Diagnose before you commit.
Before anyone commits money, months or equity, we read the whole business. The Tape Up is where every engagement begins and where most of the hard conversations happen. It ends with a readout and a route, and it is the only thing we sell before the first 90 days.
A readout you can act on by day 30.
A verdict on stage
Where the business stands for its stage, in plain words, so the plan fits the company rather than the other way round.
The three things that matter most
Ranked. Each one named, connected to its cause, with the consequence of leaving it alone.
One short test
A two-week drill with a go or no-go at the end, so the next decision is made on evidence.
A clear route
What to do next: the first 90 days with us, a referral to Common Thread Partners if you are further on than you thought, or nothing yet, and why.
Three questions, in order.
Is this the right thing to build? Can it be sold more than once? Can it be delivered without the founder in every loop? We check all three before we recommend anything, because the constraint is usually between them.
We look at people first, then process, then systems. A tool bought before the role exists is a cost, not a capability.
The product
Is the problem proved, in a customer's words, with a costly alternative today?
The route to revenue
Is there a priority customer, a claim competitors cannot make, and a way to reach them that is not the founder's network?
The delivery
Can the people, process and systems carry what is being promised, in that order?
Start free.
The Growth Diagnostic takes around fifteen minutes. We read it alongside what is public about your business and send back a Growth Constraint Review: where growth is held back, what is causing it, and the next useful step. A person reviews it before it goes out. If the next step is the Tape Up, we'll say so. If it isn't, we'll say that too.
The first 90 days
One round, opened by a kick-off and closed by a review. Scope fixed. One real thing live in each of product, revenue and delivery by day 30, with an owner and a date.
Venture OS
We stay in, as a fractional COO or a retained partner, running the same 90-day cycle with your team until it runs without us.
Studio or fund
For a few founders, deeper involvement, agreed case by case.
We don't publish prices. Every engagement is scoped after the Tape Up, and you'll know the cost before anything begins. We don't work by the day.
Common Thread Partners is the same team's practice for founders with traction. Start there →