SPARRING PARTNER TO CEOs, BOARDS & INVESTORS
The work is
changing faster
than the companies
doing it.
We help founders and leadership teams build organisations designed for what's next: fewer layers, faster decisions, automation where it earns its place, and people pointed at the work that actually compounds.
30 minutes, no deck, no pitch. You leave with at least one thing worth changing.
What we help withWHO WE WORK WITH
One call, not a procurement process.
Same person from first conversation to the last week of delivery. No account team, no handover, no learning curve on your budget.
CEOs & founders
A confidential second opinion, then someone who helps you land the change.
Boards & chairs
An independent read on whether the team and operating model can carry the plan.
PE operating partners
Pre-deal people and ops diligence, first-100-days plans, value creation on the org side.
VCs & investors
Hands-on support for portfolio companies outgrowing how they were built.
Services
Five moves that make a company ready for what's next.
Take one, or combine them. Every engagement opens with a fixed-fee two-week diagnostic: where capacity leaks, what to change first, what it's worth.
- 01
Operating model design
Build the company around the work it will do next year, not the headcount it hired last year. Team shapes, decision rights, spans and layers, and where automation takes over.
Org designDecision rightsCost to serve - 02
Decision velocity
Goals, planning cycles and live numbers instead of status theatre. Your board sees the same picture you do, and the company can change its mind in a matter of weeks instead of quarters.
PlanningCadenceBoard reporting - 03
Talent for an AI-shaped market
Hire for judgment and leverage, not headcount. Leadership bench, scorecards, fast structured hiring, and the honest read on who is built for the next stage of the company.
Leadership benchScorecardsSuccession - 04
Automation & margin leverage
Find where the company burns time, automate the routine layer with the tooling you already own, and turn it into output per employee your investors can see in the numbers.
WorkflowAI toolingOutput per FTE - 05
Sparring partner to the CEO
A confidential second opinion between board meetings. The team, the plan, the reorg, the hire you keep postponing. Thought through with someone who has no seat to protect.
ConfidentialBoard prepFirst 100 days
Approach
Diagnose. Decide. Install.
No 60-slide decks, no six-month scopes. Fixed fee to start, month-to-month after that, and an operating model your team keeps improving once we are gone.
Diagnose
Two weeks of interviews, data and observation. Where time, capacity and decisions leak, ranked by what it costs you, in one written read you can take to your board.
Decide
A plan you and your leadership team sign off on: what changes, what gets automated, who owns it, and what we deliberately leave alone.
Install
Hands-on implementation alongside your team, until the new way of working is simply how the company runs. Not a report you file away.
FAQ
Questions leaders are asking now.
- What exactly do I get out of working with you?
- A sparring partner for the calls only you can make, and someone who then goes and installs the change. One person covering what most companies split across a CHRO, a COO and a Chief of Staff, without adding headcount or a consulting project.
- How is this different from a consultancy?
- No pyramid, no juniors learning on your budget, no 60-slide deck. You work with us directly, decisions get made in the room, and we stay hands-on until the change actually runs.
- I already have a leadership team. Where do you fit?
- Alongside them, not above them. CEOs use us for the honest read they cannot get internally: is the team the right shape, is the plan realistic, where is capacity quietly leaking, and who should own what.
- Do you work with investors and boards?
- Yes. PE operating partners and VCs bring us in for pre-deal people and operations diligence, first-100-day plans, and portfolio companies where growth is outpacing the operating model.
- Where does AI fit in?
- In the operating model, not in a pilot. We decide which work should be automated, which stays human, and what your teams must be good at once the routine layer disappears. It shows up as margin and speed, not a tooling bill.
- Which companies do you work with?
- Mostly tech-driven scale-ups and portfolio companies between roughly 20 and 300 people: fast enough to feel the strain, small enough to still change shape without a reorg circus.
- How does it start, and what does it cost?
- A 30-minute call, no charge and no deck. If it fits, a two-week diagnostic with a fixed fee gives you a written view of where capacity is leaking and what to change first. You decide after that whether we continue, month to month.
WHAT'S NEXT
Build the company
the next five years need.
Tell us where things feel stuck. You'll get a straight view of what we'd change first. Free, confidential, and useful even if we never work together.
Get in touch →