I’ve sat in the chair.

I settle hard questions for founder-CEOs.

Strategy, growth, operations, finance, leadership, change. Not because I’m a generalist — because at your stage those aren’t separate problems. A stall is never just a sales problem. A margin leak is never just a pricing problem. The reason most engagements fail is that they’re scoped to one discipline and the constraint sits between two of them.

An MBA and a degree in accounting from Arizona State, which matters less for the letters than for one practical thing: I read your financial statements myself. Most people in this work can’t, and it shows up as strategy that sounds right and doesn’t survive contact with your P&L.

I spent years watching good analysis die in month four of a six-month engagement.

Not because it was wrong. Because by the time it landed, the moment had moved, the founder had lost the thread, and the momentum that makes change possible had drained out through a series of status calls.

Five days works better. The pressure is the point — it forces a decision instead of allowing a document. And it means you’re never buying an open-ended relationship from someone you’ve just met.

Ten a year. That’s the honest capacity for work done this way, at this depth, by one person.

If you want validation for a decision you’ve already made, this will be an expensive and uncomfortable week.

If you want a deck for your board, there are cheaper ways to get one.

And if the thing you actually need is execution capacity, not judgment, you need a hire, not me. I’ll tell you that on the scoping call rather than take the fee.