Real owner outreach
You build a proprietary universe and run live outreach to owner-managers. No CIM. No banker book. You write as a learner on the programme, not as an authorised adviser.
PGP · The Principal Programme
Twelve weeks. Five seats. One live defence.
Live cohort
Source a proprietary £5 to £30 million UK target, structure the deal, and defend it to a voting investment committee.
The programme is running. Apply for the current intake, or speak to admissions about seats.
Signature
Two features nobody else offers commercially
Protect these. Everything else in the curriculum exists to make them real.
External IC that votes
Three practising investors, not programme staff. They read your memorandum in advance, question you for three hours, and vote. Recommendations can be rejected.
Format
How the cohort runs
Duration
Twelve weeks
Seats
Five
Hours / week
10 to 12
Applications
Open now
Deal universe
£5 to £30m UK owner-managed
Sessions
Weekly + written deliverable
Guests
TS, Debt, Counsel
Tuition
Confirmed at offer
- Lower mid-market process, not mega-fund auctions
- Weeks 1 to 4: proprietary owner outreach
- Live screen, LBO, memo draft and redraft before IC
- Guest practitioners for TS, lending, and counsel
- Recorded sessions. Materials stay with participants
Curriculum
Origination, diligence, structure, defence
Four phases. Open each one for the week-by-week sessions and written deliverables. Guest lectures and the investment committee are marked live while the cohort is in session.
Guest faculty
Three guest lectures. Practitioners, not staff.
Transaction services, lending, and corporate counsel. Names and photos are published as each seat is confirmed. Until then, seats show as to be announced.
Week 6 · TS
To be announced
Guest practitioner from transaction services on scoping financial diligence as a principal
Week 7 · Debt
To be announced
Guest practitioner from lending on debt capacity and mid-market underwriting
Week 12 · Counsel
To be announced
Guest practitioner from corporate law on locked box, completion accounts, and SPA mechanics
Twelve week arc
Open a phase to read its weeks, sessions, and written deliverables. Open more than one at a time if you want to compare.
Admissions
The bar to join
Five seats. Built for mid-career deal professionals who can already execute and want to own the next recommendation. We do not place anyone and we do not claim to.
Required
- 01
Deal seat
Three to eight years in transaction services, investment banking, corporate development, or strategy consulting with commercial diligence exposure.
- 02
Modelling
You can build a leveraged buyout model unaided. We do not teach LBO from first principles.
- 03
Judgement gap
Every recommendation you have made had somebody senior standing behind it. You have never owned the call end to end.
- 04
Origination hunger
You have never found a company nobody else was looking at, and that is the gap you are here to close.
Decline without review
- You are a student or recent graduate
- You need leveraged buyout modelling taught from first principles
- Your first question is what percentage of graduates get placed
If that describes you, try the Day One Simulator first. It is free and tests judgment under time pressure.
Open the simulatorProcess
How applications move
01
Application
Sector thesis and a reflection on a transaction you worked on.
02
Review
Every file is read individually. Most applications are declined.
03
Fit conversation
If the profile fits, a short call before any offer is made.
04
Offer
Tuition confirmed at offer stage. Five seats per cohort.
Judgement
Committee seats
Three external members, currently investing, not employees of the programme. They read the memoranda in advance, question the participants for three hours, and vote. Faces and names are published as each seat is confirmed.
Investment
To be announced
Investment Director or Principal, UK lower mid market buyout
Credit
To be announced
Investment Director, private credit or leveraged finance
Capital
To be announced
Direct investment lead, family office or former PE principal
Programme live
Next step
Apply for the current PGP cohort
The programme is running. Apply now, or speak to admissions if you want to understand fit before you submit.