Diagnostic
A fixed-scope audit of the revenue motion: where pipeline leaks, what the metrics actually say, and what the next two quarters should look like. Cash fee, no equity. It is how we both decide whether to go further.
Cash fee · no equity
Not a consultant who hands over a slide deck — someone who stays until it works.
Four ways to engage, a defined scope for each, and a fixed-scope paid diagnostic before any of them. Below is what the work covers, who it suits, and how fees and equity are structured.
The work we do
We work at three moments in a company's commercial life.
Before revenue — when the product exists but it is not yet clear who will pay for it, at what price, or why they would choose it over the alternative. We work alongside the founder to find that answer before the runway runs out.
After the first customers — when the product sells but only through the founder. The next round will not price on founder charm. It will ask about pipeline coverage, cohort retention and sales efficiency. Roughly two thirds of founders fail the transition to their first sales hire — not because the hire was wrong, but because there was no system for anyone else to run.
Entering a new market — when a product that sells well at home needs to sell somewhere it has never been sold before. The motion does not transfer automatically. Buyers are different, trust is built differently, and pricing that works in one market lands wrong in another.
In each case the work is the same: build the commercial system, stay until it runs, and leave when the team does not need us anymore.
Use cases
The named problems companies actually call us about. Most arrive with two or three of them at once.
01
No one knows who will pay yet
The product exists, but the buyer, the price and the reason to choose it are all still open.
02
The founder is the only closer
Every deal runs through one person, and the pipeline stops moving when they travel.
03
The first sales hire has not ramped
A credible hire, no system to inherit, and nine months of unclear accountability.
04
The forecast does not survive scrutiny
Stages mean different things to different people and the number moves every week.
05
Pricing is decided deal by deal
Discounts are negotiated on instinct and no two contracts look the same.
06
Enterprise deals stall late
Security review, data residency and procurement become the reason for a lost quarter.
07
Technical support the buyer can rely on
Solution engineering, integrations and onboarding — the technical answers deals stall without.
08
Entering the UK market
Traction elsewhere, and no presence, references or route to market in the United Kingdom.
09
Opening Hong Kong and Pakistan
A first commercial motion across ASEAN and South Asia, without opening an office to find out.
10
Finding fit in a new market
A motion that works at home, and no evidence yet that the same buyer exists abroad.
11
Two motions fighting each other
Self-serve and enterprise sold by the same people, with neither working properly.
12
Metrics nobody trusts
The board asks for efficiency numbers the data stack cannot actually produce.
13
The founder needs to step back
A handover with no playbook, no cadence and no named owner on the other side.
How we work
Motion design sprint
We design the revenue motion, define the metrics, build the playbook and run the weekly cadence. Your team executes it. The output is a system, not a slide deck.
Playbook · metrics · weekly cadence
Embedded operating partner
We stay in the business through the transition: the first sales hire, the first quota, the first board conversation about efficiency. Discounted retainer plus equity.
Discounted retainer plus equity
Execution build
For companies with no internal function to hand to, we assemble and direct a delivery team. Rare, and we will tell you if you do not need it.
Rare · only where there is nothing to hand to
What we actually do
Go-to-market
Turning one person’s instinct into a system anyone can run.
Ideal customer definition
From a market to a named list of accounts.
Positioning and pricing
What you sell, to whom, and what they pay for it.
Pipeline and forecast
Stage definitions, coverage ratios, a number that holds.
Sales process
Discovery, qualification, objections, close.
First sales hire
Scorecard, compensation design, a ninety-day ramp.
Operating cadence
The weekly pipeline review that outlasts us.
Route to market
Direct, partner-led, or a market where you have no presence.
Technology and product
Making sure the product can carry the revenue motion.
Technical due diligence
An honest read on architecture and what breaks at scale.
Build, buy or partner
Where to spend engineering time, and where to stop.
Revenue instrumentation
Product and data wired so the metrics are real.
Enterprise readiness
Security, data residency and the compliance that closes deals.
Product-led motion
Trials, onboarding and activation where self-serve fits.
