About Your Business

Sixteen years inside the companies founders are now trying to build.

Employee number six at a Series-Seed company that became a public software company. Five years as a head of strategy. Four as a CEO. Three years and thirty-four founders in as an independent advisor in Brooklyn.

Your Business portrait
Your BusinessBrooklyn, NY · est. 2022
The longer story

How this practice got here.

I started this practice in late 2022, after sixteen years inside venture-backed companies. The pattern that kept showing up was the same: founders weren't short on tactics. They were short on the time and the trusted second voice it took to think clearly about the next twelve months.

I joined Hartwell Labs in 2010 as employee #6. We were a four-engineer team building a developer tool nobody had asked for, in a sub-leased corner of a co-working space in DUMBO. By the time I left in 2014, we had two hundred customers, a Series B from Battery, and a clear path to acquisition — which closed eighteen months later. I learned, badly, what it looks like to build a company.

I joined Lemma in 2014, in a newly-created head-of-strategy role, when the company was at $4M ARR. I left in 2018, eight months after the IPO, when it was a public company at $180M. Most of what I do now I learned in those four years — running pricing, thinking about positioning, hiring an executive bench, and the un-glamorous infrastructure of a real strategy function.

I ran Beacon Path as CEO from 2018 to 2022 — a vertical-SaaS company in the property-management space. We grew it from $2M to $14M ARR, raised a Series B, and were acquired by a strategic in 2022. I am the rare consultant who has been a founder/CEO of a venture-backed company. It changes how you see the work.

"I started this practice because the conversations I most wanted to have with other founders were not happening inside any retainer model I could find."

I started the independent practice in late 2022, with three principles I've kept since: I work with three founders at a time, never more. I work in cash, never equity (with the rare exception of a small advisory share at the end of a fractional year). And I write a memo at the end of every engagement, even the 90-minute ones, because the writing is where the work actually happens.

Three years in, the practice has done thirty-four engagements, mostly between Series A and B, mostly in fintech, devtools, and vertical SaaS. About 72% of clients re-engage in twelve months. Of the ones that don't, several have written me to say it's because they don't need to — which is the version of success I'm most proud of.

The CV, in long form

Sixteen years, by way of summary.

— 2022 to present

Independent strategy advisor

Founder · Your Business Advisory · Brooklyn, NY

Three formats: 90-minute strategy sessions, six-week sprints, fractional retainers. Three founders at a time. Thirty-four engagements through April 2026. Mostly Series A→B SaaS founders.

— 2018 – 2022

CEO · Beacon Path

Vertical SaaS · property management · Brooklyn / Salt Lake

Joined as CEO at $2M ARR, sold to a strategic at $14M ARR four years later. Raised a $9M Series A and $22M Series B during that period. Built and rebuilt the executive team twice; rebuilt pricing once.

— 2014 – 2018

VP of Strategy · Lemma

Public software company (NASDAQ) · IPO 2017 · NYC

Joined at $4M ARR in a newly-created head-of-strategy role. Owned pricing, positioning, market expansion, and the corporate-development function. Left eight months after the IPO; the company was at ~$180M ARR.

— 2010 – 2014

Founding team · Hartwell Labs

Developer tools · Series B · acquired 2014 · Brooklyn

Employee #6 at a Battery-backed dev-tools company. Wore most hats — sales, customer success, partnerships, eventually corporate development. Acquired by a strategic in 2014.

— 2008 – 2010

MBA · Harvard Business School

Baker Scholar · Section A

Two years between the consulting career I almost had and the operating career I actually wanted. Wrote my second-year independent project on the failure modes of advisory boards in early-stage companies, which did not feel ironic at the time.

— 2006 – 2008

Associate · Bain & Company

New York · Tech & software practice

Two years of structured consulting work. Useful as a forcing function for clarity; less useful as a model for how to actually help a founder. The practice I run now is, in some ways, an attempt at the inverse of what those two years were.

The principles I work from

Six things I believe about this work.

A short list of operating principles for the practice, written out explicitly so you know what you're hiring. They aren't rules — they're the rough compass for the kind of advisor I'm trying to be.
i.

Three founders, never more.

I cap the practice at three active engagements at any given time. The math doesn't work otherwise — I cannot read your customer call recordings, draft your board memo, and be a real thinking partner if I have ten of you on the books.

ii.

Cash, not equity.

I work in cash because alignment is not the issue, and equity-for-advisory introduces failure modes I'd rather avoid. The exception is a small advisory share at the end of the first year of a fractional engagement, by mutual choice.

iii.

Memo at the end of every engagement.

Every engagement closes with a written memo, even the 90-minute sessions. The writing is where the work actually happens — the synthesis, the position, the recommendation — and the memo is what you can take to your board.

iv.

Sharper questions, not longer answers.

The best advisors leave a founder with one clearer question, not a longer to-do list. My job is to compress the surface area of what you're worried about, not expand it.

v.

I read everything before the call.

If you send me a 12-page brief, I read all twelve pages. If you send me a customer-call recording, I listen to it. The quality of the conversation depends on the quality of my preparation.

vi.

I want to be useful for ninety days, not forever.

The best engagements have an ending. I'm working toward the meeting where you say "I've got this from here" — and then I want us both to mean it. Long-running retainers are a sign of failure, not success.

By the numbers

Three years in,
by the numbers.

34
— Engagements since 2022

Across all three formats, mostly between Series A and B, with a long-tail of Sprint and Session work for Seed-stage companies.

3
— Founders at a time

The practice is permanently capped at three active fractional retainers. Sprint and Session work happens around that ceiling.

72%
— Re-engagement rate

Of clients who re-engage within twelve months, usually after a Sprint or a Session, sometimes upgrading to a Fractional.

$104M
— Capital raised post-engagement

Total capital raised by clients in the twelve months after our engagement closed. The work is upstream of fundraising; the rounds follow.

4.8/5
— Avg. founder rating

From a post-engagement survey sent at the close of every engagement. Six respondents have written follow-up letters, which is my favourite form of feedback.

0
— Equity engagements

I have not taken equity in lieu of cash on a single engagement since starting the practice. The model is intentional and won't change.

The philosophy

I don't want to be in your company forever.
I want to be useful for ninety days.

The best advisors leave a founder with a sharper question, not a longer answer. I work toward the meeting where you say "I've got this from here" — and then we both mean it.
— Your Business
If this sounds right

Thirty minutes on the calendar, no obligation.

Pick a slot for a 30-minute exploratory call. We'll talk about what you're working on and whether the practice is a fit. If it isn't, I'll usually be able to point you at someone who is.

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