Dependency Score
A measured baseline of how much of the business runs through you personally, tracked over the engagement. The goal is to drive this number down.
Take the Principal Dependency AssessmentOperational infrastructure for founders and medium-sized businesses
You built something real. Now it only works when you're in the room.
We install the systems that take you out of the middle, so the business can grow past what you can personally hold together.
See how this worksWhat we bring
We built these tools running companies.
Now we install them inside yours.
The Blueprint
A written map of the entire operation. People, customers, vendors, recurring obligations, decision rights. The document that outlasts anyone's memory of how things work.
People Intelligence Platform
Role design built on how people actually think and work, not just what a job title says. The right person in the right seat, for reasons you can point to.
Operating System
Cadence, work management, reporting, and escalation, installed and running. Every project has an owner. Every commitment has a date.
Six ways the missing operating system shows up in a growing company.
Most owners recognise at least four.
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Owner dependency. The biggest accounts are still yours because nobody else can carry them.
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Constant interruption. Every exception routes to you. None of it should.
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Nothing gets tracked. Work slips between people. The same problem gets solved twice.
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Trust without structure. Your best people hold it together from memory. None of it is written down.
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A growth ceiling. You can't sell more than the operation can absorb without breaking it.
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No bench. If your operations lead left tomorrow, there's nothing to hand the next person.
Risk here doesn't arrive loudly. It accumulates quietly, through assumptions, handoffs, and decisions nobody revisits.
Sound familiar? That's what we fix.
Schedule a private conversationHow we work
Three moves, in order.
The first tells us what is true, the second builds what is missing, the third keeps it that way.
01
Diagnose
We map how the business actually runs today. Who decides what, where work stalls, what depends entirely on you. You get a written assessment and a Dependency Score.
02
Install
We build the operating system. Roles, cadence, work management, reporting, escalation paths. A system your team uses every week, not a document that sits in a drawer.
03
Sustain
We stay on retainer after the system is built: a structured check-in each quarter that reviews how the systems are performing, adjusts what the business has outgrown, and catches problems early. Far enough to stay out of the way.
What founders say
Founder
Scott is an incredible listener and a master at extracting the information required to make a decision or formulate a plan. He really is an operational and management genius.
Founder
Scott has helped rewire how I look at my business. He has an incredible ability to step into any situation, simplify complexity, and create a clear, actionable path forward.
Founder
He's brilliant at taking complex ideas and distilling them into actionable tasks. His operational skills are legendary and his willingness to help others is boundless.
Questions owners ask.
What exactly do you do?
We build the operational infrastructure of a growing company. We map how the business actually works, find where the owner is the single point of failure, and install the systems and structures that let the business run without you as the backstop.
How is this different from hiring a full-time COO?
A full-time COO runs $200K to $400K or more in total compensation, plus the time and risk of finding and onboarding the right person. Most businesses this size don't need that role full-time. They need the operating system built, and someone senior enough to build it.
We already have an ops person or office manager. How does this work?
Most of the time it works well. Your ops person gets a senior partner. We're not there to replace anyone. We're there to build the system they've never had the bandwidth, or the outside perspective, to build.
How do I know if the timing is right?
If you're the final decision point on things that shouldn't need you, the timing is right. If a key person leaving would create a crisis, the timing is right.
How many clients do you work with at a time?
A small number, five at most. The first ninety days are intensive, and the work suffers when it's spread thin.
What does an engagement actually look like?
It starts with a paid diagnostic. We map how the business operates today, where the risk lives, and what's holding together by willpower instead of structure. Then we install what's missing.
Most owners then keep us on retainer, with a structured check-in each quarter. Everything is fee-for-service.
What if I want to stay connected but don't need ongoing oversight?
That's what the quarterly check-in is for. Each quarter we review how the systems are performing, adjust what the business has outgrown, and surface what's coming, without adding obligations in between.
Do you accept referral fees?
No. It keeps our judgment clean, about the advisors around you and about the work.
Do you sign an NDA?
Yes. Every engagement begins with a mutual NDA. Privacy is a value of this firm, not a policy we follow when asked.
Where to begin
Ready to get out of the middle?
Schedule a private conversationOr ask your advisor to introduce you directly.
What happens on the call
- You share where things stand.
- I walk you through how we work.
- We both know quickly whether there's a fit.