I work with chief executives, owners, boards, foundation leaders and professional athletes, in industries from mining and heavy construction to nonprofits, federal contracting and private client services.
What I do
Most advisors stop after the first one. A plan is worth less than people think if nobody builds the thing it asks for.
01
I work through the decision with you and write the plan: what the priorities are, who owns each one, and by when. Your team can read it and know what to do on Monday.
02
I design and build the tools the plan needs. Each one does a few things and nothing else, so a team can learn it in an afternoon. No screens nobody opens.
03
On some engagements I stay and run it alongside your team until they can run it without me. Leaving is the goal. I am not trying to become a line on your budget.
The work
Thirty-one systems are live for clients today. I designed and built these six. The figures are what each one actually holds.
Scores 537,000 mine-waste sites across 35 minerals, and maps who owns, operates and buys each one.
33 advisors argue a decision out before the client makes it. Each one holds a different discipline, and they are built to disagree in writing.
A weekly email that screens 21 federal and state sources and scores each opportunity against work that client has already won.
23,288 grants and 2,217 funders, searchable by who has actually paid for work like yours before.
19,396 officers and directors across 1,337 foundations, so a client can see which boards they already have a way into.
Made 339 technical and financial documents answerable in plain language while a deal was live.
I name clients only when they tell me I can. The rest of the work, and how we decided which pieces were worth building, is at glassrootpartners.com.
How I work
Of the twenty tasks that take the most hours in a company, about seven are worth automating. I say which seven, and I say no to the rest. The other thirteen usually need a decision, not software.
I am a CPA who trained at PwC, so my systems keep the records and a person still approves every payment. Nothing signs, sends or pays on its own.
And because I have sat in the COO and Chief of Staff seats, I build for the person who has to use the thing every day rather than for a demo.
A client came to us with five requests. The one they wanted most is the one we told them to hold.
It was also the easiest to build: software that reads the chief executive's mailbox. They were in an open audit, three weeks into a new general counsel's first month, so it waits for his written approval. We said so before we started rather than after.
That last part is what people are actually paying for.
Background
I am a CPA with a Master's in Accounting and I started at PwC in New York. I have been a COO and a Chief of Staff, so when I tell you an operating plan will not survive contact with your team, it is because I have been the one who had to run it.
Before that I spent years in branding, web and media, which is where the two Emmy Awards come from. It is also why I can build the thing and make it look like it belongs to you.
The firm
I co-founded Glassroot Partners with Matt George. Matt runs the leadership and governance side. I run the operating and financial side, and I build the software.
Matt ran a $35 million organization of 500 staff for thirty years before he advised anyone on it. Neither of us advises on something we have only read about.
Clients come to us with a decision that matters and a team that has to carry it out. They leave with the plan, the software their people use, and a straight answer on what was not worth doing.
Visit Glassroot Partners →A thirty-minute working session, no charge. You leave with a clear next step whether or not we end up working together.