Third Bridge: Running Commercial Due Diligence for PE Clients

Bharathi joined Third Bridge as an Associate supporting private equity clients across the APAC region on commercial due diligence projects. The mandates came in fast, typically requiring a research plan within 24 hours and meaningful progress within 48.

Her first step on any project was to understand the commercial objective behind the brief, not just the surface question. She would identify which types of industry participants, whether founders, former executives, or operators, could actually answer what the client needed to know.

From there, she built out the research plan, mapped the relevant market ecosystem, and identified and qualified experts for outreach. She managed all coordination and client communication from an execution standpoint, responding to shifting requirements and keeping timelines on track.

When expert views came in, her job was to synthesize them rather than pass them along raw. She distinguished between outliers and recurring patterns, weighted perspectives based on each expert's direct exposure to the specific segment in question, and refined the research direction as new information emerged.

On one project in the healthcare services sector, a client was evaluating an investment opportunity and needed to understand pricing structures and profitability margins across different hospital models. Bharathi mapped multi-specialty and single-specialty hospital operators, engaged heads of business operations at relevant institutions, and delivered a structured Excel output with margin ranges across segments. The findings confirmed the client's thesis and informed their decision not to pursue a deeper dive.