Engineering organisation
Team shape, ownership, handover from founding engineers.
Sectors we know
We are not sector specialists, but the motion is easier to design where we already know the buyer, the cycle and the procurement path.
B2B software
Logistics and freight
Payments and financial services
Healthcare
Energy and utilities
Professional services
Home market
United Kingdom
We are based in London. Most engagements start here.
Also active
Hong Kong and Pakistan
Market entry across ASEAN and South Asia, without opening an office to find out.
Who we work with
A good fit
- Pre-revenue companies with a working product, looking for the first customers who will pay for it.
- Post-revenue B2B, with customers who renew and a product that works.
- The founder is still closing most deals, and knows that has to change.
- A team that will own the system once it exists, not a vacancy where that team should be.
- A founder willing to sit in a weekly pipeline review for the length of the engagement.
- Twelve months of runway or more, so the work is not a rescue.
- Companies entering the UK, Hong Kong or Pakistan from an established home market.
Not a fit
- Pre-product companies with nothing a customer can use yet.
- Consumer businesses, and anything sold through advertising rather than a pipeline.
- Anyone looking for a fractional title on the org chart.
- Engagements where we would carry the quota ourselves.
We can help, but it is not the main fit
Worth a conversation. Expect us to be direct about what we would and would not take on.
- Boards wanting a second opinion on a plan that has already been decided.
- Companies where the real problem is the product, not the selling. We will say so.
How the partnership works
Senior operators only
No junior staff, no account managers, no one learning on your business. Senior operators do the work throughout.
Cash and equity
We charge a real fee, discounted against market, and take equity alongside it. The cash covers the time. The equity is our stake in the outcome.
Equity priced at market
Typically well under one percent, vesting over twenty-four months against agreed milestones. Sized to survive your next round rather than to be negotiated away in it.
Deferred fees, where useful
Part of a fee can convert into a SAFE at your next round. It preserves runway without pretending the work was free.
Mutual selection
Every engagement starts with a paid diagnostic. It is how you assess us and how we assess you, before either side commits to anything larger.
Deliberately small
We work with a handful of companies at a time. It is the constraint that makes the model work, and the reason we sometimes say no.
No capital deployed. No board seats. No control rights. If we add value, you will know within three weeks.
What we are not
Not a fund.
We manage no outside capital and deploy no fund. Where we do invest, it is our own money at the round’s price — no board seats, no control rights, no pressure to raise.
Not an accelerator.
No cohorts, no demo day, no curriculum. One company at a time, on its own timeline.
Not a studio.
We do not originate ideas or take twenty percent of your company. Our equity is priced at market and sized to survive your next round.
Not an agency.
We do not replace your team. We build the thing your team runs after we leave.
Fees, equity and process
What does an engagement cost?
The diagnostic is a fixed cash fee, quoted before we start and unchanged afterwards. Sprints and retainers are quoted against scope, discounted against market rate, with the difference reflected in equity. Placeholder figures — we will replace these with our published ranges.
Why take equity at all?
Because the work only pays off in the period after we leave, and a pure fee arrangement would let us bill through that period without being measured on it. Equity puts the outcome on both sides of the table.
How much equity, and on what terms?
Typically well under one percent, as options or a warrant, vesting over twenty-four months against agreed milestones rather than on signature. No anti-dilution, no preference, no control rights.
Can fees be deferred?
Part of a fee can convert into a SAFE at your next priced round. We do this where runway is the binding constraint and the work is clearly the right thing to do now rather than in two quarters.
Do you take a board seat or an executive title?
No. We will present to a board when asked and will write the commercial section of a board pack, but we do not sit on boards and we do not take titles inside the company.
What happens when an engagement ends?
You keep the playbook, the metric definitions, the pipeline model and the cadence, and a named person on your side owns each of them. We stay reachable, and we do not bill for the calls.
If the founder is still doing the selling, we should talk.
We start every engagement the same way — a conversation, not a pitch. Tell us where it is breaking and we will tell you what we see.