Growth Investment Gatekeeping Director

The mandate

The committee seeks an independent challenge to growth cases where enthusiasm, speed and competitive narrative can outrun evidence. Its standing question is whether each proposal has identified a testable growth mechanism, the capacity required to serve it, the cash consumed before proof and a disciplined route to stop or scale.

The adviser will work four days weekly through case clinics, independent analysis and monthly committee participation. The role should improve both approval and rejection quality by distinguishing reversible experiments from commitments whose economics depend on sustained future volume.

No line authority, capital approval, sponsorship or operating direction accompanies the appointment. The Director can recommend gate conditions, stage releases and challenge claimed evidence through the Chair. Committee members decide; management sponsors execute and remain accountable for every stated benefit.

The five-month term includes one complete growth-investment round and initial backchecks. Renewal requires a new committee question. Conflicts include current advice to competing proposers, ownership interests affected by growth choices and prior authorship of submitted cases; disclosure may require recusal even where confidentiality barriers exist.

What you will own

• Define gate criteria for hypothesis clarity, addressable evidence, contribution, capacity, cash exposure, reversibility and learning value.
• Review at least twelve growth cases and record assumptions, evidence strength, recommendation, conditions and committee disposition.
• Separate proof-of-concept, proof-of-demand, proof-of-delivery and proof-of-economics so one encouraging signal does not stand for all four.
• Recommend staged funding tied to observable milestones, stop conditions and maximum loss rather than calendar progression.
• Challenge terminal assumptions, adoption curves, cannibalisation and capacity claims using reference evidence and explicit ranges.
• Introduce backchecks that compare approved hypotheses with observed outcomes before later funding is released.
• Identify portfolio concentration where multiple cases depend on the same customers, capability, channel or execution resource.
• Transfer the gatekeeping checklist and case-review record to committee owners after the final cycle.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 17 years in growth FP&A, investment governance, strategic finance or venture-style portfolio challenge.
• Evidence of staging or stopping a growth commitment after separating demand evidence from economic proof.
• Strong expertise in cohort economics, adoption, contribution, capacity, cash burn, option value and milestone design.
• A case where you defined a maximum-loss boundary that preserved learning while preventing uncontrolled commitment.
• Experience challenging visionary sponsors without taking ownership of their proposal or execution.
• Ability to identify shared portfolio assumptions and concentration that individual cases leave unstated.
• A comprehensive conflict-disclosure posture covering advisory, investment and prior-authorship relationships.

Working terms and boundaries

• The advisory service runs four days weekly for five months, aligned to case clinics, analysis and one monthly committee.
• The Director has no line authority, capital vote, proposal sponsorship or right to direct operating experiments.
• Conflicts are refreshed before each case pack; prior authorship or material interest normally requires recusal.
• Commercial diligence, implementation management, valuation assurance and negotiation lie outside the advisory remit.
• Completion follows twelve reviewed cases, an operating gate standard, initial backchecks and committee acceptance of the transferred method.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 7 October 2026. Mandate reference FPA-ADV-2026-AUH-35.