From near-billion-dollar corporate turnarounds to government portfolio workouts to startup rescues — members of CRAGSI’s team have executed across asset classes, market cycles, and institutional mandates spanning three decades. What follows is a selection of representative engagements.
~$1B
Peak exit value — Allis-Chalmers Energy, from under $5M in assets to a near-billion-dollar acquisition
$32MM+
Startup liabilities settled at $0.06–$0.09 on the dollar since CRAGSI’s founding
90%+
Average debt reduction across startup turnaround mandates
~80%
Of startup clients positioned for successful follow-on funding after engagement
From Under $5M in Assets · To Public Exchange Listing · To WSJ Top-100 Equity · To Near-$1B Exit
When David Groshoff joined the Allis-Chalmers Board of Directors in October 1999, he was still in his 20s, and the company had under $5 million in assets. What followed over the next several years was one of the most dramatic corporate transformations in the track record of CRAGSI’s personnel: a full-lifecycle turnaround from deep distress to a public exchange listing, a subsequent national recognition by the Wall Street Journal, and a near-billion-dollar exit.
For nearly a decade, David served on the Board of Directors, including demonstrating the financial expertise to serve on the Board’s Audit Committee. The company was transformed from a distressed Wisconsin-based holding company in the agricultural manufacturing industry into Allis-Chalmers Energy, Inc., a Houston, Texas-based oilfield services company that earned a public listing on the American Stock Exchange (“AMEX”) and subsequently uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the ticker “ALY.” The Wall Street Journal recognized it as a Top-100 performing exchange-listed equity with a 159% return the year following the AMEX listing.
From a starting point of under $5M in assets, the company ultimately was acquired for close to $1 billion, roughly a decade after David’s initial board involvement.
<$5M
Assets when David joined the board
159%
Return recognized by WSJ.com as a Top-100 exchange-listed equity performer following AMEX listing
~$1B
Acquisition exit value — from under $5M to near $1B over roughly a decade
Valuation · Market Creation · Competitive Private Placements · Division of Resolutions and Receiverships
Beginning in 1997, members of CRAGSI’s team at Pacholder Associates were engaged to manage the FDIC’s special situations assets, working directly with the Head of the Securities Transactions Unit and her team in the FDIC’s Division of Resolutions and Receiverships, as well as with FDIC legal counsel on a weekly basis. David Groshoff and Cyndi Lanning began working on the FDIC portfolio in 1997; Scott Telford joined the engagement in 2001.
The portfolio encompassed two categories of assets: legacy RTC (Resolution Trust Corporation) assets transferred into the FDIC’s Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF) following the S&L crisis, and traditional FDIC assets arising from the balance sheets of banks placed into receivership. These were among the most complex and illiquid special situations assets in the country and positions that conventional markets could not price, manage, or exit.
Members of CRAGSI’s team worked to value each position, create or build secondary markets where none existed, and run competitive private placement processes, essentially bespoke auctions designed to surface institutional buyers and maximize recovery for the FDIC and American taxpayers. These engagements required patience measured in years, not quarters, and the conviction that intrinsic value could be realized where conventional managers saw only loss.
David Groshoff and Cyndi Lanning (1997); Scott Telford joined the engagement in 2001.
SAIF legacy assets (former RTC), bank receivership securities, illiquid equity and debt positions from failed and distressed institutions.
Achieved liquidity at intrinsic value across the FDIC’s special situations portfolio — saving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds that conventional liquidation approaches would not have recovered.
Delta Air Lines & Two Other Major U.S. Carriers · Chapter 11 · Control Shareholder Positions · C-Suite Engagement
Warren Buffett once observed that when a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact. The airline industry has long tested that principle, and the mid-2000s restructuring cycle, marked by multiple simultaneous Chapter 11 filings across the U.S. aviation sector, was one of its most severe tests.
During this period, David Groshoff and Scott Telford held discretionary control shareholder positions in three major U.S. carriers, including Delta Air Lines, working directly with the C-suite executives of all three companies to effectuate their reorganizations.
