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Executive Advisory
Judgment on the call that matters.
High-impact guidance on product strategy, technology decisions, roadmaps, AI strategy and growth — for founders and CEOs who need a straight answer from someone who has already made the decision once.
Format
Standing session + async
Cadence
Fortnightly
First call
Free, 30 minutes
Best for
Founders & CEOs
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Who this is for
You already know the decision is expensive. That’s why it’s still open.
Most founders I work with aren’t stuck for lack of options. They’re stuck because every option is defensible, the people advising them all have an angle, and being wrong costs a quarter they can’t get back.
The questions this is built for
- Should we build this, buy it, or not do it at all this year?
- Is our architecture the thing slowing us down, or is it the org?
- Where does AI genuinely belong in our product, and where is it theatre?
- Do we need a CTO, or do we need the CTO we already have to work differently?
- Is this roadmap a plan, or a list of everything we’ve been asked for?
- We’re raising in two quarters — what breaks under diligence?
Where I’m useful
Fourteen years across SaaS, fintech and payments, ecommerce, the creator economy and AI — as a founder, as an acquired founder, and as a global product and engineering leader inside a larger company.
That last part matters more than it sounds. Having been on both sides of an acquisition changes what you notice in a roadmap, a team structure, and a set of numbers.
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How it works
Light process. Written outcomes.
Before we start
A 30-minute call, free
You describe the decision. I tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it — and if I'm not, who is. Plenty of these calls should end in a referral rather than an engagement, and I'd rather that than take work I'm the wrong person for.
Week one
Context, fast
I read what already exists: the product, the codebase if it's relevant, the roadmap, the org chart, the numbers you're comfortable sharing. Then a longer working session to find the real question — which is often not the one you came in with.
Ongoing
The standing session
A recurring working session on whatever is live that fortnight, plus asynchronous access in between for the decisions that can't wait two weeks. Most of the value shows up in the between — the quick 'is this a mistake?' before you commit.
Each decision
A written position
Anything substantial ends in writing: the options, what I'd do, what I'd need to be wrong about, and what to do first. Short documents you can forward to a co-founder or a board without translating them.
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Scope
What you’re buying, and what you aren’t.
What this is
- A position on the decision, with the reasoning shown
- Written recommendations you can forward without editing
- Product, platform and AI strategy
- Architecture and build-vs-buy calls
- Org design, hiring plans and leveling
- Introductions to senior operators when the answer isn't me
- Pre-fundraise technical readiness
What this isn’t
- Hands-on delivery — that's the Studio
- Running your team day to day — that's Fractional Leadership
- A deck of frameworks with no recommendation in it
- Vendor referrals I'm paid for. I take no kickbacks, ever
- Attendance at every meeting on your calendar
- An answer I don't actually believe, because you'd prefer it
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Questions
The things people ask first.
A consultant researches your problem and reports back. I've usually already had your problem. I founded a commerce SaaS, scaled it to 70+ merchants across the UAE and MENA, sold it to Aspire, and then ran product and engineering for the acquirer — so on most product, platform and org questions I'm drawing on a decision I've already made and lived with the consequences of.
Then I say so, and I usually know who does. Fourteen years of building means a network of senior operators — engineering, product, marketing, design — I've actually worked with. Bringing in the right person costs you nothing extra on an advisory engagement; it's part of what you're paying for.
Yes, always, before anything substantive is shared. I also won't take an advisory engagement with a direct competitor of an existing client — if there's a conflict I'll tell you on the first call rather than after you've briefed me.
Advisory is deliberately not a time-based product. You're buying a position on a decision, not hours on a clock. In practice that means a standing session plus reasonable asynchronous access — and if a particular month needs more, we talk about it rather than metering it.
Often it should. Advisory is the shallowest of the three engagements by design — the cheapest way for both of us to find out whether we work well together. If a decision turns out to need someone to actually run it rather than opine on it, that's fractional leadership, and moving across is the natural next step.
The first call is free. After that it's $200 an hour for ad-hoc advisory — you use me when you want to, with no commitment on either side, and you pay a premium for that flexibility. If a decision turns into ongoing work, fractional leadership is a monthly commitment and works out considerably cheaper per hour, because you're holding a slot rather than buying time as you need it.
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Other ways to work together
If advisory isn’t the right depth.
2 embedded engagements at a time — building Convertly with the rest
Bring me the decision you keep re-opening.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. If I'm not the right person for it, I'll tell you who is.