Who I Work With (And Who I Don't)

Large enterprises are not my clients. Not because I can't help them, but because the engagement doesn't fit how I work. Large organizations have long procurement cycles, internal politics that outlast any outside advisor, and a tendency to want consultants who absorb their inertia rather than cut through it. I'm not that person.

What I'm good at is working with organizations that move fast and keep hitting walls that are external to them. A founder who's ready to close a major customer and realizes the contract they're being handed would tie their hands for years. A company entering a new market that doesn't know what it doesn't know about the regulatory environment. An operator running a growing team who needs someone to step in as fractional COO and build systems that will hold as the company scales. These clients know what they want to do. The problem is what's in the way.

That's the work: helping nimble organizations navigate complexity that lives outside their walls. Slow counterparties. Regulatory friction. Market entry obstacles. Operational overhead that accumulates when a company grows faster than its infrastructure. I work quickly, I don't require hand-holding, and I don't need six months to understand your business before I can be useful.

This isn't about organization size in headcount terms. The question isn't how big you are. It's whether you're trying to move and keep running into something external that's slowing you down.

If that's you, I'd like to hear about it.

— James