The shape of a typical engagement.
Below is the working pattern of a typical engagement. Real ones vary in shape, but the structure and the principles do not. Naming the structure up front lets both sides plan with certainty.
From first conversation to clean exit.
Evaluation call: thirty minutes, no charge
We talk through your product, your buyers, the deals on the table, and the friction you have been hitting. By the end we both know whether the engagement makes sense. If it does not, we will say so and point you somewhere useful. If it does, we move to a scoped proposal.
Scoped proposal: a written engagement letter
Specific scope, named deliverables, retainer figure, day rate, setup fee, payment terms, notice period, and the graduation triggers we expect to see. No marketing language, no padding. If something is not in the letter, we are not committing to it.
Onboarding: the first sixty days
Product training, materials adaptation, UK positioning work, initial demos to a small selection of prospects, regulatory mapping, setup of any continuity arrangements. This is the busiest period of the engagement; the setup fee covers it.
Active landing: months three to six
POCs, deployments, third-party risk questionnaires, follow-up demos, compliance conversations with buyer-side architects. The work is variable in volume and we bill it transparently. The retainer covers availability and the included scope; the day rate covers everything above it.
Mature engagement: month seven and beyond
Lower baseline. Check-ins, new feature roll-outs, support for live customers, the occasional new POC. The retainer continues; day-rate work tapers; the cost to you naturally falls in line with the actual work profile.
Graduation: when you outgrow us
When your annual spend with us consistently passes the threshold of a comparable full-time hire, or when your UK and EU ARR justifies a permanent team, we plan the transition. Clean handover, documented relationships, continued availability for an agreed period. We become a referrer and a reference, rather than a fixture in the org chart.
Three components. Predictable. No commission tail.
We do not work on commission. We do not take equity in lieu of payment. We do not bill you in a currency you cannot reconcile. The commercial structure reflects the actual work profile, which is busy at the start and lighter as the engagement matures.
- Setup fee.
- Paid in advance. Covers the intensive first sixty days of onboarding. A meaningful number that filters seriousness on both sides.
- Monthly retainer.
- Billed monthly in advance. Covers availability, a named contact, and an agreed allowance of demos, calls, and standing work.
- Day-rate work.
- Deployment, POCs, on-site visits, anything beyond the retainer allowance. Billed weekly against an agreed scope, paid promptly. No surprise invoices.
Pull-through services such as escrow arrangements, deployment infrastructure, and third-party tooling are priced separately as line items. Nothing is buried in the retainer.
Calibrated against what you would otherwise hire.
The real comparison is not to "doing nothing." It is to the mid-level pre-sales architect or post-sales engineer you would otherwise hire to do this work. The fully-loaded cost of a comparable hire, including recruitment fees, employer contributions, equipment, and ramp-up, runs well into six figures annually, plus three to six months before they are productive, plus the structural risk of an employment relationship that is hard to unwind if the fit is wrong.
A mid-level in-house hire
Six-figure cost, slow to ramp
Three to six months from signed contract to productive output. Recruitment fee of 15–25%. Single skill set. Employment risk and severance exposure if it does not work. Cannot reasonably be paused if your UK or EU plans change. Regulated-industry credibility you can only verify after the fact.
An engagement with us
Materially below that, productive from week two
Setup fee plus monthly retainer plus day-rate work calibrated to actual usage. Productive within days. Regulated-industry credentials demonstrable before signing. Bundled technical, compliance, deployment, and continuity capabilities. Reversible with notice. Cleanly closeable when you outgrow us.
When your annual spend with us reaches the level of a comparable full-time hire and stays there, we are no longer the most efficient answer for you. That is the graduation point, and we plan for it from the beginning.
In the open, from day one.
We are explicit about how the engagement works. Naming the structure and the boundaries up front is how the work stays productive on both sides.
- Pipeline is your work, not ours.
- We are not a UK sales team. Your sales motion stays yours; we work at the technical, operational, and compliance layer that sits behind it.
- Compensation is retainer and day rate.
- We don't work on commission, because commission shifts incentives in ways that quietly work against the founder. Pay is for work done, not for outcomes we did not control.
- One vendor per market segment.
- Where we already represent a product in your category, we will tell you in the first conversation. Conflicts are reviewed quarterly; if a new one arises during an engagement, the existing relationship has priority.
- Payment terms.
- Standard terms are fourteen days net. For vendors with established UK or EU operations we are happy to consider up to thirty. For vendors domiciled outside the UK and EU, setup fees and deployment work are typically invoiced in advance, in line with usual practice for cross-border professional services.
- Paid work is paid; introductions are free.
- We do not trade hours for the promise of future opportunity, and we do not expect that of our partners either. Introductions are made on their merits, without expectation of return.
- Graduation is part of the engagement.
- When your annual spend with us reaches the level of a comparable full-time hire, or your UK and EU ARR justifies a permanent team, we plan the transition together. We become a referrer and a reference, rather than a fixture.
The intent is a mutually beneficial relationship that supports your growth in the UK and Northern Europe. The structure of the engagement is designed to make that the path of least resistance for both sides.
The next step is a thirty-minute call.
We will tell you within that half hour whether we are the right answer. If we are not, we will tell you what is. There is no obligation on either side until a written engagement letter is signed.