Consulting

A straight answer from someone with no stake in the outcome

Short engagements that answer one commercial question, from someone who is not bidding for the build.

What this is

A lot of this work is reading a proposal from somebody else and saying plainly what is missing, what is padded and what is genuinely difficult.

I do not take a commission from any platform, agency or app, so the advice costs you a day rate and nothing else.

If the answer is that your current supplier is doing a decent job, that is the answer you get.

Scale
200m+ Units a year processed on platforms I ran as IT Director at World of Books.
Growth
1% to 55% Share of £120m group turnover moved to the direct channel I built, from £100k to £4.7m a month.
Proof
£1.5m Turnover at Audio Trader within two years of founding, on a platform I built.

How it runs

If you want someone to validate a decision already made, this will be uncomfortable and probably not worth the fee.

  1. Step 01

    Start from your numbers

    Your analytics, your margins, your order data. Benchmarks from elsewhere are a sanity check, never the basis for a decision about your business.

  2. Step 02

    Find the actual constraint

    Most plateaus have one binding constraint and several convincing distractions. Working out which is which is most of the value.

  3. Step 03

    Cost the options

    Every option comes with what it costs, what it returns and how confident that estimate is. A range with reasoning beats a single number with none.

  4. Step 04

    Put it in writing

    A document you can hand to a board, a bank or an agency, written to be read by someone who was not in the room.

Consulting packages

3 ways in
01 second opinion Start here

Second opinion

For owners holding an agency proposal they cannot judge on the technical detail.

  • The quote read line by line against what the work involves
  • What is missing, what is padded, what is genuinely hard
  • Questions to put back to the agency before signing
Within a week
From £650 a day
02 workshop

Strategy workshop

For teams who know something needs to change but disagree on what.

  • A day in the room with everyone who owns a decision
  • Options costed, not just listed
  • A written plan out the same week
One day, plus write-up
From £1,200
03 growth

Growth programme

For stores that have plateaued and need the constraint found rather than guessed at.

  • The bottleneck identified from your own data
  • Changes shipped and measured, not just recommended
  • Monthly review against a number agreed up front
3 to 6 months
From £3,900

Not quite the right fit? The technical work that decides whether your pages can rank at all.

Pricing is bespoke to scope. Figures are a starting point, confirmed in writing before work starts.

Book a call

Twenty minutes, no charge. Or email the detail and you will get a reply the same day.

Testimonial Laura Fullerton founder, Monk
He's technically fantastic and brought so much expertise to Monk. I've never known someone to have the ability to directly call out third-party partners when their work wasn't good enough, but do it in a way where they still wanted to work with us, and do better.

Consulting in practice

One published engagement, with the figures attached.

The Monk app on a phone, showing plunge count, minutes and average temperature against a background of ice
Monk · connected consumer hardware · Technical leadership

Connected ice bath app shipped on iOS and Android with 40+ wearable integrations, for a founder with no in-house tech lead

A smart ice bath needed an app that controlled the hardware, synced with Whoop, Oura, Garmin and Fitbit, and coached users from 10°C down to 3°C. I selected the development partners, steered the app to launch on both stores and held third parties to the standard the founder needed.

Result
Live on iOS and Android
Timescale
2.5 years, fractional

Read more

All case studies