Services

Four disciplines, applied to one business at a time.

Strategy, start-up advisory, financial management and operational leadership — drawn on individually or together, depending on what the business in front of us actually needs.

01 — Strategy

Business Strategy & Growth Planning

Deciding where the business competes, what it declines to do, and the sequence of moves that gets it there.

Most strategy work fails for one of two reasons: it is written at a level of abstraction nobody can act on, or it rests on assumptions about the market and the numbers that were never tested. We work the other way round — starting from what the business actually earns, who it genuinely serves well, and where its real advantage sits, then building a direction from there.

The output is not a document to be filed. It is a small set of decisions your leadership team understands and agrees on, with the reasoning visible, the trade-offs named honestly, and a clear view of what would have to be true for the plan to work. Where the evidence points away from a direction you had hoped for, we will say so before you commit capital to it.

Market position, competitive advantage and where to focus
Growth strategy sequenced against cash, capability and capacity
Business model review and revenue mix analysis
Scenario planning and pressure-testing of key assumptions
Alignment of business strategy with technology investment
Strategic priorities translated into a plan the team can execute
Board and investor-ready articulation of the direction

02 — Start-ups

Start-up Advisory & Founder Support

Everything a new venture needs to stand up properly — so the founders can concentrate on what they are actually good at.

Founders are rarely short of ideas or effort. What tends to be missing early on is the commercial scaffolding: a business correctly set up and registered, a financial structure that will not need unpicking in two years, a model that holds together at scale, pricing that reflects value rather than nerves, and reliable IT foundations underneath the whole thing.

We take that weight off founders, and in several cases we run the entire corporate function on their behalf. This is deliberately hands-on work — we are in the detail with you, not delivering findings from a distance — and it is shaped by having co-founded two companies and led one of them as chief executive. We know which early decisions are cheap to change and which will be expensive for years.

Company setup, legal registration and corporate structure
Financial structure, accounting foundations and reporting from day one
Business model design, validation and refinement
Pricing strategy and revenue model development
Go-to-market planning and early customer acquisition
IT infrastructure, systems and digital foundations
Financial modelling, runway planning and funding readiness
First commercial hires, structure and accountability

03 — Economics

Financial Management & Economic Analysis

Understanding which parts of the business genuinely make money — and which are quietly funded by the rest.

Many profitable-looking businesses are carrying one or two product lines, customer segments or contracts that consume far more than they return. It is almost never visible in the headline numbers. Our financial and economic work is about getting underneath the aggregate to see where value is actually created and destroyed, and what that implies for pricing, focus and investment.

This is where formal training in managerial finance earns its keep, applied to your specific figures rather than to a general theory of the market. We build models you can operate yourself after we leave, with assumptions written down in plain language so they can be challenged, revisited and updated as the business learns.

Budgeting, forecasting and rolling financial planning
Unit economics by product, channel, segment or contract
Margin analysis, cost structure review and pricing decisions
Cash flow management and working capital discipline
Investment appraisal and business case development
Financial structure for new and restructuring ventures
Management reporting that leaders will actually use

04 — Operations

Operations, Transformation & Leadership

Building an organisation that can carry the strategy — including stepping in to lead when that is what is required.

Strategy fails in implementation far more often than in design. The structures, processes and habits that served a company at one size quietly become the thing holding it back at the next, and the symptoms show up as busyness, missed commitments and decisions that never quite get made.

We help organisations redesign how they work: clearer operating models, decision rights that sit with the people closest to the information, delivery practices proportionate to the size of the business, and a reporting rhythm that surfaces problems while they are still small. This is the discipline our professional team has applied inside large, business-critical New Zealand environments — shifting organisations from reactive delivery towards strategic, product-led ways of working — scaled sensibly to the company in front of us.

Where a business needs senior capacity before it can justify a permanent executive hire, we can also take a hands-on leadership role for a defined period, informed directly by two years of chief-executive responsibility for a growing New Zealand company.

Operating model and organisational structure design
Process improvement and operational efficiency
Change and transformation programme leadership
Technology delivery capability and governance
IT infrastructure and systems review
Performance management, KPIs and reporting cadence
Interim and fractional executive leadership
Leadership coaching and team capability building

Ways of working

Three ways to engage us.

The right structure depends on how much of the work is thinking and how much is doing. We will recommend the lightest arrangement that will actually solve the problem.

Advisory retainer

An ongoing relationship with a regular rhythm — typically a standing monthly session plus availability between times for the decisions that will not wait. Best suited to founders and owner-operators who want a consistent, informed sounding board rather than a project.

Defined project

A scoped piece of work with a clear question, an agreed deliverable and a fixed timeframe — a strategy refresh, a financial model, a pricing review, a company setup, an operating model redesign. Fixed scope and fixed fee, agreed before anything starts.

Hands-on leadership

Interim or fractional executive support — or running your corporate function outright — when a business needs senior capacity in the seat rather than advice beside it. We take defined responsibility for a period and hand over deliberately to whoever comes next.

Common questions

Before you get in touch.

What size of business do you typically work with?

Our work sits mainly with start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses, and owner-operated companies — organisations where the leadership team is close enough to the detail that better decisions translate quickly into results. Our professional team has worked inside very large organisations too, which is largely how we know which of their practices are worth borrowing and which would simply weigh a smaller company down.

Do you specialise in particular industries?

We work across sectors rather than within one. Our deepest familiarity is with technology, telecommunications and professional education, and the underlying disciplines — strategy, finance, operating structure — transfer well between industries. What we will not do is pretend to know your field better than you do; the domain expertise stays with you, and the commercial and operational rigour comes from us.

Can you help me set up a company from scratch?

Yes, and we do it regularly. That includes company registration and corporate structure, the financial and accounting foundations, the systems and IT infrastructure the business will run on, and the commercial planning that should sit behind all of it. For some clients we continue to run that corporate function on an ongoing basis so the founders can stay focused on their own expertise.

How long does a typical engagement run?

A defined project usually runs between four and twelve weeks depending on scope. Advisory retainers are open-ended but reviewed regularly, and we will tell you plainly when we think the relationship has done its job. Hands-on leadership engagements are agreed for a fixed period from the outset, with the handover planned before the work begins.

How is the work priced?

Projects are quoted as a fixed fee against an agreed scope, so you know the cost before committing. Retainers are a set monthly amount based on the rhythm we agree. There is no charge for the initial conversation, and we would rather tell you that an engagement is not worth the money than take it on regardless.

Are you able to work with businesses outside New Zealand?

Yes. We are a New Zealand company and most of our work is domestic, but we already support a venture operating into the Australian market and we are comfortable working remotely across time zones. Where an engagement genuinely benefits from being in the room, we will say so. We work in English and Turkish.

What happens in the first conversation?

We listen. You describe what you are building and what is getting in the way, we ask questions, and by the end we will both have a reasonable sense of whether we can be useful. If we cannot, we will say so and, where we can, point you towards someone better placed. There is no charge and no obligation.