Market Entry · Consulting + Research
The problem
A US-based B2B SaaS founder (mid-seven-figure ARR) faced board pressure to enter Europe. The internal plan assumed a direct-sales build-out: two country offices, localized product, seven figures of committed cost before the first renewal cycle would report back.
The work
We re-derived the addressable market bottom-up from company registries and buyer-role counts rather than analyst aggregates, mapped regulatory and procurement friction by country, and priced three entry modes, direct build, partner-led distribution, and a digital-first wedge, as staged options with explicit kill criteria. War-gaming suggested the incumbent's likely response (defensive discounting in two flagship accounts) was survivable under the partner mode but painful under direct build.
Outcome: The board approved partner-led entry with two gates instead of the direct build, deferring roughly $400k of fixed cost. First six reference customers landed within two quarters through the partner channel; the second gate, a dedicated in-market hire, was triggered early, this time with evidence instead of optimism.
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Pricing Strategy · Consulting
The problem
A vertical-software company had not changed prices in four years. Leadership suspected under-pricing but feared churn: the customer base was concentrated, contracts were annual, and two previous 'price update' emails had triggered escalations.
The work
Willingness-to-pay was measured rather than debated: Van Westendorp range-finding across the base, choice-based conjoint with the three most-used modules, and interviews with recently churned and recently won accounts. The analysis supported a metric change (from per-seat to usage-banded) more than a headline increase. We modeled price-volume-mix outcomes under three elasticity assumptions, designed grandfathering with a 12-month bridge, and drafted the migration communication around the two objections the research said would actually occur.
Outcome: Net revenue per account rose about 14% over two renewal cycles while logo churn remained in line with the prior baseline. The margin waterfall also exposed unmanaged discounting worth about 3 points of margin, which was closed by a simple approval rule.
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Commercial Due Diligence · Investment Research
The problem
An angel syndicate had a term sheet nearly signed for a growth-stage company whose deck claimed best-in-class net revenue retention. The lead wanted independent verification on a three-week clock before wiring a seven-figure allocation.
The work
We rebuilt cohort retention from raw billing exports rather than the summary tab, separated logo from revenue retention, and found the headline figure leaned on one anomalous enterprise cohort and a definition that excluded downgrades. Reference calls designed for disconfirmation (including two churned accounts the company volunteered reluctantly) surfaced a consistent onboarding gap. A reverse-DCF framing showed the proposed valuation required retention the corrected cohorts did not support.
Outcome: The syndicate renegotiated rather than walked: terms were restructured at a valuation about 25% below the sheet, with an onboarding-metrics information right added. The company hit its revised plan, and the corrected retention model became the syndicate's monitoring baseline.
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