Common Questions
Direct answers to the questions we get most often. If yours isn't here, ask.
Consulting firms advise. We operate. A consulting engagement typically delivers a deck, a set of recommendations, and a presentation to leadership. Our engagements deliver an executive sitting in the chair, attending the meetings, making the decisions, and owning the outcomes. We integrate with your leadership team, not your conference room. When the engagement ends, you have a working operating system that your team owns, not a binder you'll never open again.
Engagement pricing is structured as a monthly retainer scoped to the work, with the rate set by the practice, the time commitment, and the seniority required. Executive Advisory, our premium service line within Enterprise Services, is priced at the top of the Enterprise Services range when delivered as a standalone or as an add-on to an active retainer.
Most engagements begin with a defined-scope diagnostic phase, which gives both sides a clean assessment and a no-pressure decision point before committing to a longer engagement. We provide a detailed quote after an initial scoping conversation.
The diagnostic phase can typically begin within two weeks of contract execution. Full embed engagements ramp from the diagnostic, so the operator is in the seat within four to six weeks of the first conversation in most cases. We do not pre-staff engagements months in advance the way larger firms do; we match the right operator to the right problem and start.
Most fractional engagements run 6 to 12 months, with some extending longer when the client wants ongoing operational coverage. The structure is designed for a clean transition: we build internal capability and hand off to a permanent hire or a self-sustaining system. The goal is always to make ourselves unnecessary, and a successful engagement ends with the client running independently at a higher level than when we arrived.
Our core focus is growth-stage IC and DoD contractors in the $10M to $500M range. That is the market we know deepest and where our team's background creates the most value. The core operational competencies that define our work, organizational design, talent strategy, program governance, change management, and scaling founder-led companies, are equally relevant to non-GovCon growth-stage businesses, and we take selective engagements in adjacent national security and federal services markets when the fit is strong.
$10M to $500M in annual revenue. Large enough to need executive infrastructure across HR, finance, contracts, security, and IT. Too small to justify a full-time C-suite at every function. Companies in this band are typically scaling past founder-led operations and feeling the operational gaps acutely.
Yes, frequently. PE-backed and recently acquired companies are a natural fit for fractional executive engagements. PE sponsors demand operational rigor that the portfolio company often does not yet have. We work directly with portfolio company CEOs and with sponsor operating partners on the operational build-out, post-acquisition integration, and back-office maturation that drive valuation.
Our standard engagement model is monthly retainer. We do not require equity to engage. In specific situations, typically founder-led companies pre-revenue at scale or in early PE recap, we will consider a hybrid retainer-plus-equity structure, but it is the exception, not the model. Cash retainer keeps incentives clean and removes any ambiguity about whose interests the operator is serving.
Yes. Our leadership holds active TS/SCI clearances. Our cleared associate bench is composed of former IC and DoD executives, including former Staff Directors, agency Chiefs of Staff, and senior front office leaders, who hold active clearances appropriate to the engagements they support.
Yes. Each engagement is led by a single accountable operator who is in the seat for the duration. We are not a staffing firm rotating bodies through your organization. The Vice President and Managing Director who leads your engagement is the person you build the working relationship with, and the person whose name is on the outcomes.
A clean handoff. We build internal capability throughout the engagement so that by the time we exit, your team is running the systems we built. In some cases the handoff is to a permanent hire we helped recruit. In others it is to an existing team member who has been brought up to speed. Either way, the goal is independence at a higher operational level than when we arrived.