Engagement Model
Ways to work together
Every engagement is led personally, from the first diagnostic through to hands-on operating partner support.
Commercial Due Diligence
An evidence-based read of commercial readiness, scored foundation by foundation: Strategic Positioning, Segmentation & ICPs, Product Marketing, GTM Strategy, Sales Enablement, Content & AEO, Demand Generation, Customer Marketing, and Exit Strategy & Equity Story. Built for two audiences at once: partners deciding where operating attention or capital should go, and portfolio leadership who need a credible external read rather than a self-graded one.
Particularly suited to pre-acquisition diligence (is the commercial engine as strong as the topline suggests), the first 90 days of ownership (where should attention go first), or pre-exit preparation (what would a buyer's own commercial diligence find).
How we run it
Scope & Baseline
Data room, CRM, and collateral review. Stakeholder mapping and kickoff.
Structured Interviews
Leadership, sales, marketing, and a customer sample, against a consistent rubric.
Scoring & Triangulation
Findings scored per foundation, checked against competitive and market signals.
Readout
Board-ready scorecard, prioritised gap list, and a recommended starting point.
What you get: a scored diagnostic across all nine foundations, a gap list ranked by impact and effort, and a clear recommendation for what to run next.
100-Day GTM Plan
Not a generic playbook: the priority foundation, whether carried over from a Commercial Due Diligence or identified fresh in Phase 1, determines the specific process used. If Strategic Positioning is the priority, this runs &Severin's full four-phase positioning process, market assessment, validated interviews, and a complete brand house, the same process built and proven inside Danelec's own commercial transformation. If GTM motion or demand generation is the priority, an equivalent structured build runs against that foundation instead.
In every case, the outcome is a working, implemented capability, not a slide deck of recommendations: positioning that is already in the sales deck, a motion that is already running.
How we run it
Scope & Baseline
Confirm the priority gap. Define what “done” looks like. Wks 1–2.
Build
Core research and construction, e.g. the five-lens market assessment. Wks 3–8.
Validate
Tested against real stakeholders and buyers, not assumed. Wks 9–12.
Implement & Enable
Built into the tools the business runs on: decks, site, CRM, playbooks. Wks 13–17.
Launch & Measure
Rollout, plus the scorecard to track whether the gap is closing. Wks 18–20.
What you get: a working capability already built into the tools the business runs on, plus the scorecard to track whether the gap is actually closing.
Operating Partner / Interim CxO
Embedded, ongoing support, not a project with an end date, but a standing operating rhythm accountable to outcomes the board has agreed matter: revenue, CAC efficiency, pipeline, retention. This is the model for portfolio companies where the gap is not one foundation, it is operating capacity: the business needs someone in the room, regularly, who owns commercial outcomes the way an operating partner owns them elsewhere in the business.
How we run it — a repeating cadence, not a fixed sequence
Commercial Scorecard
Reviewed with leadership across the nine foundations.
Roadmap Reset
Reprioritise based on what has moved and what has changed.
Hands-on Execution
On whatever the quarter's priority foundation requires.
Equity Story
The same lens feeds Foundation #9, the exit strategy and equity story.
What you get: an operating partner accountable to the outcomes the board cares about, and a commercial narrative for exit that has been building the whole way through.
Keynote Speaking
A talk or workshop for boards, portfolio leadership, or commercial teams on anything covered on this site: positioning, segmentation, GTM, demand generation, and the commercial foundations that survive an exit. Built around whichever foundation the audience needs most, drawing on real engagements rather than theory.
Formats
30–45 minutes
A single sharp argument, built for a conference stage or investor offsite.
Half-day
Working session with leadership: apply the framework to the business in the room.
By format
Moderated conversation on positioning, GTM, or exit-readiness in B2B tech.
What you get: a talk built for the room, drawn from real commercial operating work, with a clear takeaway leadership can act on the next day.