Hi, I’m Derek Bluestone.
Provex stands for Proven Execution. Over the last 15 years I’ve been a CPO & CPTO, participated in numerous successful exits including a $1.3 billion IPO, and have been directly responsible for more than $2 billion in ARR. Since 2020, I’ve been focused on developing B2B Agentic AI solutions in key domains (OFCO, Healthcare, MarTech & FinTech).
In September 2026, I launched Provex Advisory with a simple premise:
Agentic AI has turned product strategy and execution into the primary determinant of whether a PE backed portfolio company has a viable exit strategy.
For most of the last decade, product strategy in PE-backed SaaS showed up in the exit narrative in a 4-5 year hold period alongside Rule of 50+ financials. That is no longer where it sits.
The simple fact is that PE investment committees are not taking a chance of what used to be a sure thing when it might not be around in the next few years or will not command the MOIC multiples needed to justify the investment.
My Approach
“We need an AI Strategy!”
Here is where most portfolio companies react to Board pressure and get it wrong. They add an chatbot to an existing product and call it an AI strategy. The follow on statement is “our AI is not bolted on…” — which of course means the opposite to any educated customer, acquirer or sponsor. A chatbot on top of an application is a me-too feature, and a buyer's diligence team should and will price it as one.
The alternative requires digging deeper. Customer workflows need to emerge from each customer's own data, history, and corrections rather than being designed in advance. To say it in simple terms, customers need proof that the agent understands their business and workflows and acts accordingly. Crucially, when done well, user adoption of agentic AI is woven into the fabric of the application vs. a generally wasteful set of distraction and investment in campaigns to convince users to adopt the technology (Pendo slides anyone?).
This takes real sequencing decisions, and it is exactly what produces the two things buyers are now paying a premium for: data no model can replicate, and autonomous capabilities that can be proven. Why would any buyer pay for something they cannot actually see providing outsized value? By outsized value, I mean 100-300% ROI.
Companies that make those decisions in the next four quarters will get premium multiples. Companies that ship a chatbot and a press release will get an extended, expensive process that more than likely will result in no sale or a painful discount for the investors.
Agentic Software Development: “Code is Cheap!” WRONG!
Yes, agentic code generation is easier than ever before, but it’s not cheaper (just look at the Claude Code spend this month…not to mention the number of escaped defects and security vulnerabilities). The moment code is released to production it becomes expensive.
This is why the product operating model is in scope in our engagements. The way product decisions get made, how discovery connects to delivery, and what a product manager and an engineer actually spend the day on are all changing under agentic tooling. Portfolio companies cannot execute an agentic product strategy through a PDLC built for a feature factory.
Why Provex Advisory
None of this is knowable from inside the building alone, and none of it survives as a 127 slide deck generated by the typical consulting firm. PE sponsors cannot wait indefinitely, because capital has to be returned to limited partners on a schedule.
The moves that reset a product's position must be executed ruthlessly and require someone in the room who has done it before and is not on the payroll. That is why every Provex assessment ends in a change agenda, and why it’s paired with an execution retainer.