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Sprint · 12–20 weeks

I install the structural scaffolding a founder-led business needs to grow up.

For founder-led businesses that are scaling without the governance, HR maturity, and financial controls that protect the business - and the people in it. The commercial engine is working. The structure hasn't kept pace.

Who this is for

This is the moment the Sprint is built for.

The business is past the point where informal works. The team is larger, customers are more demanding, the data is more sensitive - and the consequences of getting the governance wrong are no longer hypothetical. The founder knows the business needs to grow up. The way it's been run, on instinct and goodwill, can't carry it through what's coming.

  • Board meetings happen - but the right information isn't consistently there before they start.
  • You've hired people who've been in better-run companies, and they know the difference.
  • Employment contracts, policies and procedures haven't been reviewed since you had twelve people.
  • A fundraise, acquisition conversation, or enterprise contract is on the horizon - and you know governance will come up.
  • The founder is carrying decisions that should belong to documented roles and defined authorities.

Typical shape. 50 to 200 people, on the cusp of a board, a Series B or PE conversation, a strategic customer with a procurement function, or all of the above.

What we build together

The governance scaffolding. Four structural themes.

The structural foundations that protect the business, its people, and its owners - and that hold up when scrutiny arrives.

01

Decision rights & mandates

Who decides what, at what level, with what data, signed off by whom. The decision rights, delegations and approvals that move the business from the founder knows to the company knows. Board readiness. ELT mandate. Authority structures that hold up when the founder is on holiday or in a buyer meeting.

02

Documents customers ask for

Information security policy, data protection compliance, code of conduct, supplier due diligence, business continuity plan, risk register. Not certificates for their own sake - the documents that turn we run a tight ship into something a procurement team can read.

03

HR maturity

Job architecture, performance frameworks, contracts and policies, escalation routes, the basics of compensation discipline. Culture isn't what you print on mugs - it's how decisions get made, who gets hired, what gets tolerated. We build the structures that let the culture you want actually emerge.

04

Financial governance

Budgeting and forecasting discipline. Management reporting that holds up. Audit-readiness. The financial story the business will need to tell - to a board, to a buyer, to a regulator - and the discipline that makes that story defensible.

What's not in scope: the day-to-day operating system - cadences, KPIs, meeting rhythm. That's Operating Rhythm Sprint.

How it runs

Four phases. Twelve to twenty weeks.

The boundaries between phases are deliberately soft, because real work doesn't fit neatly into stages. The cadence is the work.

01 / Understand
Weeks 1–3

In your documents, your policies, your people - not fixing yet.

Reading the employment contracts, the board papers, the risk posture, the org structure. Talking to the founder and the leadership team about how decisions actually get made. Watching the governance as it currently runs. Not delivering yet - understanding.

02 / Design
Weeks 3–6

We agree, together, what the governance scaffolding needs to look like.

Decision rights and mandates. The HR framework. The financial governance structure. The compliance posture. By the end of this phase, the founder and the leadership team have a shared, agreed picture of what we're building and why.

03 / Embed
Weeks 6–15

The longest phase. We build the governance scaffolding into the business.

Not a policy document handed over - discipline built into how the business runs, one piece at a time, alongside the people who will carry it. By the end of this phase, the governance isn't a deck - it's how the business actually operates.

04 / Hand over
Final 2–3 weeks

Step-down rather than step-out. The business runs the governance - not me.

I move from running the governance workstreams to checking that the team is running them well. The documentation is complete. The policies are live. The rhythm of governance meetings is embedded. By the end, the work is yours.

The cadence is the work. I'm in the business one or two days a week throughout - not parachuting in for monthly reviews.

What changes

What changes is what the business can withstand. Six months in:

  • 01

    The leadership team can run a board meeting that holds together. Right decisions at the right level, signed off by the right people.

  • 02

    The business is legible to a buyer, a regulator, an auditor or an investor. Procurement teams stop being a blocker.

  • 03

    HR is running on structure rather than goodwill. Performance reviewed against frameworks. Compensation discipline taking shape.

  • 04

    Financial governance is fit for the next phase. Reporting holds up. Forecasting is credible. The discipline a board recognises as serious.

  • 05

    The risk posture is no longer reactive. The leadership team is thinking ahead, not catching up.

This isn't for everyone.

A few honest filters.

The work is built for a specific kind of business and a specific kind of relationship. I'd rather tell you here than in week three.

  • -
    …you want a compliance certificate without the work behind it.

    The Sprint doesn't produce certificates. It builds the discipline that makes a certificate - or an audit, or a board, or a buyer - survivable when it comes. If your need is paperwork for the shelf, there are compliance consultancies that do that well. This isn't one of them.

  • -
    …you're looking for someone to challenge the board on the founder's behalf.

    I'll have the honest conversations. I'll push back on the founder, the leadership team, and the board when the work demands it. But I'm not a proxy. I'm an embedded operator. The conversations that need to be had by the founder still need to be had by the founder.

  • -
    …the business isn't ready to grow up.

    Governance Foundations is built for businesses that want the next phase - the board, the audit, the customer with the procurement team, the eventual exit. If the business is still in the prove-the-model phase, the Sprint is premature. Operating Rhythm Sprint may be the right first step.

Commercial shape

Scope, deliverables and outcomes - agreed before the work begins.

Delivered as a fixed-scope, fixed-fee engagement. Fees set against the agreed scope. No day-rate creep. No scope-of-work surprises. No retainer-by-stealth.

Length
12–20 weeks
Structure
Fixed scope · fixed fee
Cadence
1–2 days a week embedded
Governance Foundations Sprint

If this sounds like your business - let's talk.

The next step is a thirty-minute conversation. No deck, no pitch, no pressure - just an honest read on whether the engagement is the right shape.

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