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What it’s like to work with me
I work primarily with founders, CEOs and CTOs, though I engage across the startup, working shoulder to shoulder with your team members. I won't be someone you hear from once in a blue moon.
As much as possible, I’ll train your team members to do the work rather than doing it myself. e.g., if we’re hiring, I’ll train your engineers in how to interview and have them do the first round of interviews, and do interviews myself when needed. I’ll focus on teaching your team to fish rather than giving you a fish. That way, you'll have a fully functional, self-sufficient team, which will set you up for success.
Some consultants put in temporary hacks, so you're happy with how quickly it has been fixed, but it breaks soon. Instead, I fix things so that they stay fixed.
How I plan an engagement
I always start an engagement by sitting with the CEO/CTO and understanding their goals and non-goals. We'll make a high-level plan listing known remaining areas of work, and known risks to the project, and keep updating it as the project progresses: if a new area of work or a new risk comes up, we’ll add it to the list. If a risk is addressed, or an area of work is completed, we’ll remove it from the above list.
This way we’ll track progress against the plan throughout the course of the project. We’ll know what we’ve achieved, and the known areas of work remaining. You’ll also be able to connect the fee paid to the progress achieved so far.
When we start, we'll have daily check-ins, then after a while switch to weekly, then after a while switch to fortnightly. You’ll never be in the dark as to what’s going on. If you ever feel lost, please let me know and we’ll bring all stakeholders on the same page regarding the progress made against the high-level plan, and address any concerns.
My ethical code
Do to others as you would have them do to you
Working with me is risk-free!
Let me make it an easy and low stress decision to hire me:
Get a taste of what it’s like to work with me without spending money. I invite you to benefit from my free services.
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Your in-house team or engineering leader may be uncomfortable about losing control? Or, would you rather upskill your team than outsource the work?I can work as an advisor, where your team retains full control, and my job will be to help them execute better, not make decisions on their behalf.
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You'll receive an unexpectedly huge bill?Instead of hourly billing, we can have a guaranteed price.
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$10,000/month or more is out of budget?I can work for a lower price. Tell me your budget and we'll plan the work backward to fit your budget.
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I may take too long to execute?See this case study about how I was able to complete an entire engagement in 14 hours.
Let's talk about what I can do for your startup
Outcomes-based engagement
Is your startup surpassing your milestones, but your tech is not keeping up?​​ If so, this engagement may be the solution for you:
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I'll start by understanding the outcomes you want. We'll write them down, and order them by priority. We'll brainstorm and iterate on them, perhaps by creating two lists of outcomes and comparing them side by side to bring us clarity on what's truly important. We'll also seek input from your cofounders, advisors and functional leads. Once everything is clear, we'll lock in the outcomes, and start executing.​
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I'll work up to 32 hours a week, and the fee will be $20K for the first 5 months each, and nothing for the rest of the year.​​​​​​​​​​