The work, described honestly.
Thirty minutes free, a two-week diagnostic sprint, then a monthly retainer of embedded execution until the team can run the rhythm without me. Usually three to nine months. Sometimes shorter.
Discovery
Diagnosis
Retainer until capable
Typical engagement
FOUR STAGES
Diagnosis, then execution, then out.
Each stage is designed to make the next unnecessary. Nothing lingers to keep the retainer alive.
Stage 01
Discovery Call
You explain what's actually broken; I explain what I'd do about it. If the diagnosis is clear without me, you go do it. If not, we book the sprint.
Stage 02
Diagnostic Sprint
Two weeks living inside the business — financials, team conversations, board materials, customer calls. Ends with a three-page synthesis and a prioritised action list the team can argue with on day one.
Stage 03
Embedded Execution
Every month I'm inside the operating cadence. Weekly leadership meetings I help run, quarterly OKR mechanics, founder–board interface. Priorities move visibly or they don't — both are information. The retainer rolls until the capability has transferred.
Stage 04
Sustainable Exit
When the leadership team can run the rhythm without me, the retainer ends. Delegation frameworks, decision rights, meeting cadences — documented and transferred. Three to nine months is the typical arc. The exit trigger is the team’s capability, whatever the calendar says. If it still needs me to work, it isn't done.
WHAT GETS BUILT
Outputs that survive first contact with reality.
By the end of the sprint, five things exist that did not before. All short, all legible, all meant to be used.
The strategic narrative, in plain English
Priorities
Three, each with an owner, a reason, and a date.
Cadence
One weekly rhythm the leadership team trusts.
Board
Board updates written as leadership, in one page.
Decisions
A map of who decides what, without the meeting.
Delegation without abdication. The most common reason a funded company stalls is that every decision still routes through one person.
“The work should leave the company calmer, faster, and easier to run. If it doesn't, send the invoice back.”
Methodology questions
What kinds of problems is this best for?
Companies with real momentum and fuzzy alignment. Specific symptoms: founder still approving everything, board updates that feel like homework, a product story and a GTM story that stopped agreeing, leadership team that meets a lot and decides little. If any of that is uncomfortably familiar, the sprint usually helps.
Is this consulting, coaching, or an operator by the month?
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How do you know the work is done?
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If everything is loud and nothing is sharp, start here.
A thirty-minute call is usually enough to tell whether the problem is strategic, operational, or just a decision that's been deferred long enough to feel structural.