Dan Hobson — Chairman, Non-Executive Director, Advisor

I've taken a software services business from start-up to private equity. I'd like to help yours through what comes next.

I co-founded and ran commercial operations to grow Codestone Group into one of the UK's larger SAP and Microsoft enterprise application businesses. My co-founder and I took it through a private equity transaction and three acquisitions, and I stepped off the board in late 2024. I'm now available for Chairman and Non-Executive Director roles in software and software services businesses, and for a small number of advisory engagements alongside them.

Start a conversation See the roles I'm looking for
1997–2024
Codestone Group — co-founder; grew the business organically to around 140 people before the PE deal, ~290 people at the time I stepped down
2021
Private equity transaction — sale of a controlling stake to FPE Capital; three years on a PE-backed board through a buy-and-build phase
2001–2018
m-Science Ltd — investor and non-executive director of a mobile messaging and technology services business, from start-up through to exit, alongside my executive role
2024–
Hobson Advisory Services — independent advisory, commercial due diligence for investors, and board roles
Dan Hobson

What I bring to a boardroom

Founder, operator, and PE-backed board member in enterprise software and managed services. Fluent in the language investors use, and in what management teams mean when they answer. Based in Poole, working across the UK.

Most of what I know about running a software services business, I learned through practical experience and fixing things fast. That's the perspective I offer a board.

I spent twenty-seven years building Codestone from a start-up into a business with almost 300 people, selling and delivering SAP and Microsoft enterprise applications, cloud compute, and managed services to UK SMEs and mid-market companies. I ran the go-to-market operations, was responsible for revenue and unit economics, sat on the board throughout, and went through the full cycle of a private equity investment: preparing the business for sale, the transaction itself, and then three years working with an investor on both organic and inorganic growth before stepping down from the management team as part of a planned transition to new management.

Since then I've been working independently: a twelve-week commercial due diligence engagement for an investment firm, advisory work with founder-led technology businesses, and building an AI-assisted diagnostic that tests how commercially mature a software company really is. I currently sit on the chairman and advisory benches at Elbow Beach Capital and am registered with Virtual Non-Execs.

I pride myself on being direct, asking awkward questions early, and helping boards recognise uncomfortable truths at the right time. I also know what it feels like to be the founder on the other side of that table, which tends to make the conversation more useful.

SectorSoftware, SaaS, IT services, managed services, ERP and business applications partners, technology consultancies
Stage£2m–£50m revenue; founder-led, PE-backed, or preparing for investment or exit
SituationsFirst institutional investment, second-stage growth, buy-and-build, sales and go-to-market reset, succession from founder to professional management, preparing for exit
Who engages mePrivate equity or VC investors and their portfolio boards, founders and CEOs, search firms and talent teams

Board roles and advisory work.

The first two are the roles I'm actively seeking. The rest is the additional value I can bring to boards and investors, and often how a board relationship begins.

  1. 1

    Chairman

    Software and software services businesses, typically founder-led or PE-backed

    A chair's job is to make the board function: the right agenda, the right people in the room, honest conversations between the CEO and investors, and a management team that leaves each meeting clearer than it arrived. I've sat on both sides of that relationship as a founder-CCO and as a PE-backed executive, so I know where the tension usually comes from and how to keep it productive.

    I'm particularly interested in businesses at the point of taking first investment, or where a founder is starting to hand over the day-to-day and needs someone independent alongside them.

  2. 2

    Non-Executive Director

    Commercial, sales, and go-to-market lens on the board

    Seventeen years as a NED at m-Science alongside my executive role, and three years on a PE-backed board at Codestone. I add most value where a board needs someone who has personally built and scaled a sales engine, priced and packaged services, run delivery at scale, and lived through the operational reality of working with large strategic partners.

    I take governance seriously without hiding behind it. The value of a NED is in the questions asked between meetings as much as in them.

  3. 3

    Exit or investment preparation

    Getting the business ready before the process starts

    The value you get from a sale or a funding round is mostly decided in the twelve to eighteen months before anyone opens a data room. I've been through it from the inside on both sell and buy side: preparing Codestone for the sale of a controlling stake, sitting across the table from advisers and investors, and then living with the plan we'd sold on the other side of the deal. Three acquisitions and integrations have sharpened my eye as to exactly what a buyer is looking for and the opaque reasons that can kill a deal.

