Get how your business actually runs down on paper.
Three working meetings over three weeks. We extract the operating logic of your business: what you really sell, who you really serve, how the work really happens, and what makes you hard to replace. You leave with the Operating Memo, the document your website, your pitch, and your AI presence should have been built from all along.
This is not a website redesign. Why a prettier site solves none of it →
The real story of your business lives in your head.
That's why your best deals still need you in the room. Why your website says something adjacent to the truth. Why every new hire, contractor, and agency has to be re-taught what the company actually is. And why, when an AI answers a question about your business, it works from the weakest version of your story: the one that happened to be written down.
The story was never the problem. The problem is that it was never extracted, structured, and put where the business could use it.
What you get
Three working meetings, 90 minutes each
Not discovery calls. Session one: what the business is now, not what it was when the website was written. Session two: how the work happens, where the leverage is, and where AI and automation belong. Session three: the story, sharpened until it's true and repeatable.
The Operating Memo
The deliverable everything else hangs on: your business logic, your messaging architecture, the structure your web presence should have, the spec for making it machine-readable, and an operations note on the tooling and automation gaps we found. Written to be useful to you forever, whether or not we ever build anything together.
A fixed-price build proposal, as the memo's final page
If the Map points toward a rebuild, you'll have exact scope and an exact number. No follow-up pitch meeting, no "let's hop on a call to discuss pricing." It's a page. Read it or don't.
What the memo looks like
Thirty to forty pages, written to be read by you, your next hire, and whoever builds the thing. The last page is the proposal.
Contents
- What the business actually sells3
- Who it is for, and who it is not7
- How the work moves11
- What only the founder can do18
- What should not need the founder21
- The story, in one page26
- What the surface must carry29
- Tooling and automation gaps34
- Build proposal38
How the work moves
| Intake | Founder | Bottleneck |
| Scoping | Founder | Bottleneck |
| Delivery | Team | Documented |
| Renewal | Nobody | Unowned |
Build proposal
| Scope | 14 pages, 3 templates |
| Content layer | Included |
| Handover | Documented, in your repo |
| Timeline | 9 weeks |
Map fee credited in full.
Illustrative. Contents and figures above are made up. Yours are about your business, and the number on the last page is a real number you can act on or ignore.
What working together looks like
Three weeks, day by day. Your days are the three sessions. The rest is mine.
Kickoff and extraction, 90 minutes. What you sell, to whom, at what, and why it works.
You send materials. Current site, SOPs, decks, proposals, onboarding docs.
I read all of it, everything public about you, and the competitors you named.
Stakeholder interviews, if anyone else holds a piece.
How work moves through the business. What only you can do, and what should not need you.
Synthesis. The operating logic takes a shape you can argue with.
Draft sections land for reaction. The cheapest place to correct me.
I rework whatever you pushed back on.
The story, the spec, and the gaps the first two sessions opened.
I write. The memo is finalised and the fixed-price build proposal becomes its final page.
Memo delivered, decision call if you want one.
Either you take the memo and run it yourself, which it is written to allow. Or the build begins at the price on the proposal page, with the first month of the Autopilot included.
Live with me, three sessions Your side, async My time, not yours
Your total time commitment: three sessions and whatever you choose to send me between them.
Who this is for
Founder-led businesses, roughly $1M to $10M, where the gap between how the company runs and how it presents has started costing real money. Most people arrive here one of two ways: through the Read, or because they're staring down a website rebuild and suspect the problem is deeper than design.
If you've had a Read
Your Read fee applies in full when you book within 30 days.
If you haven't
You don't need one. The Map includes everything the Read covers and goes several layers deeper.
Whether this is for you
The Map is a poor fit more often than it is a good one, and both of us find that out faster if the list is on the page.
A good fit
- Founder-led or expert-led, with revenue and a team
- The way the work actually gets done lives in two or three heads
- You want the operating layer built, not a better-looking brochure
- A decision-maker will sit in all three sessions, not send a deputy
Not the right fit
- What you want is a visual refresh of the site you have
- The real problem is demand, not operations
- Nobody inside the business thinks anything needs to change
- You want the memo, but you do not intend to act on it
Two things to know before booking
The credit
100% of the Map fee applies to a build started within 60 days of your memo. If we build, the Map was free. If we don't, you own the memo and it was worth it on its own. The deal is structured so I have no incentive to write a memo that manufactures a build.
The cap
I run at most four Maps a month, because each one gets my actual attention, not a junior's or a template's. If the month is full, you book the next one. The calendar shows real availability.
Questions
- Is this a website project? No. It's an operating clarity project that usually reveals the website carries a fraction of the business. Some clients proceed to a build; others fix what they can with their existing setup, using the memo as the spec. Both are fine outcomes.
- We already have brand strategy docs. How is this different? Brand strategy describes how you want to be seen. The Map documents how you actually run, then derives the story from that. It's the difference between aspiration and extraction.
- Can my partner / CMO / ops lead join the sessions? Yes, and usually should. The founder is required; up to two others are welcome. More than that and the sessions turn into meetings, and meetings don't extract anything.
- What happens to the AI and automation findings? Session two surfaces where tooling and automation would pay off, and the memo includes a ranked list with rough costs. If a build happens, that work gets scoped in. If not, the list stands on its own.
- What if I just want the build? Every build starts with a Map. It's how I scope honestly and how you avoid rebuilding the wrong thing. No exceptions, including for people who offer to pay more to skip it.
Three sessions. Three weeks. The whole business, on paper.
The Map. $1,999, credited in full toward a build. Four slots a month.
Book the Map →