Know the market before you spend on it.
For a funded startup with a thesis, or an established company entering a new market or launching a new product. Before the first dollar goes to building or advertising, you should know whether the business is real, how big it is, who you're up against, and how the customer will actually be reached. This engagement answers those four questions in writing, with every claim traced to its source.
The thesis session
We start with a working session on the idea itself: the customer, the problem, the price, and what has to be true for it to work. I've sat on the founder side of this, and on the investor side, and I'll tell you where the thesis is thin before we spend weeks researching it.
Market sizing and a customer survey
How many buyers there really are, what they pay today, and what they say when asked. A survey of the people you intend to sell to, designed and fielded for this engagement, not a number lifted from an analyst deck.
Competitive research and analysis
The named competitors, how they price, position and sell, where they're strong, and where they leave an opening. Produced through Rathvane, the intelligence platform I created: AI does the reading, and every claim is checked against its source before it reaches you.
Positioning and go-to-market
Where you stand against the field, the message that follows from it, and the channels that reach your buyer at a cost the business can carry. For a startup, this is the plan the seed round funds. For an established company, it's the plan the launch budget follows.
The brief and the readout
A written brief with the findings, the numbers, the sources and the recommendation, then a readout session with you and whoever else needs to decide. Written to be forwarded to a board, an investor or a partner.
One question at a time
If you don't need the whole engagement, a single board-level question (a competitor's real pricing, a market's real size, whether a channel works in your category) can be scoped on its own, typically in five to twenty days.
A funded startup between the idea and the launch, or after a first round when the next one needs evidence. An established company putting real money into a new market, a new product or a new channel. In both cases, a decision-maker who wants the answer before the spend rather than after it. Not a fit for a business that has already decided and wants a document that agrees.
Scope and fee
From $25,000, fixed at scoping according to the number of markets and competitors in play. You get a written scope and a fixed price before anything starts; the price doesn't move unless the scope does.
Payment
Half on signing, half on delivery of the brief.
Timeline
Four to six weeks from kickoff to readout, set at scoping. The survey is usually the long pole.
Credits
A Strategy Session fee is credited in full. If the work continues into an advisory retainer within twelve months, a portion of this fee is credited toward it, agreed at scoping.
Confidentiality and ownership
Everything you share is held in strict confidence, and the brief and the research behind it are yours. Nothing about your company or your plans appears anywhere without your written consent.
What it isn't
Intelligence and judgment, not legal, financial, accounting or investment advice. Where a decision needs a lawyer, a CPA or a regulator's answer, I'll say so.