    The work is practical. Getting the numbers into a shape an investor will trust, making sure the sales story and the pipeline actually agree, tidying up contracts, customer concentration and recurring revenue so there are no surprises in diligence, and making the management team credible without the founder in every conversation. Done properly it takes risk out of the process and, more often than not, adds to the price.

  4. 4

    Commercial maturity diagnostic

    For investors, boards, and CEOs who want an evidence-based view

    A structured, fixed-scope review of how commercially mature a software or services business actually is, as opposed to how it describes itself. It tests the claims a business makes about its market, pipeline, pricing, customer base, and route to market against the evidence available, and scores each area with the gaps and the reasoning made explicit.

    I built the underlying method during commercial due diligence work and have developed AI-assisted tooling to make it faster and more consistent. It works as pre-deal diligence, as a 100-day baseline after investment, or as an honest starting point for a board that suspects the sales story and the numbers don't quite match.

    Fixed scope, fixed fee, typically two to four weeks
  5. 5

    Strategic planning

    Working with the leadership team, not for them

    Turning a vision into a plan the business can actually execute: where to compete, what to stop doing, what the sales and delivery model needs to look like at the next size, and what the board should be measuring. I've written and rewritten these plans for my own business under investor scrutiny, which tends to remove the theory.

  6. 6

    Bespoke engagements

    For situations that don't fit a standard brief

    Not every problem arrives neatly labelled. Investor-side reviews of a portfolio company's sales function, a second opinion on a plan before it goes to the board, helping a founder work through an approach from an acquirer, a few days' support around a strategic partnership decision. If it's something I've done myself and can add real value to, we'll agree a written scope and a fixed fee and get on with it.

  7. 7

    Executive coaching

    For founders and first-time CEOs of technology businesses

    One-to-one work with founders and CEOs going through something I've been through: taking investment for the first time, working with a board, building a leadership team around themselves, or preparing to step back. Less a coaching programme, more a regular conversation with someone who's done it and will tell you what they think.

Engagement

Whether the approach comes from an investor, a founder, or a search firm, I keep the early stages simple and honest on both sides.

1
A conversation

An hour, in confidence, on where the business is and what the board needs. If I'm not the right fit I'll say so and, where I can, point you to someone who is.

2
Meet the people

Time with the CEO, the founders, and the investors. Board relationships are personal and it's worth finding out early whether we'd work well together.

3
Agree the shape

Role, time commitment, term, and fees, set out plainly. For advisory work, a written scope and a fixed fee wherever possible.

4
Get to work

A proper induction into the business and its numbers, then a first ninety days focused on understanding before I start giving opinions.

Track record

Everything here is verifiable. References from investors, board colleagues, and management teams are available on request.

1997–2024

Codestone Group

Co-founder and executive board member for twenty-seven years, from 1997 until stepping down in 2024. Grew the business organically to around 140 people, sold a controlling stake to FPE Capital in 2021, and stayed three further years through a buy-and-build phase that took headcount to roughly 290. Retain a minority shareholding.

2001–2018

m-Science Ltd

Investor and non-executive director of a mobile messaging and technology services business, from start-up through to exit, held alongside my executive role at Codestone.

2024–

Advisory and diligence

Twelve-week commercial due diligence engagement for an investment firm. Retained advisor for a £10m revenue software services business. Member of the chairman and advisory benches at Elbow Beach Capital. Registered with Virtual Non-Execs.

Start a conversation

If you're an investor, CEO, founder, or a search firm looking for a chairman or non-executive director with real operating experience in software and services, I'd like to hear from you. The same applies if you'd like to talk about a commercial maturity diagnostic or an advisory engagement.

I reply personally, usually within a working day.

Emaildan@hobsonadvisory.co.uk
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/danhobsonuk
BasedPoole, Dorset — working across the UK
CompanyHobson Advisory Services Ltd

Message sent

Thanks. I'll come back to you personally, usually within a working day.