Cross-Border Deal Facilitation
Specific deals across European corridors. Deal-fee, not retainer. Skin in the game.
The Problem
Cross-border deals fail in the seams, not on the merits.
The deal makes commercial sense in both countries. The product fits. The capital is available. What kills the deal, when it dies, is rarely the deal itself. It is the seam: a regulatory frame nobody quite understood, a partner introduced by someone neither party trusts deeply enough, a governance question no one had the standing to resolve, a misunderstood expectation about who was supposed to do what next. Cross-border deals fail in the seams because no one has been sitting in the seam.
This engagement is structured deliberately differently from the rest of the Fab Campaigns portfolio. No fixed fee. No retainer. I take a percentage of the deal value when it closes, which means I am sitting in the seam, with skin in the game, until the deal is real.
What I Bring
The thing in the middle
- Deep, lived networks in two European deal corridors, UK to Italy and the Alps, and UK to the wider Alpine and Central European economy.
- Practitioner in Telecommunications spanning broader Europe and Southern Africa, active since 2006, focused on value-added smart data services – useful for the right deal in those sectors.
- Thirty years of product, regulatory, M&A and partnership work that means I know what fails in the seam before it fails.
- An ability to be the senior face of the deal in both countries, same person, same standards, same standing.
- Application of the Fab Campaigns frameworks where useful: Stage Gate to qualify the deal, FabCube for conflict-of-interest, C1–C4 for any sensitive information that flows between parties.
- A commercial structure that aligns my interests with the deal closing properly, not with hours billed.
- The ability to walk away, which I will, if the deal stops being right for either party.
Where This Works
Two European corridors and a telecoms network
UK ↔ Italy and the Alps
Particularly Veneto, Friuli, Trentino-Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta and Lombardy mountain regions. Climate tech, environmental intelligence, territorial infrastructure, and the climate-adaptation sectors. Deep personal networks in Belluno and Valtellina.
UK ↔ Wider Alpine and Central Europe
Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, French Alps. Particularly for environmental intelligence, mountain infrastructure and territorial-data deals, where my Smart Mountains work creates natural overlap.
Telecoms — Europe with Southern African reach
For deals in value-added smart data services, IoT and M2M, location intelligence, telematics, data productisation; across global product, M&A and R&D work at Vodafone.
Outside these areas — by geography or by sector — I will say so in the first conversation and either decline or recommend a deal partner better placed. For Southern African deals outside telecoms and smart data services, a network introduction is sometimes possible, but full deal facilitation is not.
How It Works
Four phases. Aligned interests. Walk-away rights on both sides.
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Qualify · two to three weeks
Stage Gate applied to the deal: is it worth talking about, is it worth building, can it actually be formalised? Many deals stop here, which is the cheapest place to find out.
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Structure · variable
Commercial structure, partnership architecture if a partnership is part of the deal, governance, conflict-of-interest disclosure. The seam-work that prevents the deal from failing in the seam.
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Close · variable
Negotiation support, regulatory framing, and the in-person presence when it is needed. I don’t provide legal counsel; your existing legal counsel handles the contractual work. I sit alongside.
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Activate · 90 days post-close
The first ninety days after close are when most cross-border deals quietly under-perform. I stay engaged through that window to make sure the deal as signed is the deal that operates.
Who It’s For
Three signals this is the right engagement
The deal is specific and named
You can describe the deal in a paragraph: the parties, the geography, the order of magnitude, the timing. If you can’t yet, you are at market entry strategy, not deal facilitation.
The deal sits in a corridor I can serve
One of the two European corridors, or a European-and-Southern-African deal in telecoms or smart data services. Each end of the deal needs an established network on my side.
The deal is large enough to make the structure work
Deal-fee economics only make sense above a certain size. We will know after the first conversation whether the numbers fit on both sides.
Both parties are real
I am not bringing strangers together. The deal exists because there are two real parties already in motion. I sit in the seam between them.
Investment
2% of deal value, paid on close
No fixed fee. A small qualification deposit covers the Stage Gate phase and is credited against the deal fee on close. If the deal does not close, the deposit is the only cost. Specific commercial structures are agreed in writing before the qualification phase begins.
If there is a specific deal in view
The first conversation is the qualifying conversation. We agree whether the deal is real enough, whether it sits in a corridor I can serve, and whether the commercial structure makes sense for both sides. The conversation is at no charge.
