Boards and advising

I help vertical software companies work out what their smallest customers will actually pay for — and help their founders get to an exit.

That is narrow on purpose. I’m not useful on consumer, crypto, hard sciences, chips, or bio, and I’ll say so on the first call rather than the third.

Where I’m actually useful

Three questions I’ve had to answer with real money on the line, each of which I’ve written about rather than just claimed:

Pricing for the bottom of a market: When to go down-market instead of up, and what it costs you. The crew of one →
Whether software is enough: We concluded it wasn’t, and rebuilt the business around supplying work rather than only tools to manage it. Software doesn’t grow a business →
Getting to a clean exit: What acquirers actually diligence, and how early it has to be true. What buyers actually diligence →

I have a company to run, so I’m deliberately narrow about this: at most one new board a year, and a director who can’t show up isn’t worth the seat. Advisory is where I have more room — two to four hours a month, two-year standard terms. I’d rather be genuinely useful on one problem than nominally attached to five.

If you’re a founder, the fastest way in is to send me the thing you’re stuck on. If you’re running a search, I’m happy to talk — t@timtesluck.com.