General management
20+ years as managing director with my own capital: P&L, liquidity, product, technology, marketing, HR and customers. Led units of up to 60 employees.
Roland Wabersich
Interim Managing Director & Fractional COO
for owner-managed software companies, mid-sized software businesses and PE add-ons
Entrepreneur for hire: 20+ years running my own software company with my own capital – not a consultant, not a corporate line manager. I have done myself what I offer.
Availability: Availability on request
- 8.5 yearscustomer lifetime,
88% retention rate¹ - 95%recurring revenue,
own SaaS platform¹ - 6 daysfrom total ransomware outage
to full operation (2026)¹ - < 1 dayof management time per week,
automated operations¹
¹ Key figures from the SaaS company I founded and manage (value chain solutions GmbH).
Profile
Entrepreneur and operator with more than 30 years of experience in software technology – over 20 of them as founder, managing director and majority shareholder of a self-funded SaaS company with blue-chip customers. I know growth as well as structural market disruption, corporate structures as well as entrepreneurial risk with my own capital.
My focus: shifting software companies to recurring revenue, setting up lean and automated operations, managing legacy business for profit and staying calm in a crisis. I understand technology and speak the developers’ language – implementation is done with your team. I take responsibility and hand over in good order.
When to call me
- Vacancy in management or operations – take over for a fixed term, stabilise, onboard the successor
- From project or licence business to recurring revenue – productisation, pricing, KPIs
- Declining core business or legacy product – adjust costs, automate operations, secure profits, build something new
- Preparing succession or founder exit – reduce dependency on the founder, make processes transferable
- Operational realignment – digitise and automate processes, optimise service levels
- Cyber resilience – beforehand a readiness check (Compact or Complete), in an emergency leading the crisis team, afterwards restoring a secure state
- Sparring partner for shareholders, owners and management – as fractional COO
Core competencies
Recurring revenue & SaaS models
Service and subscription revenue models since the 1990s, own platform with 95% recurring revenue. Productisation, pricing, ARR/MRR, NRR, churn, LTV/CAC.
Market disruption & legacy business
Recognised market disruption early and actively managed it: costs adjusted, operations automated, profits secured, new products built. Assessing legacy business soberly: keep, restructure or wind down in good order.
Cyber crisis management & preparedness
Led the crisis team during a total ransomware outage (business side, with forensics and IT security). Resulting offer: readiness check for management teams – before, during, after; complementing IT security and mandatory NIS2 training.
Operations, processes, data & AI
Automation of sales, service and logistics processes. Leading data and BI solutions on the business side – built by your IT or partners. AI since 1990, used where it pays off.
Independent assessment & control
Assessment of IT, processes, products, business case and management for shareholders – with no vested interest. Reporting on liquidity, margins and service levels; own BI platform for 20+ years.
Industries: B2B software · SaaS · brand manufacturers · consumer electronics · distribution / wholesale
For shareholders and investors
What you get from me when you are responsible for a software company but cannot or do not want to step in operationally:
- Ability to act
In case of a vacancy I take over for a fixed term, stabilise the business and onboard the successor.
- Independent judgement
A fact-based assessment of IT, processes, products, business case and management – without self-interest.
- Transparency
Ongoing KPI reporting, for example on liquidity, margins and service levels.
- Orderly handover
Clear goals and decision authority from day one, an agreed plan with measurable milestones and a clean handover at the end.
Case studies
Selected situations from practice: with numbers, decisions and what has to be in place beforehand.
Case study · March 2026
Ransomware Crisis
Six days from total outage to full operation
- Situation
- A ransomware attack encrypts the internal systems. The customer platform – largely still unencrypted – is taken off the network immediately. The company can only be reached by email (Exchange Online) and phone (VoIP).
- Approach
- Crisis team set up within a few hours, all technical work delegated to internal IT and external specialists. Managed personally: decisions, prioritisation, financial scenarios, legal matters, payment handling and communication with customers and employees.
- Result
- First customer services back after 4 days, full operation after 6 days, no customer data deleted, not a single customer lost.
- 4 days until the first customer services ran
- 6 days to full operation for all customers
- 0 customer data deleted
- 100% customer retention
Cyber readiness check for management
As managing director and head of the crisis team, I successfully led my company through a total ransomware outage: 6 days to full operation, no customer data deleted, no customer lost. I bring this hands-on experience into the check – from the management perspective and with one goal: that your company survives an attack.
Proven in practice – before, during, after
Before an attack
Which preparations really count: at every level, not just in IT.
During the crisis
How the crisis is resolved: who decides, who communicates, how the business keeps running.
After the attack
How a secure state is restored – technically, organisationally and with customers.
Questions the check answers, among others
- Are we really prepared – at every relevant level?
- Who decides in an emergency?
- Can we communicate internally and externally after an attack? Who with whom, through which channel?
- Up to what amount can we act financially? Could we pay if necessary – and how?
- Have I, as managing director, effectively overseen our security resources and processes, internal and external?
- Where is our “survival data” – and do we have access to it at all times, even without our own IT?
- How well are the company, the shareholders and management actually protected?
- Which attack and recovery scenarios exist, what is their impact – and do our responses work in practice?
- Is it clear who assesses in an emergency whether a GDPR-reportable data breach has occurred – and who reports it to the data protection authority within the statutory deadline? A report to the BSI does not replace it.
- Are we affected by NIS2? An initial assessment – the binding review is done by your legal adviser.
The Compact check focuses on the core questions; the Complete check answers all of them – in depth and with scenarios.
