1. First call, 30 minutes
We get on a call. Or we meet. That choice comes after booking, not before.
In those 30 minutes we do three things.
- Cut through the story. Not the version you tell investors or your office. The version where the numbers, the assumptions, and the pressure live.
- Decide whether there's something real to do. Sometimes the answer is yes and it's urgent. Sometimes the answer is yes but not yet. Sometimes the answer is no, and I say that.
- Decide whether we're a fit. Not whether you want to hire me, whether we both think this is going to work. Mutual.
Not a pitch. Not a casual coffee. A focused conversation about a real situation. By the end, we both know.
2. Diagnosis, week 1
From here it's work.
In the first week I put the facts on the table. Cash, deals, stakeholders, assumptions, where it holds and where it doesn't. Not what you think is going on, what's actually going on.
The real problem is usually not the visible one. A founder saying "I need financing" sometimes has a margin problem. A founder saying "the bank won't budge" sometimes has a story problem that's independent of the bank. Diagnosis makes the distinction visible.
This is a conversation, not a report. We work it through together, on your numbers and my experience.
3. One-page plan, within 10 days
One page. Options, scenarios, decisions. Cashflow, value, risk, not as separate pieces but as one coherent picture.
Not a report. Not a presentation. A decision document. You can take it to the bank, to your co-shareholder, to your partner at home, and without explanation they can see what needs to happen and why.
Ten days because you can't wait longer. And because I can do it in ten.
4. Movement, within 30 days
At the end of the first month, something concrete exists. Not a follow-up meeting, an outcome.
That can be:
- A financing option on the table that actually fits.
- A restructuring direction that's clear and being executed.
- A valuation picture the shareholders can move forward with.
- A decision that holds, sometimes the decision not to do something.
30 days because that's the pace at which a business under pressure has to move. Not faster, not slower.
5. Execution, 1 to 6 months
I sit next to you in the conversations with investors, banks, partners. I don't negotiate from a distance. If the bank has questions you don't want to answer without me, I'm there. When the term sheet lands, we read it together. If it threatens to go wrong, I stay until we've solved it.
Engagements usually run 1 to 6 months depending on complexity. Short cycles, not one long arc. 0–30 days: clarity and breakthrough. 1–3 months: execution and deals. 3–6 months: completion and handover.
