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Founders move fast and land alone. I help you bring the company with you.

Twenty years in tech — product, ops, and the messy middle. Ten of them in executive seats, including the ones I wasn’t ready for.

Still operating, not advising from the sidelines. You bring the real problem, the one you’ve been circling for a month. We work it until there’s a decision and a date.

The work

Most of what we do falls into three piles.

You bring the real problem — the one you’ve been circling for a month. We work it until there’s a decision and a date.

  • Operating cadence and decision hygiene

    What gets decided where, who finds out, and why the same question keeps coming back to your desk.

  • Hiring, leveling, and the first managers

    The hires you’re avoiding, the ones you made too fast, and the layer that has to exist before you can step back.

  • Getting out of your own company’s way

    The calls that still need you, the ones that only feel like they do, and what the company does while it waits.

Who I work with

People running real companies, with real revenue and real consequences.

  • Carrying a decision you can’t put to your board yet.
  • Second-time operator in a first-time seat.
  • Wants argument, not agreement.

Who this isn’t for

If you’re pre-revenue and looking for direction, this won’t be worth the money. If you want a curriculum, a certification, or a framework with an acronym, I don’t have one.

And if the decision is already made and you’re looking for company, that’s a cheaper service than this one.

The engagement

Two ways to work together.

The single day

One full day · in person or remote

$5,000

One problem, one sitting, in person or remote. The thing you’d need six sessions to circle, done in a day.

A way to work together once before committing to six months. If we keep going, the day counts as your first month.

The standing engagement

90 minutes · every two weeks

$5,000 / mo

You set the agenda the day before; I come having read it. Within a day you get a short written record of what we decided.

Six months minimum, billed monthly. The problems worth bringing don’t resolve in a quarter.

Portrait of Jaymes Downer
“Jaymes had more impact on the immediate and long-term trajectory of our company than anyone else on the team.”
Founder, early-stage products

Still circling it?

You describe the problem, and we take 30 minutes on it. No pitch. If it isn’t a fit I’ll say so, and you’ll still leave with something.

Notes

I write occasionally.

Short pieces, published when there’s something worth saying. Written from the middle of it, not from the other side.

Read on LinkedIn