Two versions
Compact for a quick overview, Complete for a full review. The Complete check includes the Compact check; a Compact check can be extended at any time.
Readiness Check Compact
1 on-site meeting · remote debriefThe quick overview: where does your company stand?
- Preparation Remote alignment with management and a short questionnaire on the current situation
- Current state Meeting with management, IT (internal and, where relevant, external) and other relevant people in charge
- Report Documentation, assessment of the situation and prioritised recommendations; remote debrief with the relevant people
Readiness Check Complete
On site and remote · on-site debriefThe full review – in depth and with scenarios.
- Preparation Remote alignment with management and a short questionnaire on the current situation
- In-depth current state Meeting with management, IT (internal and, where relevant, external) and other relevant people in charge; detailed remote conversations for deeper insight
- Comprehensive report Documentation, assessment of the situation, attack and recovery scenarios and prioritised recommendations; debrief on site
- Final report Your feedback incorporated and the final report delivered
Scope: three building blocks – I provide the third
Technical IT security
IT service providers and security vendors
Are we technically protected?
Mandatory NIS2 training
Training providers, law firms, chambers
Do we know our duties?
Cyber readiness check
Roland Wabersich
Is our company prepared for an attack – and will it survive one?
Not technically audited: hardware and software in use, security processes including their documentation, and internal and external security resources. That is the job of your IT security partners – from the management perspective, the check asks whether these tasks are owned and overseen. The same applies to data protection: I check whether responsibilities, reporting routes and deadlines are organised; the legal assessment is done by your data protection officer or legal adviser.
- Scope
- Fixed price on request – Compact or Complete
- For whom
- Owners and managing directors of mid-sized companies – regulated or not
- Further options
- Crisis exercise, standby agreement for an emergency, annual refresher – on request
- Based on
- Personally leading a crisis team through a total ransomware outage in 2026
Consulting engagements
Consulting engagements are shown anonymised. Names and references are available on request – after an initial conversation and with the referees’ consent.
2025 – 2026
AI start-up, image recognition and analysis · approx. 10 employees
Strategy advice and coaching of the COO · 15 months, 0.5 days per week
- Concept for the shift from project business to a scalable SaaS product model
2024
Manufacturer in the energy sector
IT advisory and coaching of management on behalf of the shareholder · 5 months, 3 days per month
- Finding: IT understaffed and tied to manual legacy processes (for example reordering)
- Recommendation: align processes with efficient technical solutions and add IT capacity in a targeted way
- Independent assessment of the management for the shareholder; the recommendation was implemented
Career (selection)
Former employers and clients are partly shown anonymised. The full career with names and references is available on request.
2003 – present
value chain solutions GmbH · SaaS data platform
Founder, managing director, majority shareholder
- Business intelligence platform for sales and logistics (sales analytics, replenishment, price analysis, sales management) for brand manufacturers selling indirectly through brick-and-mortar and online retail
- Growth: revenue from EUR 0.8m (2009) to EUR 3.3m (2013), up to 35 employees, up to 70 customers (peak) in more than 10 European markets
- Financing: 100% equity-financed, consistently profitable at operating level
- Managing market disruption: retail volume shifting online, large retailers running replenishment themselves, brand manufacturers building their own solutions – cost base consistently adjusted, new online products with their own revenue developed; today largely automated operations with 5 people and less than 1 day of management time per week
- Cyber crisis management (03/2026): total ransomware outage – first services back after 4 days, full operation after 6, no customer data deleted, all customer relationships retained. Led the crisis team (external forensics and IT security, IT, development, data operations) and customer communication
2001 – 2003
Global market leader in IT distribution
Director Value Added Services · head of division reporting to the executive board
- Responsible for e-business (EDI & web), training, support and fulfilment
- Restructuring: division reorganised from 60 to 15 employees
- Digitalisation: e-commerce share of orders (EDI & web) increased by more than 200%
1994 – 1998
Maker of the world’s most widely used financial software for small businesses
Senior Product Manager Europe
- Market launch of the small-business financial software in Germany
- Early recurring revenue models: paid service & support and supplies (previously mostly free of charge)
- Up to EUR 3m revenue per year, 50,000 customers; managed a development team across the US, Canada and Germany
Working together
Interim assignment
I take on a leadership role for a limited time.
- Fixed-term, up to 3 days per week
- Clear duration and a defined handover
- Billed as a day rate
Fractional COO
I support your company as its part-time operational lead.
- 2–8 days per month
- Sparring for owners, shareholders and management
- Billed as a monthly retainer
Cyber readiness check
I review with your management whether your company would survive an attack.
- Compact or Complete
- Fixed price, on site and remote
- Prioritised recommendations from the management perspective
- Duration
- as needed; previous assignments ranged from a few months to more than a year
- Location
- DACH region, on site and remote, by arrangement
- Languages
- German, English
- Rates
- on request; engagements are billed through Degree55 Experience GmbH
How an engagement works
- Scopingincluding a preliminary diagnosis
- Onboarding and analysiswith an implementation plan
- Implementationwith decision authority and defined reporting
- Orderly handover
- Closing
How I work
- Clear goals and decision authority from day one
- Entrepreneurial, structured, analytical, effective and efficient
- A concrete, agreed plan with measurable milestones
- Clear communication
- Regular KPI reporting to shareholders
- Hands-on with the team instead of over its head
- I understand technology – implementation is done with your team or service providers
- Orderly handover to the successor
Request a conversation
Briefly describe your situation. I will get back to you personally.
Detailed profile on request
I will send you the full profile with engagements, clients and references after an initial conversation.