Get your team out of its own way
AI has changed what a small team can do, and your competitors' people are learning it right now. We coach your team up, hand the busywork to machines, and aim everything at one of three numbers: more revenue, better margin, or hours back. Because staying as you are stopped being an option.
If you've said any of these, we should talk
These twelve are the pillars of every engagement: jobs we do continuously, inside your business, with your people, as coaches and tacticians, not visiting strategists. We learned most of them leading software teams, where every one of these problems shows up first and loudest. They are true of every team.
“Everything runs through me.”
You stay in charge. Things stop waiting on you.
The pricing, the know-how, the daily decisions get built into your team and systems, so work moves while you steer.
“I can't find good people to hire.”
Your current people, doing what you'd hire two more for.
AI in their hands, trained properly, busywork gone. Capacity without headcount, felt as relief, not pressure.
“We bought software nobody uses.”
Tools your team actually adopts.
Chosen with your people, wired into how they already work, coached until it sticks. No more shelfware.
“If Dave leaves, we're in trouble.”
What Dave knows, the business keeps.
The way things run gets written down and built into systems, so knowledge stops walking out the door.
“We've always done it this way.”
Change stops being a fight.
Small wins first, proof before promises. Your team starts asking for the next improvement instead of bracing.
“Everyone's selling me AI. What's real?”
Straight answers before you spend.
Every pitch and contract filtered by people who build with this daily and have nothing to sell you but the truth.
“Consultants gave us a binder and left.”
We coach and we build. In the room.
Shoulder to shoulder, hands on the work until it's done and your people can run it without us. Advice is the cheap part; we stay for the doing.
“We don't have time for science projects.”
Only work that moves the needle.
Everything targets topline, bottom line, or hours back, with a number attached before we start. If it won't move one, we skip it.
“I don't need another monthly meeting.”
We're in your Slack, not just on your calendar.
Embedded in your Slack or Teams: answers in minutes, coaching in the flow of the day, momentum that never waits.
“Everything takes longer than it should.”
Speed comes back.
We find what's actually slow: the approvals, the handoffs, the rework, the fear of touching what works. Fast teams aren't rushed; they're unblocked.
“I promoted my best person. Now neither job gets done.”
New leaders get coached, not thrown in.
Your best doer got a second job nobody taught them. Our coaches work with them one on one, in real work, until leading is a skill and not a burden.
“Every handoff ends in finger-pointing.”
Teams pull in one direction.
When sales blames ops and ops blames the office, the problem is usually the seams, and sometimes the behavior. We fix the handoffs and coach through the rest.
One number. All in.
And you can do the math yourself.
Every engagement is one coaching commitment, plus projects you buy one at a time. You'll have your number in writing before you commit a dollar, and it's the only number on the invoice.
No hourly meters. Nothing renews itself. Everything we build stays yours.
Three ways in.
Start free. Prove us on something small. Then run a standing engagement.
The rough map
A 30-minute conversation, owner to owner, and a written report: where AI pays off in your business, what that's worth, and an honest assessment. If the honest answer is that you don't need us, the report says so.
The first win
One or two days, everything we have pointed at one problem. We pick the thing that's costing you money and fix it: strategy, hands, and coaching. You get the win and the before-and-after numbers. Roll into a standing engagement within 30 days and half of it credits into your first standing month.
A standing engagement
Choose what moves first. Embedded in your Slack, same-day answers in the channel, and something shipping every month. One month to start, then month to month.
How your number gets built. Two kinds of work.
Price the engagement yourself before we ever get on a call.
We're making something: automating a process, standing up a system, shipping software. Fixed price by complexity, agreed before work starts, with optional maintenance after acceptance.
One coaching engagement per client at $400 per named team member each month, with a four-person minimum. Dedicated weekly huddles scale at one hour per six people, rounded up.
Coaching is a commitment, not a to-do item, and the month is the unit. What it points at changes as work finishes: one engagement pointed at five problems in sequence is still one engagement. You're paying for how many things move at once, because that's what takes capacity. The slot is yours for the month, and something ships or visibly moves every month. The test is literal: the month's coaching commitment plus any project in flight is that month's invoice. Coaching takes one month to start, then runs month to month with 30 days' notice, either way. AI moves in days and weeks, not quarters. Your bill should too.
