Diagnose yourself first. Everything here works without us.
Working versions of the tools we use inside engagements. Used honestly, they teach something uncomfortable within the hour.
fig. 6.0 the worksheet is the mirror
The growth diagnosis worksheet.
Answer these eight questions in writing, in one sitting, without looking anything up. Where your answers are vague, your problem usually lives.
In one sentence, without the word "more": what is your growth problem?
Do you make money on a customer's first purchase? Do you know, or do you believe?
What percentage of this quarter's revenue came from customers you already had last quarter?
Who signed off on your three largest lost deals, and had they heard of you before the deal began?
When did you last speak to a customer who left? What did they say, verbatim?
If your marketing budget doubled tomorrow, which number would improve, and which would merely get bigger?
What are you deliberately ignoring? If the answer is "nothing," that is the finding.
Which of your current activities would survive if you had to prove each one's contribution?
vague answer = start digging there
The CAC reality check.
Most companies compute acquisition cost in the most flattering possible way. Run the honest version once:
true CAC = (all sales + marketing costs, including salaries and tools) ÷ new customers
Then compare it against first-order contribution margin, not revenue. If true CAC exceeds first-order margin, growth currently makes you poorer, and the repayment must come from retention you can prove, not retention you hope for.Three outcomes are possible. CAC below first-order margin: scale with confidence. CAC repaid within two purchases you can prove: scale carefully, watching cohorts. Anything else: stop buying growth and fix the loop first. The most valuable quarter may be the one where you don't spend.
The business health scorecard.
Score each line 0 (no idea), 1 (roughly), or 2 (documented and current). Ten is possible. Below six, diagnosis will find something material.
Unit economics per product or plan, including fulfilment and support cost.
Cohort retention curves, not averages, for the last four quarters.
Win/loss reasons for the last twenty deals, from the buyer's mouth, not the sales team's notes.
Where each marketing rupee went last quarter and what it verifiably returned.
The one sentence your best customer would use to describe why they stay.
Twelve questions to ask any agency before you sign. Including us.
"What would make you refuse this brief?" Hope for a real answer. A firm with no refusal conditions has no diagnosis.
"What will you need from us before you spend anything?" Hope for: data, customer access, time with the founder.
"Which number will prove this failed?" If they can't name their own kill-metric, they plan to reinterpret the results.
"Who exactly will do the work?" Hope to meet them now, not after signature.
"What did your last disappointing engagement teach you?" Everyone has one. Only honest firms can describe theirs.
"What happens in month one?" Hope for questions and investigation. Fear a media plan.
"How does this end?" Good engagements have an exit built in. Retainers that only ever renew are a business model, not a service.
"What should we be doing that has nothing to do with you?" The best advisors routinely recommend work they can't bill.
"Show us a case where the answer wasn't more marketing." If every case ends in a bigger budget, you've met a vendor, not a consultant.
"What do you need to believe for your plan to work?" Strategies rest on assumptions. Ask to see them.
"How will our team be different when you leave?" Hope for capability transfer, not dependency.
"Why us?" If the answer would fit any company your size, so will the strategy.
Two deeper tools, and the company profile.
Offer evaluation framework
Four tests: urgency, comparability, second-purchase logic, and proof. They predict whether an offer can carry paid acquisition before you spend on it.
Founder growth playbook
The sequence for founder-led companies moving from founder-sold to system-sold revenue, including the one transition most get backwards.
Company profile
Who we are, what we run, and how engagements work, in one document.
Download the company profile (PDF)→write to us. no forms, no funnels