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.
Pricing is structured as a monthly retainer scoped to the work, with the rate set by the offering, the time commitment, and the seniority required. Each client is unique in their needs and resources, and we adjust as-needed.
Most engagements begin with The Tacitus Review, a paid, fixed-fee operational diagnostic (taking two to three weeks). The Review is the cleanest way to start a conversation and the cleanest way to know whether a longer engagement is the right call before either side commits. It is not a complimentary assessment; pricing is scoped at the first 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. Each client is unique, and each engagement stands on its own.
Our core focus is growth-stage IC and DoD contractors in the $10M to $150M range, however civil service support contractors are also great client partners for The Tacitus Group. The IC/DoD market is the one 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.
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. 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 and Tacitus Network members hold active TS/SCI clearances earned through decades of senior service inside the IC and DoD. The clearances are real and current.
Cleared on-site delivery in a SCIF or government facility requires a sponsoring agency. Most engagements at the Operating Partner, Right Hand, Executive Office, and Fractional VP of Operations level are commercial-side work that does not require clearance sponsorship, and the bulk of what growth-stage contractors need from us falls in that uncleared lane. When an engagement does require cleared on-site delivery, we will be direct about the sponsorship requirement before the SOW is signed and work with the client on how to structure it.
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 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.
No. We do not publish a client list and do not name clients in marketing, business development materials, or public references. Engagements at the Operating Partner, Right Hand, Executive Office, and Fractional VP of Operations level touch the most sensitive parts of a company, and the existence of the engagement itself can be material. Disclosure is the client's call, not ours.
References are available on request, with the client's prior consent. When a client elects to talk publicly about the work, we are glad to participate. When they prefer to keep the engagement quiet, we keep it quiet. The same standard applies during the engagement and after it ends.