Services · Engagement

03 · Ongoing operator partnership

Advisory Retainer.

3, 6, or 12 months of senior operator leverage on the year that decides whether the motion compounds.

Best for Series B Scaleup companies (75–200 employees · $10–30M ARR) scaling a US motion. CEO / CRO / CMO gets a senior operator sparring partner: weekly working session, live deal triage, board prep, partner intros, and surge capacity for the moments that usually go sideways.

Scope a retainer → Start with the Audit →
Advisory Retainer — six operating surfaces × 3 / 6 / 12-month shapes Six operating surfaces (Pipeline + GTM, Partner motion, Operating cadence, Org + hires, Board narrative, Pricing + commercial) flow into a duration card with three engagement shapes — three-month sharpen, six-month compound, twelve-month operate — plus surge capacity. OPERATOR PARTNERSHIP · COMPOUNDING OPERATING SURFACES 01 Pipeline + GTM coverage · forecast · velocity 02 Partner motion agency · platform · channel 03 Operating cadence weekly · monthly · quarterly 04 Org + hires role design · scorecard · ramp 05 Board narrative KPI · plan · decisions 06 Pricing + commercial packaging · expansion · NDR ENGAGEMENT SHAPES SENIOR LEVERAGE The year that decides the motion. 3 months · Sharpen narrow ICP · tighten plays 6 months · Compound ship + iterate · partner depth 12 months · Operate system runs · board cadence + SURGE CAPACITY board prep · re-org · pricing reset · M&A Three, six, or twelve months. The motion that compounds, not the deck that gathers dust.
Snapshot

What this engagement actually buys.

Best for
Series B Scaleup AdTech, MarTech, data, AI, SaaS, and media-tech companies (75–200 employees · $10–30M ARR) scaling a US motion with senior decisions in flight.
Typical trigger
You\'ve outgrown project-shaped help. You need someone in the room weekly with operator credibility — not another consultant on retainer.
Time horizon
3, 6, or 12-month engagements with explicit scope + decision points at each gate.
Core output
Operating cadence, board-grade narrative, partner sequencing, first / regional hire support, live deal triage, and real-time crisis access.
Best mapped to
Audit → Sprint → Retainer ladder. Retainer is for companies where strategy + execution are clear and the bottleneck is ongoing operator-grade decisions.
Fit first

Who this is for.

The work is sharp because the scope is narrow. Honest answer either way.

This is for you if
  • You're Series B Scaleup (75–200 employees · $10–30M ARR) and need an ongoing senior operator in the room.
  • CEO / CRO / CMO needs a sparring partner for weekly decisions.
  • You're scaling a US motion and want operator-level review of the operating system.
  • Board prep, narrative, partner sequencing, and hiring decisions need senior leverage.
  • You've run an Audit or Sprint and want ongoing partnership instead of another scoped project.
  • You want partner / investor / industry intros backed by 25+ years of operator relationships.
  • You need someone who's been the operator — not just consulted operators.
This is not for you if
  • Pre-Series A / Pre-PMF — start with the Audit if there's a specific scoped mandate, otherwise too early.
  • You need a fractional CMO / CRO / GM (a retainer is not interim leadership).
  • Looking for a board observer / formal board seat — that's a separate conversation.
  • You need someone who tells you what you want to hear.
  • You can't carve out an hour per week for the working cadence.
Six surfaces

Where the retainer shows up.

Scope is negotiated at signing + reviewed at each quarterly gate. Not every retainer touches every surface — but every surface has clear ownership when it does.

  1. 01

    Decision support

    • Weekly working session
    • Live deal triage
    • Hiring + offer reviews
    • Difficult-conversation prep
  2. 02

    Operating cadence

    • Pipeline + forecast review
    • Capacity vs. quota math
    • Reason-code analysis
    • NDR + churn reviews
  3. 03

    Partner + ecosystem

    • Holdco / platform / data intros
    • Co-sell motion design
    • M&A or partnership pressure-testing
    • Industry network leverage
  4. 04

    Board + narrative

    • Board-deck pressure test
    • Investor narrative review
    • Category positioning
    • Public + analyst story
  5. 05

    Org + first-hire design

    • Role scorecards
    • First US / regional hire briefs
    • Decision-rights matrix
    • RACI for customer journey
  6. 06

    Crisis + acceleration

    • Lost-deal post-mortems
    • Stalled-launch unblocking
    • Pricing rescue
    • Regional acceleration
Engagement shapes

Three durations + surge capacity.

  1. 3-month

    Foundation

    Weekly working session + on-demand deal triage. Operating cadence reset. Pipeline math wired. First strategic decisions landed.

  2. 6-month

    Acceleration

    Foundation + quarterly board prep + first hire(s) supported through onboarding + partner-motion second pipeline wave + one operating-model rework if needed.

  3. 12-month

    Full partnership

    Foundation + annual narrative + two quarterly board cycles + first regional motion + ongoing partner / investor introductions + ongoing decision support.

  4. On-demand

    Surge capacity

    Inside the retainer: real-time access for crisis moments — lost-deal post-mortems, stalled launches, pricing rescue, key-hire blowups, regional escalations.

What you get

What the retainer actually delivers.

  • Weekly working session (founder / CEO / CRO / CMO + Evgeny)
  • Operating cadence: pipeline + forecast + NDR + reason-code reviews
  • Quarterly board-prep pressure test + narrative refresh
  • First / regional commercial-hire scorecards, offer review, onboarding plan
  • Partner sequencing + named intros (holdco, agency, platform, data, industry)
  • Live deal triage, pricing rescue, churn-prevention plays
  • Decision-rights matrix + RACI for customer journey + capacity model
  • Investor / industry narrative + category positioning review
  • Real-time crisis access (deal blowups, pricing emergencies, hiring escalations)
Best mapped to

When the Retainer is the right shape.

Post-Audit ongoing partnership

You ran an Audit, executed a Sprint, and now want ongoing operator partnership instead of contracting a new project every quarter.

Scaling US motion (Series B)

You're Series B Scaleup (75–200 employees · $10–30M ARR) with a US scale mandate and need senior operator partnership during the year that decides whether the motion compounds.

Board-grade decision support

You need someone in the room with operator credibility for board, investor, and partner-grade decisions — not just consulting framing.

Next step

Need a senior operator in the room weekly?

One short fit call. If it\'s a match, we scope the retainer + decide on duration (3/6/12). If not, you leave with a sharper read on where to start.

Scope a retainer → Start with an Audit → See the Sprint →