook includes the documents, the conversations, and the decisions required to move that axis.
A final-month “diligence simulation” where each cohort member’s business is run through a compressed version of the QofE and operational diligence process, with Cordis Institute staff acting as the buy-side team. The simulation produces a written report and a follow-up call.
Why cohort
The work is hard to do alone. The work is also hard to do without comparable peers. The cohort is the right size to share specifics in confidence, with the right mix of sector adjacency to make those specifics relevant.
Why “by invitation”
Cohort fit matters. The application surfaces the right mix: comparable transition horizons (the 12-to-24 month founders are paired with each other, the 24-to-36 month founders are paired with each other), comparable EBITDA ranges, and a sector mix that makes the in-cohort conversations productive.
We invite applicants to a fit conversation. After the fit conversation, both sides decide. The cost is real and the time commitment is real; we expect the cohort to be the right priority for those who join.
When it opens
The next cohort begins October 2026. Express interest below; we will respond within 48 hours with the application details.