How One Ski Trip Killed a £10M+ Deal
The Single Point of Failure Hiding Inside Your Deal Team
Let’s start with a true story…
The team was mid-deal.
Mandate secured.
Lenders aligned.
Investors ready.
The payday to the firm? Just above £10 million.
That was until Steve went skiing in Courchevel.
No notice. No handover. No signal.
By the time someone realised he was the only person with the lender’s term sheet,
It had expired.
The client lost confidence.
The lender moved on.
The deal died without a fight.
All because Steve fancied some powder.
This wasn’t an accident.
It was a system failure in disguise.
And if your execution engine is built the same way - it’s only a matter of time.
The Real Risk Isn’t the Market. It’s Your Own Team.
You don’t get blindsided by macro.
You get blindsided by fragility disguised as high performance.
We call it the SPOF Effect - Single Point of Failure.
And it’s more common than anyone wants to admit.
Especially in real estate private equity, development JVs, or capital partnerships.
Where one missing contact, delayed approval, or vanishing term sheet…
Can derail months of momentum overnight.
7 Single Points of Failure (SPOFs) Killing Elite Deal Teams
1. The Lone Model Whisperer
Only one person understands the spreadsheet.
Everyone else is praying they don’t leave.
Fix: Loom video demo it. Version it. Structure it so anyone can run it cold.
2. The Relationship Sinkhole
The client trusts one name.
That person disappears - so does the mandate (with them).
Fix: Tag-team the relationship. Document preferences. Build firm-level trust.
3. Inbox Gatekeeping
Critical information buried in a single person’s inbox.
No shared access. No visibility. No resilience.
Fix: Shared pipelines. Central dashboards. Real-time visibility.
4. Legal Bottlenecks
The SPA’s latest version? Good luck.
It’s sitting with one person who’s “on another call.”
Fix: Master doc. Live comments. Version logs. Access for all key players.
5. Decision-Making Black Holes
Under pressure, no one knows who’s got authority.
So they wait. And wait. And the window closes.
Fix: Escalation protocols. Clear command structures. Chain of ownership.
6. Absence Protocol Gaps
Someone’s out for two days… and everything stops.
Sound familiar?
Fix: Backup personnel mapped. 2ICs for every role. Pre-written handovers.
7. Founder Syndrome in Execution
One hero holding the entire deal together.
The “don’t worry, I’ve got it” operator… until they don’t.
Fix: SOPs. Cross-training. Eliminate dependency. No heroes. Only systems.
3x Real 8-Figure Deal Failures That Should Have Never Happened
Confidential but true stories -
This is how I have personally witnessed major deals really die:
Failure #1: “The Modeller Vanished”
The analyst who built the model quit with no handover.
Nobody could explain it. Buyer walked.
Loss: £12.6M in fees.
Failure #2: “The Adviser Got Sick”
Single-relationship lead got COVID.
Nobody else had client contact.
Loss: £8M mandate walked straight into competitor hands.
Failure #3: “The Term Sheet Expired”
No one flagged the expiration clause.
It slipped by.
Loss: £30M equity partnership gone with zero warning.
These weren’t market shocks.
They were internal blind spots that never got addressed.
And for real estate funds or capital allocators, it raises the question:
If your investors knew how fragile your internal ops really are…
Would they still back your next raise?
How We Bulletproof Our Deal Execution Engine
At Thrive, we don’t run deals on memory, ego, or “that guy’s got it.”
We run on systems that don’t care who’s OOO (Out of Office),
Or halfway up a mountain in the French Alps.
Steal This: Our SPOF-Proof SOP Starter Kit
Implement these and you’ll eliminate 70% of your risk immediately.
These are the three critical systems we use to sleep at night.
1. Deal Modelling SOP
Inputs tab is colour-coded and locked
Version log updated with date, initials, summary
Loom walkthrough recorded for every major update
Reviewer flow built in with mandatory sign-off before external use
2. Client Handover SOP
Relationship map stored in either Notion or Airtable
Include who’s who, who we’ve met, trust levels
Preferences log: comms cadence, likes/dislikes, decision styles
Comms log: last touchpoint, next planned move, assigned owner
If your relationship manager disappears, the deal still moves. That’s the rule.
3. Lender & Terms Tracker SOP
Central tracker with deal, lender, term status, expiry
Versioned term sheets uploaded and dated
7-day alerts before expiry sent to both lead + backup
Owner and 2IC logged. Accountability is never assumed
Closing Punchline:
If one ski trip, one inbox, or one sick day can blow up your fee -
You’re not institutional. You’re improvising.
In this market, capital partners are watching how you operate.
Not just what you say.
Redundancy isn’t a luxury. It’s the price of precision.
Until Next Time…
Whether you’re skiing, closing, on holiday,
Or somehow doing all three this Easter,
Stay sharp.
Hope your Good Friday’s been restful…
…and your weekend recharges the sharpest edge of your execution.
Because when the pressure hits, fragility isn’t forgiven.
- Matt
P.S. If you’re new here - welcome.
Rule #1: Don’t be Steve.
Rule #2: We write this for operators who eliminate fragility and execute like it’s an asset class.
You’re in good company.