Crescent Capital Advisors

The instruments behind every engagement.

Eight frameworks answer four questions. Each one translates technology into the language the fund underwrites: CapEx, EBITDA, and the exit multiple.

System map of the eight CCA frameworks, grouped into four executive questions. At fund level, the AI Operating System is one GP engagement every portfolio company inherits. At portfolio company level: PRISM diagnoses the asset and flows into CLEAR, which operates it across the hold; the AI economics trilogy runs in sequence from AI Value Creation (allocate) to AI Cost Optimization (recover) to AI Value Attribution (verify); and the AI Governance Program runs a portfolio company to the Enterprise AI Control Plane, the target architecture.
Fund level

Portfolio

Built once at the fund, inherited by every portco.

Portfolio company level

Diagnose & Operate

PRISM reads the asset. CLEAR runs it across the hold.

PRISM™ — Technology Due Diligence Framework

v1.2

Five dimensions scored 0–100. Every finding priced as CapEx requirement, EBITDA drag, or exit multiple implication. A financial instrument, not a checklist.

Due DiligencePE Value Creation

CLEAR™ — Hold Period Operating Framework

v2.0

Five phases ending at exit, matching fund economics. PRISM™ diagnoses the asset; CLEAR™ operates it.

Hold PeriodPE Value CreationOperating Framework

AI Economics

Three questions about the same AI budget, asked in order.

AI Value Creation Framework

v1.1

Turning AI from a cost and distraction into a measurable margin driver. Use case prioritization, governance, and a board-ready AI narrative: all tied to EBITDA, not pilots.

AIPE Value CreationEBITDA

AI Cost Optimization Framework

v1.2

A six-layer model of AI spend (API, infrastructure, tooling, people, waste, risk) that uses governance as the detection layer. Three of the six layers carry 55 percent of spend and are the least visible; working all six recovers 20 to 34 percent of AI spend in the first year.

AIPE Value CreationEBITDA

AI Value Attribution Framework

v1.0

A five-level measurement hierarchy (Cost, Adoption, Productivity, Business Outcomes, Enterprise Value) for verifying what AI investment produced. Most companies can evidence the first two levels and report as though they had evidenced the last two.

AIPE Value CreationEBITDA

AI Governance

The program that closes the distance to the target architecture.

AI Governance Program

v1.1

The engagement that runs between the diagnostic and the target architecture: five phases that take a portfolio company from unlisted AI systems to a board-ready, regulator-ready governance posture.

AI GovernanceCISOPE Value Creation

Enterprise AI Control Plane

v1.3

A unified governance architecture (5 pillars × 4 lifecycle stages = 20 control domains) that treats AI systems as enterprise operational infrastructure requiring identity, access, observability, and resilience controls.

AI GovernanceCISOPE Value Creation

Portfolio

Built once at the fund, inherited by every portco.

AI Operating System

v0.9

One GP-level engagement that every current and future portfolio company inherits. Governance, readiness, and a repeatable deployment playbook: portfolio AI as operating capacity, not per-portco pilots.

AIGP-LevelPE Value CreationPortfolio Operations