WORK WITH ME
Everyone you'd naturally ask has a stake in the answer.
Your board has its own objective function. Your investors have theirs. Your team can't watch you think out loud about whether the plan is wrong. So the decisions that cost the most get made with the least outside input — and most of them you're making for the first time.
01 · ONBOARDING
The first session is about you, not the company.
Seventy-five minutes, and the largest block isn't financials. Your background, what gives you energy and what drains it, how you learn, when you think, how you keep track of what you owe people. One question on the agenda is what you're most afraid to do — or most afraid to tell me. I ask it in the first hour because the answer shapes everything after.
Then the company in the same detail. How it makes money. What you believe about your market that other smart people don't. Where the go-to-market has already pivoted, and why. Cap table, board, burn, and the gaps on the leadership team you'll need to fill inside a year.
We close by imagining the year is over and it went extremely well — then asking why it didn't. The goal comes out of the first question. The agenda for our work together comes out of the second.
The gaps between the company you have and the company that goal requires — closing those is the work.
02 · THE ENGAGEMENT
What working together looks like.
Three sessions a month anchor the relationship.
That's where we set goals, align on progress, and do the actual work. Between them I'm available whenever — often asynchronously, and on a call when the thing can't wait.
Email in 12 hours. Slack in one to three. Phone, immediately.
Those are commitments, not aspirations. Most of what a founder-CEO needs from an advisor is a fast read on a hard decision, and a fast read three days later isn't one.
We've seen the scenario before.
Across the firm we've worked with hundreds of companies. That's the reason a useful answer usually takes minutes rather than a week of analysis — most of what feels unprecedented inside your company is a pattern someone here has watched play out.
The bench, mostly asynchronous.
ETW is five partners. When a question sits closer to someone else's experience, we bring them in — usually async, because I can cover most of the waterfront and what's left is narrow.
The team, the board, the offsite.
The work isn't confined to our sessions. I meet the people running the company, sit with the numbers, and pay attention to how the board actually receives you. I also facilitate sessions at client offsites — typically a half day, at no additional charge.
None. We're also not transactional.
Either of us can end it on seven days' notice. I've ended engagements with CEOs who wouldn't do the work. What I expect is the opposite of a short engagement — most of these relationships run for years.
03 · IN THEIR WORDS
"So many leadership coaches will talk at you about how to be better. Dave is one of the few that rolls up his sleeves alongside you. Definitely somebody you want in your corner and worth digging in with."
Max Farrell · Exited Founder, WorkHound
"David helped me accomplish something I had avoided for nearly five years as a founder and thought best to outsource to others: building and truly understanding my own financial model. What seemed intimidating and overwhelming suddenly became approachable. The byproduct wasn't a financial model — it was confidence."
Laurel Hess · 3x Founder
"I have had the privilege of working with Dave as an advisor for the past four and a half years, and I can say without hesitation that he has been one of the most important people in both the growth of our company and my own development as a CEO."
Samuel Saltzman · CEO, Outlast
"I had the privilege of working with David for over three years, and he sits at the very top tier of leadership and management consultants I've partnered with. David has a rare ability to quickly isolate the few challenges that truly move the needle, articulate them with clarity, and translate them into practical, executable plans."
Ariel Avitan · Chief Revenue Officer & Co-Founder
04 · NEXT STEP
Start with a conversation.
Tell me about the company and what's in front of you. If I'm the right person, we'll find out quickly. If I'm not, I'll tell you that and point you somewhere better.