Your coaching engagement includes the embedded Slack channel and the numbers: same-day answers in the channel, and a monthly report of what shipped and what your team can now do, measured in your own numbers: revenue, margin, hours back. The one-to-four coaching engagement includes one standing hour each week plus as-needed support where you already work. There is one coaching engagement per client, sized to the named people it supports. Custom projects are bought one at a time at a fixed price, and we will tell you when fewer moving at once serves you better: one project finishing beats three crawling.
Why the first win costs less than a project. The first win burns the whole team on one problem in a single burst, priced so a stranger can risk exactly one check on us. Coaching spreads that attention across the month as standing motion: the embedded channel, our agent fleet working between every touch, and the monthly report that proves it moved. The sprint is the expensive way to buy us, on purpose. Coaching is the sane way. The credit is the bridge.
What that looks like. Three real shapes.
The smallest engagement. Four named people, one weekly huddle, and as-needed help in the shared channel.
The operational pilot. Six named team members, one weekly huddle, and as-needed help in the shared channel.
The multi-site rollout. Twelve named people, two weekly huddles, and a shared monthly report.
The working build. Your core admin team is coached while one large project ships, say automated intake or custom reporting, priced before work starts.
The multi-site transformation. Two large projects ship while twelve named people are coached on the new tooling.
Where does the work come from? The twelve pillars are the diagnosis, and the free rough map scores yours. You don't buy pillars. The map shows which ones are bleeding, and the engagement points at one until it stops.
Three promises. In the contract, not just on this page.
The number is all in.
The AI compute behind your work is our cost, never your meter. When your launch week needs a dozen agents running on a Saturday, we don't slow down and you don't get a surprise line item. There are no surprise line items.
Coaching flexes month to month.
Resize coaching at the same published rates as the supported group changes, or stop it with 30 days' notice. Projects are bought one at a time at a fixed price instead of added to a monthly bill.
Renewal runs on receipts.
From day one we track the numbers with you: revenue, margin, hours back. At renewal, we resize coaching against them, down as willingly as up. Ask another firm to put that in writing.
Commitment. Priced honestly.
Month to month is the default.
One month to start, then month to month with 30 days' notice, at card, no proration. Flexibility is free.
Commit longer, get a discount.
Commitment earns direct savings: 3 months earns 3% off, 6 months earns 6% off, and 12 months earns 15% off. Renewal rates are set at renewal.
Projects are bought one at a time.
Each project carries a fixed price and written acceptance before work starts. Maintenance is optional and begins only after acceptance.
- Hourly rates
- Token charges
- Seat licenses
- Overage fees
- Mid-term increases
- "Miscellaneous"
Only work explicitly scoped in the written agreement appears on the invoice.
Your money stays yours until we've earned it.
Your retainer is one month of your estimated engagement, held in a segregated account in your name. Each month's invoice draws it down; you replenish it monthly. It never drops below half a month, and work stops at the floor until it's topped up. We never bill in arrears, and we never do collections. If work stops, unused funds come back. Like a law firm's trust account, without the law firm.
How the equity trade works
Equity is optional, and it's how we align with clients who share our values. It's a priced trade, not a favor: if we take equity, it's because we believe in where you're going and want our upside tied to yours. Here's the whole model, no fine print.
You opt in, or you don't
Pay full fee in cash and this section never applies. The trade exists for clients who want our upside bound to theirs. Never required, never pushed.
The trade is capped at 15%
At most 15% of the standard fee converts to equity, never more. The members doing the work set the trade, because it's their labor funding it.
Equity equals the discount, exactly
You issue equity of value equal to the fee we forgo, priced at your last round or a board-approved valuation. No games with the number on either side.
What never changes
You keep control, and you own the product and its IP outright. The stake is a minority grant, typically 0.5% to 2% with standard vesting, and once earned it's earned, in both directions.
A $4,800-a-month coaching engagement for twelve people is $57,600 over 12 months. Trading the full 15% takes $8,640 off the cash and issues $8,640 of equity. If your last priced valuation is $2,000,000, that's0.4% of the company, and cash still covers 85% of the engagement. Smaller trades scale down the same way, and the exact numbers go in writing before anything starts.
Start with the free map.
Worst case: you leave with an honest report and we never talk again.
No hourly meters, nothing renews itself, and everything we build stays yours.
Every engagement, at every step, starts with the rough map.
