Herlihy Consulting Group

Where operating experience meets investor judgment.

Advisory for owners, executives, founders and investors who need costs cut, systems fixed and growth that holds.

Operator · Owner · Investor

At HCG we run operations at scale, own businesses with our name on the lease, and invest our own capital at the seed stage. Every engagement brings all three perspectives to the table.

Operator

Senior operating executive with oversight of an $100M+ budget: systems, vendors, payments, policy and board reporting.

Owner

Founding partner of a three-location specialty retailer and operator of a show featuring 850+ vendors, with a large hand in building a private awards company from scratch.

Investor

Manages a private investment portfolio and invests at the seed stage, working with founders on operations and the path to scale.

Capabilities

Six practice areas

All services

Operations & multi-site execution

Running events, programs and locations at scale: playbooks, partner networks, staffing and vendor contracts.

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Executive reviewing a financial dashboard on a tablet beside a calculator

Cost control, procurement & governance

Charge-level spend reviews, software subscription audits, vendor consolidation, RFPs and approval policy.

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Customer tapping a card on a point-of-sale terminal

Payments, systems & automation

Payment platform selection, POS and CRM evaluations, marketing platform consolidation, AI agents and internal apps.

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Modern flagship retail store with glass display cases, wall shelving and digital signage

Retail & ecommerce

Store operations, ecommerce, marketplaces and live commerce, email and SMS, loyalty programs and store policy.

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Marketing performance dashboard with conversion and click-through metrics

Growth, partnerships & product

Sponsorship and partnership proposals, merchandise and product lines, and decisions on new sales channels.

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Founders and an advisor talking through a plan over laptops

Investor, founder & diligence advisory

Expert calls and diligence for investors, and hands-on support for early-stage founders, from an operator who also invests.

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The goal of every engagement

Spend more time working on your business and less time working in your business.

Where most clients start

The Operations Diagnostic

In three to four weeks HCG reviews your spend, contracts, systems and workflows, then sizes every opportunity in dollars. You receive a prioritized value plan with owners, timing and annual impact for each initiative.

Compare engagement formats

Exhibit 1 · Illustrative example

90-Day Value Plan

Multi-location services company · $40M revenue · 6 locations

Sample

$1.6MAnnual EBITDA opportunity identified

11.0% → 15.0%EBITDA margin on $40M revenue, current to target

3.1% → 2.4%Payment cost as a share of revenue

Initiative	Owner	Timing	Annual impact	Effort
01Consolidate software and telecom vendors	CFO	Days 1–30	$300K	Low
02Purchase approval policy and monthly spend review	CFO	Days 1–30	$140K	Low
03Re-bid payment processing and card acceptance	Finance	Days 31–60	$280K	Medium
04Standard operating playbook across all locations	COO	Days 31–90	$380K	Medium
05Labor scheduling and overtime controls	COO	Days 61–90	$500K	High
Total identified			$1.6M

Illustrative example of an HCG diagnostic. Every figure in a client plan traces to the client's own spend, contract and transaction data.

$100M+Operating budget under executive oversight

15+Years in senior operating leadership

6+Businesses built from the ground up

41+Portfolio company investments

HCG presenting a plan to a client leadership team

Approach

How an engagement runs

AssessIntro call and a mutual NDA, then a data pull: spend, contracts, systems and the people who run them.
DiagnoseA written diagnostic sizes each opportunity in dollars and shows the data behind every number.
PlanA prioritized plan with owners, costs and a 90-day sequence. You decide what moves forward.
BuildHCG works alongside your team on the changes: vendors, policy, automation, launches.
Hand offDocumentation, dashboards and runbooks so your team owns the result.