I built and sold two companies. Now I help founders with the awkward bits.

A monthly call with the founder, plus messages in between. I'm useful as the person who's already made the mistakes you're about to make. For an accelerator, fund or portfolio, the same thing across several companies.

Suits

Founder-led SaaS, creator, education, membership or content businesses, pre-seed to Series A. Or the accelerators, funds and holdcos that back them and want an operator their portfolio CEOs can phone.

Terms

Retainer. Equity is an option alongside a reduced retainer.

Quarterly board, prep and challenge, and availability to the CEO between meetings.

Suits

Companies of 10 to 200 people that want an operator on the board rather than another accountant or lawyer, especially where product, content, audience or AI adoption is a live board-level question. Any sector with that need; particular interest and experience in golf and leisure, education and edtech, media, and SaaS.

Why me

I've been through a full acquisition from the sold side. I know what the buyer will ask for later, so I can help the board build towards it now.

One to two days a week for three to six months, standing up a function you can't yet justify hiring full-time. Not fractional CEO. The roles I'd take:

• Fractional CMO. Content-led, organic growth: positioning, content, audience, newsletter, video, partnerships. Not paid acquisition, and I won't pretend otherwise.
• Head of education. Customer academies, onboarding curricula, certification, internal training.
• Head of community. Memberships, product communities, founder communities.
• Product lead. Early stage: customer research to shipped features.
• AI adoption lead. Which workflows, which tools, and training the team so it's still in use in month three.

COO-shaped work (systems, hiring, cadence, so the founder can step back) is on the table for the right company, as an interim with an end date.

Suits

10 to 200 people, founder-led, ready to act.

Terms

Day rate or monthly retainer. Remote-first, on-site for kick-off and the sessions that matter.

Two to ten weeks, a defined deliverable, a project fee. Five I'd take on tomorrow:

• Email marketing, nurture and onboarding build

  Four to six weeks

  Turn the people who sign up and go quiet into the people who pay and stay. Strategy, segmentation, onboarding sequence and nurture track, in a framework you can extend without me.

• Customer success academy

  Six to ten weeks

  Customers who get more from the product stay longer, buy more and bring their mates. Courses, coaching and tools for the community around your product, built on proper e-learning method rather than a folder of Loom videos.

• Mine your calls

  Two to three weeks

  Stop guessing why people don't convert. I'll pull the answer out of the sales and support conversations you've already had: 50 to 100 recordings turned into your ICP, positioning, messaging and a bank of content themes.

• Team AI adoption programme

  Four to eight weeks

  One painful workflow fixed for good, not for a fortnight. Designed, built and deployed, with cohort training so the team's still using it in month three.

• Founder on camera

  Two to four weeks, plus kit

  Get the founder in front of customers without it eating the week. Studio and kit, a workflow that fits around the day job, and your first five videos scripted and shot with you.

Also on request

• Membership retention diagnostic
• Launch sprint for a new product or tier
• Partnership programme setup
• Specialist hire sprint
• Course evaluation and redesign

Terms

Scoped up front, priced as a project not a day count.