Operator-led · Systems-driven · Results that scale
For founder-led and PE-backed service businesses that have outgrown manual back-office work. We diagnose the operating bottlenecks first, then install the process, systems, and practical AI where they create measurable payback.
Built by an operator who installed this playbook into 4,000+ service businesses through IPO. Today, CSK works with founder-led and PE-backed operators across the Carolinas and Southeast — including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, restoration, commercial cleaning, and adjacent service markets.
Most founder-led service businesses have leads, capacity, and tenure. What they don't have is the operating system that turns demand into booked revenue — without the owner in every conversation.
Demand comes in faster than the front office can answer. Missed calls and unanswered forms become missed revenue — and the lead reaches your competitor at 9:01.
Half the team is on it. The other half lives in their truck, on the job site, or in their head. The data you report on isn't the data the work runs on.
Lead-to-appointment, close rate on open quotes, capacity utilization — measured loosely, if at all. So is the coaching that fixes them.
By the time you see the gap, the month is gone. The fix requires a weekly cadence, not a monthly dashboard.
None of this is a software problem. It is a system problem. A system your team can run without a consultant in the room.
We don't sell tools. We install the system around the tools you already have — HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, Procore — then add practical automation and AI where they close the loop.
Capture on every call, web form, and missed touch. Instant text-back. Same-hour follow-up. The lead that called your competitor at 9pm hears from you at 9:01.
CRM cleaned up. Sales process integrated. Lead-to-booked-revenue conversion measured weekly. Every opportunity has a source, an owner, and a number.
Weekly KPI review. Board-ready monthly report. Quarterly deep dive. The accountability layer most founder-led businesses are missing.
Defined scope. Defined deliverables. Defined accountability. Pick the entry point that fits where you are.
The operating diligence your QoE doesn't cover. Answers the question the spreadsheet can't: is the revenue real, and will it hold without the founder?
The system, not a slide deck. Configured CRM, trained team, scripts, automated follow-up, weekly KPI dashboard, and a cadence the owner can run when we leave.
A senior operating partner in the seat, on retainer. Weekly operating cadence, monthly board-ready report, on-call advisory, quarterly deep dive — accountable to the revenue rhythm, not just the pipeline.
Most "AI transformation" engagements skip straight to the tool. We don't. The cost of the wrong pilot isn't the software bill — it's the calendar quarter you lose proving it didn't work.
Trace how leads, calls, jobs, and dollars actually move through the business — and where they stop being automatic.
Configure the CRM. Write the scripts. Automate the follow-up. Stand up the dashboard. Train the team — twice.
Weekly KPI cadence with the team. Live call and pipeline review. Adjust in real time. The system has to survive contact with the work.
Final performance report. 30-60-90 roadmap. Operations playbook. Recorded walkthrough. Then we leave the team running it.
These aren't values on a website. They're the filter every engagement runs through.
Not a consultant who has read about it. The 4,000-business channel at Sunlight is the same operating system, applied across verticals.
Every recommendation has a configuration, a script, a dashboard, and an owner. If it can't be operated weekly, it doesn't ship.
Headline KPI selected at Day 14. Baseline measured before anything changes. Before/after on every metric at engagement close.
CSK Growth Partners is led by Chris Kastler. Before founding the firm, Chris spent eight years at Sunlight Financial — a PE-backed fintech that processed $12B+ in funded loan volume — building and leading the SMB channel that integrated Sunlight's point-of-sale financing platform into 4,000+ independent service businesses.
As Managing Director, he scaled channel credit approval volume from $24M to $1.2B annually: recruiting and onboarding owner-operator partners, training their sales teams to use financing as a closing tool, and building the underwriting and capital infrastructure that made the platform reliable at the kitchen table — cycle time cut from two weeks to same-day. He took the business through its 2021 IPO and was later promoted to lead a 40+ person joint operations organization spanning funding ops, post-sale ops, and customer success.
The lesson: a small number of repeatable operating motions — partner onboarding, sales training, underwriting, weekly reporting, and execution cadence — scaled an entire channel through a public listing. It's the same set of motions Chris now installs in founder-led and PE-backed service businesses.
Earlier roles at Bank of America (VP, institutional banking) and Capital One (FP&A) built the financial rigor PE sponsors expect. Inside engagements, Chris works with the 100-Day Playbook, MEDDPICC, and the Pyramid Principle — named frameworks, used on purpose.
Outside the work, Chris is a commercial real estate investor and a mentor at RevTech Labs. Clemson University, Magna Cum Laude.
Operator-first doesn't mean off-the-cuff. The frameworks below are the ones we run inside engagements — and the ones we expect ownership groups to push back on.
How we onboard new leaders and stand up new functions. The first 100 days set the trajectory of the next 1,000. Sequenced, accountable, board-reportable.
How we qualify pipeline and rebuild your sales motion. Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Decision Process, Paper Process, Identified Pain, Champion, Competition.
Answer first, then the support. Every deliverable starts with the recommendation. The 60 pages behind it are for defenders, not deciders.
We'll spend 30 minutes on your problem, not our credentials. If the fit is right, you'll leave with a hypothesis worth testing. If it isn't, you'll leave with an honest answer.
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