Strategy + consulting for operators who own the P&L

Umbrella retainer covering revenue strategy across paid, SEO, content, and product. For founder-led $5M-$50M companies and PE-backed portfolios that need senior thinking without a full-time CMO.

By John Williams·Updated 2026-05-20·7 min read
$350M+ shipped programs
$5M-$50M typical client size
3-month minimum
$15K/mo minimum retainer

Who runs the work

John Williams on cross-channel revenue strategy + AI integration, Kristy Morgan on partnerships + go-to-market + complex revenue problem-solving, Sandeep Muley on measurement + international portfolio orchestration. Read the full team page.

Most strategy consultants are advisors, not operators. We're operators first — Buddy, Personalizer, ahmeego.com, Goodlife Insurance Group, Summit Tracker are all things we shipped. The strategy work we sell is the strategy we use.

Live portfolio (operator proof)

Portfolio · Live

ahmeego.com itself

17 service verticals, 100+ blog articles, 9 tools, mobile app, 4,486 local SEO pages, Buddy AI agent. Working reference for what a small senior team can ship in two years.

Read more →
Portfolio · Live

Goodlife Insurance Group

End-to-end build: domain transfer, 77 pages, full schema, MailChannels lead pipeline, KV rate limiting, GMB integration. Strategy + execution in a weekend.

Read the case study →
Portfolio · Live

Summit Tracker

Custom AI-enabled CRM mockup for an insurance brokerage. Demonstrates how strategy → product execution can collapse from months to days with the right operator team.

Read the case study →

Public benchmarks

Public benchmark

Operator-led founder voices

Public references for the operator-strategist model: Patrick Collison (Stripe), Ryan Petersen (Flexport), Rahul Vohra (Superhuman). The pattern: strategy emerges from operating depth, not from MBA frameworks.

stripe.com →
Public benchmark

April Dunford — positioning

"Obviously Awesome" remains the canonical text on positioning. We use the framework on every strategy engagement before recommending channel allocation.

aprildunford.com →
Public benchmark

Reforge / First Round

Best public references for B2B SaaS growth strategy patterns. We borrow frameworks liberally; we don't pretend to have invented them.

reforge.com →

Our framework

Discovery (week 1-2)

Buddy audits paid + SEO + analytics. Manual review of content + brand + product. Founder/CMO interview. Customer interviews if you have a research budget. Vendor diligence on existing partners.

90-day plan (week 3-4)

Prioritized list of moves with owners + dates + expected impact. Tied to a single revenue or pipeline number. Reviewed live with the leadership team; revised before commit.

Execution oversight (month 2-3)

Weekly standup with the in-house team. Hands-on work where you don't have the specialist (e.g., Sandeep parachuted in for a Tableau migration; John parachuted in for a Cloudflare-native rebuild). Monthly written synthesis.

Quarterly reviews

Cross-channel performance synthesis. Re-prioritization. New 90-day plan. Vendor renewal recommendations. Tool diligence on new entrants.

Optional board prep

For PE-backed portfolio companies: marketing-side board prep + (occasional) attendance. Comfortable with PE governance. Scoped separately.

Latest in strategy

Case study
Goodlife — strategy + execution in a weekend
Case study
Summit Tracker — strategy → custom product
Newsletter
John's Substack — strategy thinking
Hub
All strategy articles →

Frequently asked

What does a strategy retainer cover?
Quarterly strategic reviews. Monthly cross-channel performance synthesis. Prioritization of the next 90-day program. Vendor + tool diligence. Selective hands-on execution where the founder doesn't have the in-house specialist. Less doing, more deciding.
Who's the right fit?
Founder-led companies past initial product-market fit, doing $5M-$50M/year, with 2-5 in-house marketers but no senior strategist. Or PE-backed portfolio companies needing operator-level oversight without a full-time CMO.
How is this different from fractional CMO?
Similar in spirit, different in delivery. Most fractional CMOs are pure advisory; we keep one foot in execution because strategy without execution muscle ages out fast. Buddy + Ghost Writer + the broader AHMEEGO platform let us ship the recommendations, not just present them.
What's the engagement structure?
3-month minimum, monthly retainer. First 30 days: discovery + audit + 90-day plan. Days 31-90: execution oversight + selective hands-on work + monthly written summary. Month 4+: continue or sunset; no long-term lock-in.
Do you sit in board meetings?
Optional. We've sat in board prep + actual board meetings on the marketing side for portfolio companies. Comfortable with PE governance norms. Costs more because of the prep cycle; we scope it in if needed.
Minimum?
$15K/month for a strategy retainer. The math works above that, where the time saved + opportunity cost of bad decisions justifies the cost. Below that, take a one-shot 90-day plan ($25K flat) and execute internally.

Talk to a strategist

Tell us where you are. We respond within one business day with a written take. No demos, no slide decks, no pitch.

John, Kristy, or Sandeep will reply. One of the three of us will respond personally within 1 business day. No SDR queue.
We respond within 1 business day. No spam, ever. Read our privacy notice.

Related solutions

Paid Search → The largest discretionary spend line in most operators' P&L. SEO → Compounding asset; needs strategic patience. Analytics → Measurement is strategy in disguise. Branding → Positioning underpins all the above.
AI disclosure: Drafted with AI assistance, edited by a human. Public references (Stripe, April Dunford, Reforge) cited as observable industry examples; not clients.

Free 30-minute strategy call.

Tell us where you are + where you want to be. We'll come back with a written 90-day plan inside a week. No commitment.

Book a strategy call Meet the team