The plan before the wire.

The LOI gets signed in week two. The 100-day plan gets written in week three.

If the 100-day plan does not exist before the financing commitment closes, the post-close handoff is improvisation, not strategy.

The MIP. The board composition. The senior credit covenant calendar. The integration sequence for the first add-on. All of it lives in the 100-day plan, drafted before the wire moves.

You are not running the deal once the wire moves. You are running the platform. The platform is run from the plan.

The MIP, or Management Incentive Plan. The CEO and CFO of the platform need to know, before the wire moves, what their post-close equity participation looks like. If you let this conversation slip past close, three things happen. First, the executives feel that their economics are an afterthought. Second, the LP starts asking why the MIP was not pre-negotiated. Third, the legal documentation becomes a fire drill in the first 30 days post-close.

The 100-day plan should specify the MIP pool size (typically 10 to 15 percent of post-close equity), the allocation (CEO 5%, CFO 2-3%, balance for the team), the vesting schedule (60 percent time-vested over 4 years, 40 percent performance-vested on exit), the structure (profits interests in the LLC), the acceleration triggers (double-trigger: change of control plus termination).

The board composition. Five seats. Sponsor as chair, one LP-elected, one independent, potentially the CEO. Locked before close because the first board meeting happens within 30 days.

The senior credit covenant calendar. The CFO needs this in week one of post-close, not week ten. When the first compliance certification is due. What the covenant thresholds are. What the cure rights are. What the reporting package includes.

The integration sequence for the first add-on. IT integration playbook. HR integration playbook. Customer transition playbook. Branding decision. These playbooks do not have to be perfect. They have to exist.

The post-close communication plan. Internal employee announcement (day of close). All-hands meeting (within first week). Customer notification (first two weeks). Vendor notification (first 30 days). Press release (if any).

All of this work should be done in the 30 days between LOI signing and the definitive agreement signing. The independent sponsor who does this work has a platform that runs from day one. The independent sponsor who skips this work has a platform that takes 60 to 90 days to find its footing.

The 100-day plan is not a document. It is a discipline.