Two ways in. Six ways forward.
Every founder we work with starts with a written assessment, either a $250 Snapshot or a bespoke Diagnostic. What follows is a fixed engagement or a monthly retainer, scoped after we both know the picture.
Start with a written read on the business.
Every engagement begins with a written assessment. Two options, pick the one that matches where you are.
Founder Snapshot
$250 · 24 to 48 hour turnaround
A short written assessment of your business produced from a structured intake. AI-augmented first-pass, signed off and edited by David personally. One page. No live interview. Designed for founders who want a sharp written read before deciding whether the full Diagnostic makes sense.
You leave with
- A score out of 10 across ten dimensions of the business, cadence, scoreboard, decision rights, capital position, customer concentration, raise readiness, founder leverage, and three more
- The three dimensions where we believe we can add the most value
- One specific question worth testing next
- An honest read on whether the full Diagnostic would meaningfully extend the picture
Best for: founders sense-checking a hunch, evaluating us before committing, or looking for a structured read before scoping deeper work.
Start the SnapshotFounder Diagnostic
By application · quoted to scope · 10 working days
A full written diagnostic. Live discovery interview, document review, ten-to-fifteen page written read, and a 60-minute debrief call. Quoted against the size and complexity of the business, we price each Diagnostic individually so it earns its outcome.
You leave with
- 60 to 90 minute live discovery interview
- Review of supplied documents (P&L, management accounts, customer or SKU mix, OKRs)
- 10 to 15 page written diagnostic covering: where you are, the three levers that move most value, your 90-day priority sequence, what NOT to do, and the honest read
- 60-minute debrief call after delivery
- Optional written proposal for next-step engagement, no obligation
Best for: founders running real revenue who want a senior commercial read on what to fix, in what order, and what to defer.
Book the DiagnosticThree domains. Six engagement options.
Once a Snapshot or Diagnostic surfaces the right work, an engagement is scoped, fixed-fee or monthly retainer. Pricing on application; we quote against the actual scope and the actual numbers.
Performance Architecture
The operating system. Cadence, scoreboard, decision rights, governance. Built from twenty years of commercial discipline at CHANEL and adapted for founder businesses doing $1m, $50m. The work that turns founder instinct into infrastructure the team can run.
Operating System Install
Fixed engagement · quoted at scoping
A six-week installation of the weekly cadence, ten-number scoreboard, fortnightly experiment loop, and decision-rights memo, with the founder’s leadership team sitting in every session.
Ideal fit
Founder businesses $2m, $15m revenue, three to twenty employees, where the founder is still the principal operator and decisions are starting to bottleneck through them.
Performance Retainer
Monthly retainer · six-month minimum
For businesses where the operating system is in place and the work is now operating it well, sitting in the weekly meeting, sharpening the scoreboard, holding the decision-rights memo to its standard.
Ideal fit
Founder businesses where the install has happened (with us or someone else), and the founder wants senior commercial discipline kept in the room week to week.
Founder Advisory
The conversations founders avoid. Decision rights between co-founders, partnership memo work, the questions sitting underneath the dispute. Most founder fights are not personality problems, they are structural problems with personality consequences. We work the structure.
Decision Rights Memo
Fixed engagement · quoted at scoping
Surface, draft, and negotiate the decision-rights memo between co-founders or between founder and senior team. Each principal interviewed under confidentiality before any joint session.
Ideal fit
Two-to-five-person founding teams where the same disagreement keeps recurring, or where a senior hire has changed the centre of gravity and the lines have moved without being redrawn.
Founder Advisory Retainer
Monthly retainer · three-month minimum
A senior thinking partner on retainer. Monthly call, ad-hoc availability, written response on the decisions the founder cannot put in front of their team or their board.
Ideal fit
Founders running $3m, $30m businesses who have grown past the peer-mentor stage and need a senior commercial mind that is structurally on their side, not on the cap table or the team.
Capital & CFO Support
Raise readiness and fractional CFO work. The artefacts an investor expects to see, a driver-linked model, a monthly board pack, a ten-metric scoreboard, a decision memo, built before the partner meeting, not after.
Raise Readiness Sprint
Fixed engagement · quoted at scoping
A four-week sprint to build the artefacts a Series A or Series B partner meeting will demand: driver-linked operating model, scoreboard, monthly pack, decision memo, fundability checklist.
Ideal fit
Founders six to twelve weeks out from opening a raise, who can describe their business commercially but cannot yet show an investor the artefacts that prove the discipline is real.
Fractional CFO Retainer
Monthly retainer · six-month minimum
Senior fractional CFO work on a monthly retainer. Board pack, cash discipline, raise support, hiring economics, vendor review, founder-facing financial decisions. Cross-border-experienced (UK / EU / Indonesia / Singapore / UAE / Australia).
Ideal fit
Founder businesses $3m, $30m revenue, where a full-time CFO is a year too early but the founder needs senior financial discipline now.
A short list. This page exists partly to screen out fit.
We do not introduce founders to investors. Regulated activity in the UK. Use a regulated corporate finance house.
We do not write decks for the founder to deliver. We make the underlying business fundable. Decks are the founder’s voice.
We do not run bookkeeping or month-end close. Use a bookkeeper. We will work with yours.
We do not do interim CFO work. Fractional retainer or fixed engagement only, we are not slotting into a vacancy.
We do not work with pre-revenue businesses. The frameworks we install assume an existing operating book.
Pick a starting point.
Either path begins with a written assessment. The Snapshot is fast, structured, and gives you a 10-dimension score plus the three places we believe we can add value. The Diagnostic is deeper and surfaces the priority sequence. Most founders pick one or the other based on how much time they want to invest before scoping a full engagement.