How an engagement runs
Five stages during the work, and two scheduled reviews afterwards that cost you nothing.
Scoping
What decision is in front of you and whether advisory is the right answer. Frequently the honest conclusion is to hire someone rather than engage anybody.
Evidence
What is actually knowable about the market, the pricing and the capacity, tested rather than assumed, with the weakest assumption named explicitly.
Recommendations, logged
Specific recommendations recorded in writing at the time they are given, in terms precise enough to be assessed later rather than reinterpreted.
Handover
Models and documentation transferred so your team can act without us, because advice that requires us to implement it is not advice.
Follow-up at 12 and 24 months
We revisit every logged recommendation and record what happened, unpaid, whether or not we are still engaged. The outcome goes into the published record either way.
What this approach costs us
We publish our own failures. A prospective client can read the entries where our advice was wrong, and some of them do not engage us afterwards.
We do unpaid work on closed engagements. The follow-up reviews take real time and generate no fee.
We take no equity and no finder fees, which are the two most lucrative income lines available to a firm doing this work.
We recommend doing nothing. A meaningful share of engagements conclude that the right move is to wait or to hire, which forecloses the larger piece of work.
Frequently asked
What is in the follow-up record?
Every substantive recommendation we have given, what we predicted, what actually happened, and where a call was wrong, our analysis of the reasoning error behind it.
Is the follow-up review charged?
No. It is unpaid and it applies whether or not you are still a client. It exists to calibrate us as much as to inform you.
What if we did not follow the advice?
That is recorded too. Advice that was not acted on cannot be assessed, and knowing how often that happens is itself useful.
Do you take equity?
Never. Fixed cash fees only, with no warrants or options, because a position in your business would give us an interest in the advice we give.
Do you take finder fees?
None, from investors, partners or acquirers, in either direction.
Will you tell us to do nothing?
Regularly. A meaningful share of engagements conclude that waiting, or hiring rather than advising, is the right answer.
Can you review advice we took elsewhere?
Yes, as standalone work. It assesses the original recommendation against what happened, without blame attached.
How long before the record is meaningful?
A recommendation needs twelve months minimum before the outcome is legible, and twenty-four before it is settled. That is why both reviews exist.