Six Service Lines & Nine Engagement Types for early-stage founders
Six Service Lines & Nine Engagement Types for early-stage founders
Market assessment, validation research, go-to-market, capital strategy, governance and decision systems. Every engagement scoped to one dated decision.
Six Service Lines
Listed in the order they usually run. Most engagements draw on two or three.
-
Real addressable market, who occupies it, why a position is or isn't defensible. Ends in a viability verdict.
-
Primary research that settles what desk work can't, with the kill/pivot threshold agreed before the first interview.
-
The motion the unit economics can carry — segment, price, channel, funding sequence.
-
What to fund, in what order, with whose money; build-path costing before commitment.
-
The gap between a ready product and a ready company — ownership, paper, evidence, decision rights — and the gates that close it.
-
The system the advice runs on: intake → evidence → decision, in a database not a folder.
Nine Ways to Start
Each one is named for the decision it closes.
What it Costs
Scope and fee are set after a first call, because the honest answer depends on which decision you're closing and how much evidence already exists. Three things hold regardless:
Fixed scope, dated end. Not an open retainer that quietly becomes a headcount line.
Written scope before you commit. Deliverables named, in writing, before money moves.
We'll scope down if the decision doesn't need the full engagement. Saying so is cheaper for us than losing the referral.