Work With Us

Our advisory work with clients supports their decision-making and execution in ways that transform their outlook and business trajectory. We do this in two ways:

Our clients engage us to conduct concise, quick-audit, sprint, or discrete project type offerings that enable them to get clarity on next steps. You’ll find details on those offerings below.
Or we also work alongside our clients as retained advisors. These retained advisor engagements are aligned to the scale of our clients’ company and to their particular need, and typically range from lower-than-industry norm values of $3,000-$6,000 per month. In select cases, we will combine a lower retainer with a structured success-based revenue share. To learn more about this, please schedule a call with us to explore your needs.

On-Demand Strategic Project Jump-Start

Accelerate the projects your team can’t get to — with senior-level execution power.

Product Traction Sprint

Generate sustainable traction by building a product foundation that resonates with both users and buyer.

Increase "Win Rate" Sales Audit

Turn early sales success into a scalable, reliable sales engine.

We also work explicitly with leaders and leadership teams to help them overcome barriers to goal attainment. Specific offerings detailing our most common services are linked below.

Executive Coaching

Find your extra gear & unleash your best leadership self.

Leadership Team High-Performance Tune-Up

A short, structured engagement to assess how your leadership team is functioning.

For select Ventures, we may opt to reduce, or in some cases, waive initial fees in exchange for a longer-term equity stake in the firm.  To qualify, firms need:

TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Traction
Team
PMF (Product-Market-Fit)

For these ventures, our compensation model includes a significant results-based component, because we believe in earning upside through impact.

We will jump in to assist in fractional roles to build out the business, establish systems, and refine the investor value proposition….We balance time investment with impact and acceleration.
To lower run-rate costs for you, we put real skin in the game with lower-than-market fees once the project objectives are clear enough to replace fees with payments on measurable success.
We behave like owners—because when you grow, we grow.

On-Demand Strategic Project Jump-Start

Accelerate the projects your team can’t get to — with senior-level execution power.

Product Traction Sprint

Generate sustainable traction by building a product foundation that resonates with both users and buyer.

Increase "Win Rate" Sales Audit

Turn early sales success into a scalable, reliable sales engine.

Executive Coaching

Find your extra gear & unleash your best leadership self.

Leadership Team High-Performance Tune-Up

A short, structured engagement to assess how your leadership team is functioning.

Executive Coaching

Find your extra gear & unleash your best leadership self.

Leadership Team High-Performance Tune-Up

A short, structured engagement to assess how your leadership team is functioning.

Work With Us

Let us help you accelerate your growth, sustainably.

Our aim in every engagement is to be a force-multiplier for your team.

We help our clients to achieve greater strategic and operational clarity through rigorous analysis, we support greater team energy and alignment, and we work to accelerate business goals ranging from business development transformation to operational process improvement.

We're happy to explore any project or initiative you have in mind to identify ways in which we may help you get there faster - and more importantly - sustainably.

Typical Engagement Structure

Advisory & Coaching Pricing

Simple fee-based: $500/hr

Defined Project-based: $2000/month, with 6 month minimum commitment (shared for very rough budgeting purposes - each project is a little different)

Engagements typically include:

Initial Clarity/Alignment development (usually structured as several meetings totalling 4-6 hours according to client timing)
Weekly 1:1 exec coaching on transformation and acceleration activities
Unlimited email responses to coaching questions (during business hours. Response w/in 1 biz day)
Initial deep dive review of process, financials, KPIs, etc.
Refining mtgs/analysis/review of process, financials, dashboards, etc.

We Win When You Do

For select Ventures, we may opt to reduce, or in some cases, waive initial fees in exchange for a longer-term equity stake in the firm. To qualify, firms need:

TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Traction
Team
PMF (Product-Market-Fit)

For these ventures, our compensation model includes a significant results-based component, because we believe in earning upside through impact.

We will jump in to assist in fractional roles to build out the business, establish systems, and refine the investor value proposition….We balance time investment with impact and acceleration.
To lower run-rate costs for you, we put real skin in the game with lower-than-market fees once the project objectives are clear enough to replace fees with payments on measurable success.
We behave like owners—because when you grow, we grow.

Anything is Possible

The World Triathlon Corporation (owners of Ironman) has a slogan: “Anything is Possible”

I couldn’t agree more. My goal is to help my clients reach any goal they set for themselves, their companies, and their teams.

They’re not usually racing goals. 🙂 But a lot of great lessons are learned through endurance sports that have helped me in my 25+ years of executive experience leading companies and teams. Like…

Focus on the goal you want, not the one you don’t.
That if you can’t see it, it’s extraordinarily hard to reach it.
That there is a reality to progress – just hoping isn’t going to do it – you have to clearly understand the problem, face the current limitations (including weaknesses), and then build a clear path over, around, or through them.
And that you get better, faster with a coach than without one.

You already know this. And you also likely know that coaching delivers a median 7x return on investment (source: Harvard Business Review & ICF Global Coaching Study). So let me help you reach your goals. I’ll bring my “A” game to our work together, founded on the following experience:

20 years in VP, SVP, or CxO roles for firms from startup to $2B.
As SVP at Kaplan, Co-founded Colloquy (acquired by Everspring)
EVP at Relias Learning (acquired by Bertlesmann for >$500M, the highest ROIC for Vista Equity at that time)
Multiple “tours” as a CxO operator within Private Equity: x-Vista Equity, x-QuadPartners, x-Leeds Equity
10 years’ experience as an Executive/CEO mentor to early- growth stage companies
Yale University MBA
Certified Business Coach (CEC). Associate Certified Coach (ICF) in-progress, Board Certified Coach in-progress.

- Rick Rattray

- CEO

Ready to Shift Gears?

If you’re not moving as fast as you know you could be, let’s talk.
We’ll listen, get clear on your goals, and show you what’s possible.

Ready to Shift Gears?

If you’re not moving as fast as you know you could be, let’s talk.
We’ll listen, get clear on your goals, and show you what’s possible.

Recommendations

Jeremy Liles Chief Innovation Officer

Whether building a sophisticated financial model, structuring a pricing strategy, digging into a product roadmap, or analyzing key operational processes, Rick excels at creating analytical frameworks that get to the heart of the issue and spur constructive conversation. I often find myself confronting a new business challenge and thinking, "What would Rick ask/say about this?"

James Tieng Education Investor

Rick is a relationship-driven leader who brings a thoughtful approach to key decisions and problem-solving. He is authentic and someone I would welcome the opportunity to partner with again.

Jim Franco Senior Product Manage

First and foremost, [Rick] can see AND communicate the essence of a challenge - he understands what's going on quickly and what can be done about it. Next, he takes the time to listen to those around him and bring forth the strengths of the team - it's genuinely fun to be a part of that process.

Ajay Kapur Entrepreneur, Machine-Learning Pioneer

Rick has been an unbelievable mentor to me as the CEO of Kadenze. He came in and completely revolutionized our entire business development strategy and process from the ground up. … I really hope I get to work with Rick again in a new company in the future.

Jim Triandiflou X-CEO, Insight software

Rick's combination of intellectual horsepower and caring approach make him a unique leader who I hope to work with again.

Jamie Nacht Farrell Entrepreneur with 5 exits

Rick can take your start up from red to black, has innate people skills which allow him to connect as a manager, colleague or business partner, and I would recommend Rick to any Senior Role that needs a "game changer" brought to the table.