An expert call, with an operator instead of an ex-employee.
GLG and AlphaSights will connect you with someone who worked in the sector. For the same money, you can spend an hour with someone who built the companies, made the hiring calls, ran the integrations, and still runs a 40-person firm today.
When this engagement makes sense
A deal. Something in the technology or the revenue engine is bothering you and you want a second read before the IC.
A portfolio company missing plan and you want an outside opinion on whether management's explanation holds up.
A build-or-buy call. The portco wants to rebuild the platform. You want to know if that is ambition or necessity.
A hire. The CTO candidate looks good on paper. You want someone who has hired forty engineers to tell you what to ask.
Anything a framework will not answer. That is what the hour is for.
You already have a budget line for this. Expert networks charge $700 to $1,500 an hour and your firm probably spends six figures a year on them. The value is real, you get someone with sector knowledge, quickly. But you get what the model produces: a former VP who left the industry three years ago, someone who has opinions about the market but has never had to make the payroll, fire the underperformer, or decide whether the platform rebuild is worth eighteen months of the hold. The difference between knowing a sector and having operated in it is the difference between a briefing and an answer.
The deliverables
One hour, live
Video, on the calendar same day or next day. Bring one decision. You get direct answers, not a facilitation.
Written summary within 24 hours
The conclusions, the reasoning, and what I would do next. Two pages, no filler.
No follow-up sales sequence
One call, one honest read. If I cannot help, I will say so and point you at someone who can.
A good fit if
- PE deal teams weighing an IC decision.
- Operating partners with a live portco question.
- Mid-market CEOs with one senior decision they cannot ask an interested party.
- Anyone currently buying expert calls from GLG, AlphaSights, or Guidepoint.
Probably not if
- ·You want a free consultation dressed up as a sales call. This is a paid hour and it is genuinely an hour of work.
- ·You want validation for a decision you have already made.
- ·You need a signed report for the investment committee. That is the diligence, not the call.
$1,000 for the hour. Credited if we work together.
If the call leads to a diligence, a diagnostic, or a retainer within 90 days, the $1,000 is credited against it. And if fifteen minutes in it is clear I cannot help you, I will end the call there and you will not be charged. I would rather lose an hour than take a fee for a conversation that was not useful.
The expert network alternative. Same price. An operator instead of an ex-employee.
What buyers ask
What often comes next
Ready to move?
$1,000 per hour · credited against a diligence, diagnostic, or retainer within 90 days