Case study · Sustainable tech · Pre-Series A

Every pound accounted for.

A sustainable tech platform, two years in and heading towards Series A. The CEO needed to know which pivots were working, where the next bets should go, and what the P&L was really saying. I reviewed the whole business: capex and opex, unit economics, margins and the way the company ran.

The situation

Two years is long enough for a start-up to collect habits, contracts and costs that made sense at the time. The company had pivoted more than once and placed several bets. The CEO wanted a clear answer: which of them were paying off, where the money was going, and what had to change before raising again.

What I found

• Spending above what the stage required, and commitments made before they were needed.
• Contracts sized for a company several stages further on.
• AI not being used where it could save real time and cost.
• No board reporting, so no shared view of performance.
• No operating cadence: no regular rhythm for setting priorities, reviewing progress or making decisions.

What changed

1. 01Spend that matches the stage. Cut what wasn't needed, and resized or exited commitments made too early.
2. 02Unit economics you can trust. Rebuilt the view of cost and margin by product and customer, so pricing and growth decisions rest on real numbers.
3. 03A clean capex and opex split. What builds the platform, separated from what runs the business — the first question any investor asks.
4. 04AI put to work. Identified the workflows where AI could take on effort the team was doing by hand.
5. 05Board reporting from scratch. A regular pack with the KPIs, forecast and financial view the board needs to hold the company to account.
6. 06An operating rhythm. Weekly priorities, monthly reviews and quarterly planning, so the whole team pulls in the same direction.
7. 07Clear bets. Which pivots to double down on, which to stop, and where the next pound should go.

What it added up to

A leaner company that knows its numbers, spends like its stage, and can answer the questions a Series A investor will ask. The CEO went from asking where the money was going to deciding where it should go next.

Know your numbers before an investor asks for them.