Advisory
Strategy is whatsurvives contact.
Operator-led advisory for founders and executives moving through the decisions that decide the next chapter — scale, capital, org design, and where AI actually earns its cost. We are a small senior team that has gone from zero to scale, led by Ian Doromal, with a vetted bench of specialists behind every engagement.
When to call
The moments this work is built for.
Advisory is for the decision that has to be right, not the deck that has to be pretty.
The engagement
How the work runs.
Immersion
Two to three weeks inside the business. We read the numbers, sit with the operators, and pressure-test the story against what the data actually says. You get an unvarnished read on where you are — not where the deck says you are.
Diagnosis
The two or three constraints that actually govern the next twelve months — named, quantified, and ranked. Everything else is noise until these move.
Plan
A concise operating plan with the moves, the sequence, the owners, and the numbers each move has to hit. Written for the executive team to run, not for a boardroom to admire.
Cadence
A standing rhythm with the founder and leadership — weekly on execution, monthly on trajectory, quarterly on the plan itself. We stay close enough to be useful and far enough to tell the truth.
Practices
Where we work.
Strategy & Operating Model
The plan the executive team actually runs on. Market position, offer, pricing, sequence of moves, and the operating cadence that keeps the org honest against them. Written to be executed, not admired.
Capital & Narrative
Fundraise architecture — story, numbers, and diligence surface aligned. We shape the narrative from inside the business rather than laminating one over it, and prepare the founder and the data room to withstand real scrutiny.
Org Design & Leadership
Team shape, role clarity, decision rights, and where the founder should stop being the answer. Hiring plans that reflect the strategy and the calendar the leadership team should actually run.
AI Strategy at the Board Level
How your category is being rewritten, what changes about your unit economics when the work is done by agents, and where the moat has to move. Delivered in the language of margin, not model names.
M&A & Corporate Development
Buy, sell, or partner. Thesis, target work, valuation view, and the integration plan on the far side of signature. We evaluate deals against the operating plan, not the other way around.
Founder Counsel
A private line for the decisions that don’t belong in a board pack — a co-founder rift, a hire that isn’t working, a market bet that has to be made this quarter. Direct, confidential, and on your side of the table.
Principles
How we hold the work.
We work operator-to-operator. Every recommendation is written by someone who has had to live with one — payroll to run, a board to answer to, a customer on the other end.
We tell the truth early. If the plan is wrong, or the number is wrong, or the hire is wrong, you hear it from us before you hear it from the market.
We stay narrow. A small number of engagements at any time, each with real access to the principals. If we can’t do it well, we don’t take it on.
“A good advisor is measured by the decisions you didn’t make.”
Fit
Who this is for.
- Founders and CEOs of revenue-stage businesses making the next hard decision.
- Leadership teams preparing for a round, an acquisition, or a category shift.
- Operators who want a peer in the room, not a vendor across the table.
- Boards that need a candid, operator-grade read on where the business actually is.
- Pre-revenue teams looking for a name on the deck.
- Engagements where the answer is already chosen and validation is what’s wanted.
- Organizations without a principal willing to make decisions in the room.
- Anyone shopping for the cheapest quote.
Bring us the decision that has to be right.
A single conversation is usually enough to know whether we’re the right room for it.