Secure productivity for growing businesses.
Senior-led advisory and focused SaaS for Founders and Business Owners who want to grow efficiently, operate securely, and hold up under institutional scrutiny.
A bit about Patching, and Rob
Patching is the vehicle through which Rob Tregaskes — a PE operator with experience in startups, investment banking and the Army — does his work. It's deliberately small, focussed, and runs as a real business so clients get the benefit of current 'on the tools' experience.
- Retained and project consulting, outside IR35
- Guidance and content for founders, SMBs and SMEs
- Live IT infrastructure and AI R&D lab
- Focused AI development studio
AI-native, not AI-curious
Rob uses AI tools and agents extensively in Patching's operations, both through business subscriptions and APIs directly. When new features are shipped, Rob rapidly experiments to work out what works best.
Executive-level engagement
Rob works directly with founders and business owners to focus on what matters most to them — whether that's strengthening security posture, preparing for investment, or building the internal capability to sustain it. Where it adds value, that includes helping your existing team level up.
From seed to exit, we have been there
Rob has built companies from scratch, managed investors and then flipped the script to fund level, where he helped investments to succeed. From management team meetings, to Board meetings to pitch meetings and Investment Committees, Rob knows both sides of the table.
How we help
Practical, senior-led engagements for businesses that are serious about doing things properly.
Fractional IT Management
Secure productivity, managed for you.
Managing your IT on a fractional or interim basis whilst you establish your long-term operating model.
Learn morevCISO Advisory
Secure growth, on tap.
We help business leaders understand the real-world risks that have a cybersecurity dimension — and advise on practical steps to address them, whether that means improving your security controls, changing how your team operates, or both.
Learn moreWhere we go deep
Two themes run through most engagements.
- Security: the Defensive Dozen — the twelve controls we focus on to give your business a robust security baseline.
- Productivity: the two commercial processes that matter most from an IT perspective — the employee lifecycle and the lead-to-cash process.
How we engage
Direct, responsive, and structured to fit how you actually want to work.
Ongoing
Fractional / Retained
An ongoing relationship at a defined monthly commitment. Best when you need senior IT or security ownership but don't yet need (or want) a full-time hire.
Defined scope
Project
A defined piece of work with a defined outcome — a security review, a diligence prep exercise, an operating model design. Fixed scope, fixed price where possible.
Time-boxed
Interim
Time-boxed leadership, sized to what your business actually needs, while you find the right permanent answer.
Rob leads every engagement. When needed, Patching adds trusted specialists, while Rob stays accountable and hands-on. Remote-first, with on-site support where it helps (typically kick-off and intense delivery). All contracts are outside IR35.
We run our own infrastructure to practice what we preach
All consultants talk a good game, few execute a good game with their own money. Patching recommends technology tools not because of vendor partnership agreements, but because we use them ourselves and so have current hands on experience about what works and what doesn't.
Security & governance built in
The same Conditional Access, managed devices, separation-of-duties and audit trails we put in place for clients are enforced for Patching.
R&D against real problems
New tools, new techniques, new failure modes — tested first on Patching, then offered to clients only when they hold up.
What the studio is building
Patching builds simple focused apps that solve niche problems we keep seeing in the field. Designed to create supplementary point revenue, not subscriptions and dependencies.
Due Diligence app
Built for businesses preparing for a transaction, this tool will help founders and owners identify their security, IT, and operational value gaps before they enter a process — so they can close them first, arrive in better shape, and maximise the value they achieve at exit.
More in the pipeline
Further apps are in development, drawn from patterns we see repeatedly across client engagements.
Let's talk about your business.
Whether you're looking for help fixing a particular issue, or structured ongoing support — tell us what's on your mind and we'll work out what makes sense.