Three steps, no lock-in.
The advisory retainer is intentionally boring in shape. That's the point — a founder should be able to describe how it works in one sentence, and know exactly what happens next.
- 01
Discovery call — 30 minutes
You describe the situation. I ask the questions the last three founders wished I'd asked earlier. We both end the call knowing whether this is a fit. No sales pitch, no follow-up sequence — if the answer is 'not this quarter', we say that.
- 02
Written scope — within 48 hours
A short document: the specific outcomes you'll get in month one, the monthly hour cap (typically 5–15), and a fixed monthly number. If we don't agree on all three, we don't start.
- 03
Async delivery — one live sync per week
The work runs on your tools: your repo, your PRD doc, your Slack. One 30-minute sync per week for the things that need talking through. Everything else is written and asynchronous. Evenings and weekends, Gulf-time-friendly.
Things I don't do
- Weekday daytime hours. Ever.
- Full-time embedded work — the retainer runs alongside senior in-house responsibilities, not instead of them.
- Recruiter conversations. Please forward those to my inbox and I'll reply as an advisor, not a candidate.
- Public case studies. Every prior client stays private — that's the discretion you're renting.