Week 0
Intake & question lock
Two short calls, a data-room checklist, and a written one-page question we agree to answer. The question does not move after this without a fee.
The Diagnostic
A 90-minute, senior-only, paid conversation that resolves one specific question.
The Strategy Diagnostic is a single 90-minute working session with the principal of the practice. It is paid, it is finite, and it ends with a written one-page recommendation you can act on Monday morning. If we agree there is a larger project in the question, the Diagnostic is also the front door to a 4–8 week engagement. If there is not, you leave with the answer and no further obligation.
Definition
What is the Diagnostic, exactly?
It is a paid, ninety-minute, one-on-one working session between you and the principal of this practice. You arrive with one high-stakes question — pricing, a hiring decision, a unit-economics trade-off, a vendor choice, a board message, a difficult email you have been avoiding — and we spend the hour working it. You leave with a written one-page recommendation, a short list of what to stop doing, and a clear sense of whether the question deserves a longer engagement.
The Diagnostic is not a discovery call. It is not a sales conversation. It is not a coaching session, a strategy retreat, or a facilitated off-site. The hour is the deliverable. You are paying for the senior judgment, not for access to a pipeline. If, at the end of ninety minutes, the honest answer is “you do not need me,” that is what you will be told.
Output
What you leave the room with.
Four artifacts, each named plainly, each built to be acted on the week you get them.
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01
A one-page written recommendation
A single page, plain language, signed by the principal. The primary call, the second-best option, and the one move that would be a mistake. Sent within 48 hours of the session.
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02
A short “stop doing” list
Three to five initiatives, vendors, meetings, or habits that are quietly consuming attention without paying rent. Most operators keep this list on a wall for the next quarter.
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03
A decision frame for the harder trade-off
Where the question is genuinely a trade-off — not a choice between right and wrong — you receive the criteria, weights, and thresholds that resolve it, written so your team can apply them without you in the room.
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04
A verdict on whether to engage further
If the question deserves a longer project, the Diagnostic includes a written scope, a fixed fee, and a 4–8 week timeline. If it does not, you are told that directly, and the engagement closes.
Engagement Shape
A 4–8 week decision, not a quarter-long discovery.
When a Diagnostic turns into a project, the work runs on a fixed clock. Four phases, a written memo at the end, no re-scoping without a phone call.
Weeks 1–2
Diagnostic deepening
Primary research, the operator interviews that matter, and the financial re-cut. We meet twice in this window — once to confirm scope, once to pressure-test the emerging frame.
Weeks 3–5
Option building
Three viable paths, written in plain English, with the second-order consequences of each priced and timed. You read them before our mid-point meeting so the conversation is about selection, not orientation.
Weeks 6–8
Decision memo & handoff
A written decision memo, a Monday-morning execution plan, and a 60-minute handoff with the team who will run the recommendation after the engagement closes.
Fit
Who this is for — and who it isn’t.
A blunt filter. If the right column describes you, the Diagnostic will waste your hour and our calendar. If the left column describes you, the hour will pay for itself.
Built for
- Founder-led B2B companies doing $2M–$50M ARR.
- Operators who have one specific, high-stakes question they cannot afford to get wrong.
- Leaders whose next decision will either unblock the next quarter or quietly cost them a year.
- Founders who want a senior opinion they can show their board or their investors — without an engagement letter behind it.
- Teams who have already done the work of gathering the data and want it sharpened, not re-collected.
Not built for
- Companies looking for a full-time fractional operator, interim executive, or ongoing advisory retainer.
- Pitches for fundraising, an IPO, or a guaranteed exit. Those outcomes are not promised here and will not be implied.
- Vague “help me think” conversations without a specific question on the table.
- Pure coaching, motivational speaking, team off-sites, or mindset work. The practice does not do any of these.
- Engagements that require a junior team, a deck factory, or a multi-month discovery phase before any opinion is offered.
The record
What the work has actually done.
63
Completed client engagements, 2018–2025, run personally by the principal — no associates, no analysts.
5.2wks
Average engagement compresses a six-month strategy review into 5.2 weeks, tracked across all 63 engagements.
84%
Of clients execute the primary recommendation within 90 days of project close.
$214M
Cumulative client-reported revenue impact — incremental ARR or EBITDA — across disclosed engagements, 2019–2024.
Book a Diagnostic
[email protected] · +1 (212) 555-0186 · Referral-only since 2021 · Maximum 14 engagements per year.