Executive Officer Chief

The Next Great Midsized Company

Date: April **th, 2024

Subject: My proposed role in partnering with your firm First, thank you for allowing me to work with the MIDSIZE COMPANY team potentially. The opportunity, in my opinion, is "Epic." Below I have outlined my job functions, potential roles, and responsibilities as a Chief Executive Officer of a management team member maintaining and driving operational excellence and generating results for the right Midsize Company. My title or designation would be working as the CEO or acting in the Chief Executive Officer capacity. I would work closely with the BOD, other leaders such as the COO, CFO, and other executive management and team members as one of the most critical and essential positions within an organization, and as a skilled communicator, effective leader, and driven businessperson who can spur company growth, maintain and improve crucial operational procedures, create new processes, and ensure day-to-day operational excellence I believe that I will bring more stability and purpose to all in achieving a more profitable Midsize Companies strategic goals.

Here are essential duties that I would provide on a broader scale as a CEO. Cash flow Cash Flow is KING

This one is a no-brainer. If you run out of money, you have no business to operate. It is the CEO's job to manage revenue, expenses, and external financing to maintain the company's consistent growth. Even a firm CFO (if you have one) still needs to respond to the CEO's ultimate guidance on cash flow-related matters. My guidance should always come from the top down. What do I mean by top-down? The customer comes. First, the team comes next, and I, as the CEO, sit at the bottom of the organization (bottom-up). My job is to synthesize this crucial information into a sustainable corporate strategy for all. It should also be noted that a prerequisite for effective cash flow management is solid metrics- driving corporate culture. Without a reliable and comprehensive picture of the company's financial metrics and the strategic direction one, two, and three years out, I, as the CEO, one must know how to pull the right levers to affect revenue and expenses, and I won't be able to communicate growth opportunities to potential new investors, team members or leadership successfully.

Corporate development

There could be significant opportunities for a Midsize Company to obtain a new level of organic growth stemming from new and of-the-box thinking and leadership. That is, if the entire team is working from the same playbook and having the right conversations. For example, should you partner with other firms in your space to amplify growth? Prepare to be acquired sooner than later? Perhaps looking for smaller acquisition opportunities of our own? Or setting a BHAG of your own to own a segment of a market or even an industry. This is a significant role as a Chief Executive Officer.

Brand management

Building and maintaining a solid brand (personally and for a Midsize Company) is a product of thought leadership and relationship management activities. These activities are easy to neglect but can dramatically increase our credibility in the eyes of our market and our overall valuation compared to our peers.

Team building

A mentor once told me that venture capitalists are looking for five things in a startup: People, product, people, market, and people. Without the right captains leading the ships, there's little chance they'll continue traveling in the right direction. Investor management

When a Midsize Company takes its first outside capital round, you suddenly have a new boss: your shareholders. This only becomes more poignant as you continue to capitalize on your business. Keeping your investors informed, helpful, and happy is one of the most underrated things that CEOs can do to improve our chances of success as a team. Product vision

Our team needs to continually be clear and excited about where the company is headed. It is my responsibility to regularly refine a Midsize Company’s strategic direction and the vision of the products it delivers, ensuring that the company fully understands and sticks close to its most important asset, its customers, with frequent interactions with customers as a must. A monthly all-hands meeting is a great setting to remind our team that you know what you're doing and that we are headed in the future. Quarterly meetings that may last a full day or longer to adjust company strategy and direction are imperative to ensure that we are hitting the bull's eye when it comes to customer retention and growth.

A Midsize Company's team will need at least a few months of clarity -- and at least a year of adjusting the company's general strategic direction to remain psyched about their job. Remember that a considerable amount of people's job satisfaction is derived from the perception that their work will contribute enormously to the team's objectives and achieve the company's goals. Here are seven essential duties that I would provide on the operational side of the business. Increase Sales - Increasing the company's sales is one of the primary duties I would perform. Additionally, in my new role, I will have a significant role in negotiations or customer relationship management.

Reduce Costs – It would be my responsibility to effectively manage costs to support the CFO in making decisions about the company's financial investments. Increase Productivity – In my role, I would be responsible for increased productivity at all levels of the organization to effectively achieve company goals. Plan Capital Expenditures - Developing business plans for capital expenditure is essential to my role and the overall success of the Midsize Company. Manage Operations - Manage the day-to-day operations of the company and keep the BOD and major stakeholders informed of critical challenges and major wins while maintaining accurate financial reporting to be reviewed at BOD meetings as well as monthly and quarterly reviews of our financial misses and wins.

Monitor Progress - Monitoring current projects include reporting status, progress updates, and identifying areas that require corrective actions. Build a Culture – In my new role, I would also be responsible for managing the people side of an organization, which includes responsibilities such as interviewing new employees, developing strategies for developing talent at all levels, and coaching organizational leaders. More importantly, developing and implementing hard and soft systems to monitor and report on the organization's progress, including success, failures, and trouble spots that require further assessment and operational tuning to optimize overall performance in achieving the prime directive of the organization. My goal would be to build an organization that is represented by the following organizational pillars.

1. Accountability to their working peers and the company. 2. Culture that everyone enjoys being a part of, encouraging work-life balance but creating an environment that would be productive, exciting, and energetic that people would never want to leave their post.

3. Responsibility ensures that there are no excuses or reasons for failure; failure happens. Not blaming others but rather taking personal ownership, learning from those mistakes, and improving through one's mistakes.

4. Respect for all

Additional subject matter experience in ● Executive Talent Attraction & Optimization

● Strategic Planning & Partnerships ● Pricing Strategy Design & Optimization

● Compensation Design, Structuring, and Management ● Board of Directors ● Organizational Change & Structure ● Revenue Growth Acceleration ● Capital Allocation, Budgeting, & Cost Containment ● Debt/Equity Financing ● Product Development ● Competitive Market Intelligence ● Complex Contract Negotiations ● Go-to-Market Strategy ● Operational/System/Process Improvement ● Strategic Planning ● Market & Competitor Intelligence● Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) ● Crisis Leadership & Resolution

I look forward to discussing next steps.

Best regards,

John P. Gorst

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