Corporate leadership
More than 20 years as managing director investing my own capital: results, liquidity, product, technology, marketing, people and customers. Leadership of units with up to 60 employees.
Roland Wabersich
Interim Managing Director & Fractional COO
for mid-sized software companies and PE-backed software businesses
From project and licence business to recurring revenue – with an owner’s view on cash flow, processes and resilience in a crisis.
Availability: Availability on request
- 8.5 yearscustomer lifetime,
88% retention rate - 95%recurring revenue,
up to EUR 3.3m per year - 6 daysfrom total ransomware outage
to full operations (2026) - > 200%increase in the e-commerce share of orders (global IT distributor)
Historical figures from a SaaS software company I led.
Profile
Entrepreneur and operator with more than 30 years of experience in software technology – more than 20 of them as founder, managing director and majority shareholder of a self-financed software company serving blue-chip and consumer electronics customers worldwide. I know the structures of corporations and fast-moving tech companies as well as the entrepreneurial risk of investing your own capital.
My focus: moving software companies to recurring revenue, making operations lean and automated, and leading calmly through a crisis. I take responsibility and hand over in an orderly way.
When to call me
- A vacancy in the management or operations – take over immediately, stabilise, brief the successor
- From project or licence business to recurring revenue – productisation, pricing, KPIs
- Operational realignment – digitalise and automate processes, improve service levels, adjust costs
- Cyber attack or total IT outage – lead the crisis team, keep customers, restore operations
- Sparring for shareholders, owners, management and executives – as a fractional COO
Core expertise
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.
Operations, processes & AI
Digitalisation and automation of sales, service and logistics processes. Working with AI since my diploma thesis in 1990 – used where it pays off.
Crisis & restructuring
Led the crisis team during a total ransomware outage (business side, together with security specialists). Restructuring of units, realignment after market disruptions.
Independent assessment for shareholders
Evaluation of IT, processes, products, business case and management: fact-based and without self-interest. Clear, prioritised recommendations as a basis for decisions.
KPIs, steering & reporting
Transparency for shareholders and investors: ongoing reporting on liquidity, margins and service levels, among others. Own BI platform in use for more than 20 years.
Industries: B2B software · distribution / wholesale · branded manufacturers · consumer electronics
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 immediately, stabilise the business and brief 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.
Engagements and experience
Consulting engagements and former employers are shown anonymised. Names, clients 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 consulting 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 consulting and coaching of the 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
2003 – today
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 steering) for branded 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 in more than 10 European markets
- Financing: 100% equity, profitable throughout operations
- Realignment: market disruption as trade volume shifted online and large retailers took replenishment in-house – developed new online products with their own revenue; today a largely automated operation with 4 people and at most 1 day of management effort per week
- Cyber crisis management (03/2026): total ransomware outage – first services after 4 days, full operations after 6, no data loss, 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 eBusiness (EDI & web), training, support and fulfilment
- Restructuring: reorganised the division from 60 to 15 employees
- Digitalisation: raised the e-commerce share of orders (EDI & web) 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)
- Up to EUR 3 m revenue per year, 50,000 customers; steering a development team across the US, Canada and Germany
Working together
Interim assignment
I take on a leadership role for a limited time.
- Up to 4 days per week, full-time in particular phases
- Billed as a day rate
Fractional COO
I support your company as its part-time operational lead.
- A few days per month up to 2 days per week
- Billed as a monthly retainer
- Duration
- as needed; previous assignments ranged from a few months to more than a year
- Location
- DACH region, on site and remote; full-time on site outside Munich and Füssen 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
- 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.