Business plan · June 2026 · Confidential
The consulting firm humans run and AI powers
One person, the work of ten.
We enter on advisory — senior judgment the big firms can't deliver AI-native — then stay and run the function, with AI and agents carrying the production and the ongoing operation. Our clients are regulated scale-ups too small to staff a serious digital and compliance function or to hire a major firm; Australian renewable-energy delivery entities are the wedge. We scale on software, not headcount.
Read the executive summary →The shift
AI broke consulting's production economics — the work pyramids were built to staff now costs dollars, not salaries.
The model
Advisory is the way in; then we embed and run the function — scaled on software, not headcount.
The wedge
Regulated scale-ups that can't staff it themselves — starting with Australian renewable-energy delivery entities.
50%
Net margin at 20 clients
vs 15–25% traditional; expands with scale
9 people
To serve 20 embedded clients
vs 30–50 in a traditional firm
$268K
Year-one profit at 5 clients
profitable without external capital
100–500×
Production cost reduction
AI vs junior-staffed delivery
51%
Renewables share of the NEM
Q4 2025 — the cohort is forming now
Ratified
Beachhead — all 5 gating criteria cleared
scored on conviction & evidence, no disqualifiers (Jun 2026)
$15K/mo
Base retainer per client
half the cost of one internal CIO hire
18 months
The AI-native window
before it's table stakes — first movers set the reference
- AI broke consulting's production economics: the work pyramids were built to staff now costs dollars, not salaries. Incumbents price this as a 5–10% efficiency gain; we think it's an order of magnitude — and they can't respond without dismantling the model that pays their partners.
- We sell a working function on a monthly retainer: advisory is the way in, then we embed and run it — executive judgment, architecture, systems, and compliance — for regulated companies that must be operational but can't staff it themselves.
- The beachhead passed a scored gating evaluation: Australian renewable energy, entered through the Renewable Energy Zone delivery cohort where the founding team holds a direct embedded relationship.
- The plan names its open problems — go-to-market is unproven, the senior-capacity assumption is unvalidated — and each maps to a specific first-year test.
The thesis
- 01 Executive summary An advisory-native AI venture: senior advisory is the way in, then we stay and run the client's digital function — scaled on software and agents, not headcount. Aimed at regulated scale-ups too small to staff the function or hire a major firm; Australian renewables is the wedge.
- 02 The shift: AI breaks consulting's production economics AI has absorbed the production layer that consulting pyramids were built to staff, cutting delivery cost by orders of magnitude and leaving incumbents structurally unable to respond.
- 04 Why now: the timing window Three clocks are aligned — AI capability crossed the production threshold, the beachhead cohort is forming now, and incumbents are structurally paralysed — and none of them stays aligned for long.
The model and its economics
- 03 The model: advisory-native AI, built to operate Advisory is how we enter — senior judgment the big firms can't deliver AI-native; then we stay and run the function, scaled on software and agents rather than headcount. The cyber-security wedge-to-managed-service motion, applied to the digital operating function.
- 03 How organisations deploy AI — and where we sit Using AI isn't one thing — it's a spectrum from a single-vendor subscription to fully owned infrastructure, with a model-routing layer across all of it. For a regulated client the strategic question is where each workload runs and who's accountable; owning that routing and sovereignty layer is our moat, not a feature.
- 06 The engagement: what we actually do Advisory is the wedge that gets us in and earns trust; then we embed, build, and run the function — carried on software and agents, expanding as the client grows. Land, embed, operate, expand.
- 08 Financial model: the practice P&L Profitable at five clients with three people; margin expands from 30% to 50% as clients scale to twenty because production cost doesn't scale with revenue. All figures AUD.
- 09 Pricing and commercial model Monthly retainer anchored to the value of a working function — with a hard pricing floor, a bounded fixed-fee entry product, and the client-equity question deliberately held open.
The market
- 05 Beachhead: Australian renewable energy The segment is a pattern, not a sector — regulated scale-ups too small to staff their compliance load and too small for a major firm to serve. Australian renewables is where that pattern is most acute and accessible right now: the wedge.
- 07 Competition and why incumbents can't follow The embedded position serving regulated scale-ups below the big firms' floor is unoccupied: every incumbent class fails it structurally, and the closest AI-native analogues validate the model without contesting the niche.
- 10 Sector selection as the repeatable engine Choosing which niches qualify is the venture's core capability — a gated rubric, a stage-gated pipeline, and a first evaluation that has now been run end-to-end.
Execution
- 11 Go-to-market Entry through the REZ delivery cohort via a warm embedded position, a bounded wedge product, and fund-portfolio referral — the cohort is now mapped and the next target entities are named.
- 12 The first engagement, scoped First play: a newly formed REZ delivery entity, entered warm through a live procurement — with the partners running ahead and the founder joining on a clean exit.
- 15 Risks: what would make this fail Six honest failure modes — what we're doing about each, and which ones can only be answered in market.
- 16 Funding and the ask Bootstrap off client revenue first; external capital comes later and deliberately — bought for relationships, scale and legitimacy, not survival.