Delta’s reorganization is widely regarded as one of the most successful corporate reorganizations ever executed, in any industry. Emerging from bankruptcy in 2007 having shed billions in debt and renegotiated labor and fleet agreements, Delta went on to become one of the most profitable airlines in the world, a result that required not only financial engineering but the kind of operational credibility and stakeholder trust that only comes from working with management at the highest level.
These engagements required operating critically at the center of some of the most consequential restructuring proceedings of that era, with influence over capital structure decisions, creditor negotiations, and strategic direction under intense time pressure.
Discretionary control shareholders in three major U.S. carriers, including Delta Air Lines, with direct C-suite engagement across all three reorganizations.
Widely regarded as one of the most successful corporate reorganizations ever executed in any industry — emerging from Chapter 11 in 2007 to become one of the world’s most profitable airlines.
David Groshoff and Scott Telford, working directly with C-suite leadership at all three carriers.
Selected Engagements · Named and Anonymous
$32MM+
Startup liabilities settled at $0.06–$0.09 on the dollar since founding CRAGSI
90%+
Average debt reduction across startup turnaround mandates
~80%
Of clients positioned for successful follow-on funding after engagement
CRAGSI provided turnaround and restructuring advisory to Geltor, a biotechnology company co-founded by Princeton University PhDs developing nature-identical proteins. The engagement involved financial stabilization, operational restructuring, and strategic advisory, helping the company navigate existential challenges and emerge positioned for continued growth.
“David and his team didn’t just provide potential solutions and hope. The team at CRAGSI executed and delivered. Their integrated approach helped us navigate complexity and emerge stronger than ever.”
Dr. Alex Lorestani — Founder & CEO, Geltor
Members of CRAGSI’s team were engaged at a venture-backed company with two months of runway remaining. The incumbent fractional CFO, a four-year trusted advisor to the founder with decades of experience as a startup CFO, was counseling acceptance of failure. CRAGSI’s managing director met privately with the CEO on a Sunday morning to present an alternative path: a disciplined restructuring the CFO had not believed was achievable.
Within one week, a reduction in force (RIF) was executed, creditor negotiations commenced, and litigation was settled favorably. Simultaneously, CRAGSI’s team members led the remaining team of five through a week-long design thinking exercise that resulted in a complete strategic pivot by transforming the company from a fermentation-focused synthetic biology platform into an AI platform company, turning previously inward-facing AI into a commercial, customer-facing product. A new domain was secured, a working prototype developed, and the company debuted the new offering at a major industry convention only two months later. The AI platform was subsequently named a TIME Magazine Best Invention of 2024 and recognized as a 2025 World Economic Forum Top 100 Global Startup.
In parallel, CRAGSI’s team negotiated the company out of $8M in liabilities — including over $7M in lease obligations, reducing monthly occupancy cost from over $100,000 to $6,500 while preserving full operational functionality. Runway was extended by seven months, enabling the company to close its Series B financing. CRAGSI’s team members also negotiated the client company’s first commercial deal with a major global brand during this period.
$8M
Liabilities negotiated away
94%
Reduction in monthly occupancy cost
+7 mo.
Runway extended
Series B
Financing closed as a result
A Bay Area biotech company’s runway had tightened, and its board had scheduled a Monday meeting to vote on an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, effectively a liquidation. On the Friday before that vote, CRAGSI’s network produced a rescue financier. Working through the weekend, CRAGSI structured and secured bridge financing in time to prevent the Monday shutdown vote. The company did not close.
A Silicon Valley VC-backed startup had several weeks of runway remaining due to creditor constraints. CRAGSI’s team members negotiated forbearance agreements with the company’s critical vendors, thereby securing more than six months of payment deferral (representing the entire principal amount outstanding on a secured note) at zero interest. This created the breathing room necessary to extend the company’s life and allow for a strategic investor to complete due diligence and close a new financing round.
Each intervention required a different tool from CRAGSI’s team members and platform: the first, a comprehensive restructuring and strategic pivot; the second, speed and network; the third, creditor negotiation discipline and patience.
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