Strategy and new business
Growth choices are rarely written as investment decisions.
Market and customer evidence; options framed as cases; board-ready decision papers.
Strategy, innovation and value creation
From the opportunity and the business case to delivery in the business.
AC&Co works with management teams, boards and investors in deep tech, energy and infrastructure, and telecoms — from the opportunity and the business case through to the operating plan after capital is committed, and on to new products, field evidence and performance.
The practice connects what is often treated separately: the case that unlocks capital, the organisation that must deliver it, and the technologies — including research-based and AI-based platforms — that need validation, industrialisation and first customers.
Our work
Six areas. Engagements are defined by deliverable and phase.
Cases and capital
Models and diligence must survive committee and lender scrutiny.
Business cases, economic and deal models, commercial due diligence, bid economics, plant and asset valuation, project finance materials.
Value creation and performance
Plans often start too late to change the result.
Value-creation plans, drivers and owners, operating cadence, investor-standard reporting — thesis linked to plan and actuals.
Innovation and commercialisation
The first deployment is too risky for infrastructure capital and too capital-intensive for venture.
Validation, pilot design and evidence, market entry, launch cases for spin-outs and deep-tech ventures.
Operations and industrialisation
Capacity and field programmes must match the case.
Operating models, scaling towards mass production, manufacturing investment cases, field measurement and customer-readiness.
Method and evidence
Attribution between strategy and outcome is often assumed, not shown.
Matched-pair field design where appropriate; assumptions in the case tested against operating and pilot data.
We use AI-based tools for first-pass analysis, modelling and screening, so that more of each engagement goes on evidence, judgment and delivery. Every output is reviewed by a person.
Sectors
- Deep tech — validation, industrialisation and the route to first customers and first capital.
- Energy and infrastructure — growth and delivery on regulated, capital-intensive assets; power, grid and thermal constraints.
- Telecoms — infrastructure ownership, carve-outs and wholesale models under investor scrutiny.
Perspectives
Long-form articles on strategy and value creation. Sources and figures appear in each piece; this page lists themes in preparation.
Editorial pillars
Content is organised in four weighted streams (30% / 30% / 30% / 10%):
- The case that gets funded — why committees say no and what would change the outcome.
- The plan that survives the organisation — when the plan is right and execution stalls.
- Licence to line — when the science and the grant exist but the business does not.
- Where corporates and ventures meet — when the pilot succeeds but procurement does not follow.
Themes in development
Value creation at entryWhy the value-creation plan belongs in the deal thesis, not in the final year of ownership.
Revenue and margins as the returnWhen financial structure matters less than growth and delivery under ownership.
The first customer as financeFirst deployment and first buyer as the unlock for infrastructure and venture capital in deep tech.
Public and private capital in sequenceWhat each tranche is for from validation to scale.
Heat and speed to powerThermal load and cooling as constraints in energy and digital infrastructure.
The network as the assetHow the investment case changes when telecoms is valued as infrastructure.
Measured in useWhy operating and site data — not laboratory data — decide whether technology is bought.
From pilot to purchase orderWhat infrastructure operators need before a pilot becomes procurement.
Articles in preparation.
About the firm
AC&Co is a strategy and value creation consultancy working with management teams, boards and investors in deep tech, energy and infrastructure, and telecoms.
Work is run alongside executive teams, boards and funds — by deliverable and phase, not as an interim management seat.
People
Antonio Cuenca — strategy, innovation and value creation.
Antonio works with management teams, boards and investors on three questions: where a business should grow, whether the business case holds, and how the plan is delivered once capital is committed. His analysis is built to transaction standard; where technology is involved, he brings an operator's perspective from leading a deep-tech company from laboratory validation towards commercial readiness. He founded AC&Co in 2016.