Cancel the subscription.
Keep the software.

Executive directors and operations leads at mission-driven organizations of 40 to 150 people.

They usually have these in common:

• Pricing is per user, so the bill grows with headcount.
• Staff re-enter the same data in two or three other systems.
• The vendor can't model rules specific to your organization: a bargaining agreement, a board reporting cycle, a program structure.
• The features you need are on the vendor's roadmap and have been for a while.

Categories so far: performance reviews and feedback, internal knowledge bases, CRMs, and reporting dashboards.

Discovery is a paid week at a fixed fee, credited against the build. We map what the tool does, which other systems it should absorb, and which rules it has to enforce. Discovery ends with a written scope, a fixed price, and a recommendation. The recommendation can be to keep the vendor.

Builds are paid at three points: signing, a working demo on your data, and handover.

At handover:

• The repository is in your GitHub account.
• The system runs on your cloud account.
• The documentation is written for a non-engineer administrator.
• Your staff have been trained.

Maintenance is a separate agreement. You can hire us for it or anyone else.

How an engagement runs, stage by stage.

A unionized nonprofit of about 90 people used a per-seat performance-review platform. The union contract set rules on response times, anonymity, and appeals that the platform couldn't enforce, so staff tracked them by hand.

We built a replacement in about seven weeks. It enforces the contract rules, replaced three other tools, and the organization owns it.

Some clients want operating help without a build: the annual planning cycle, a budget and cash model, a vendor negotiation, a board memo, a new performance-review process. We do that on a monthly retainer scoped to a set of responsibilities rather than to hours.

We have done this work in-house, as COO and CFO of a unionized nonprofit of about 90 people. We keep the number of retainers small.

• Own an HR function.
• Financial reporting, accounting, or audit.
• Campaign work.
• Build when the vendor is the right answer. Under about 40 users, or with fewer than three tools to consolidate, it usually is.

What are you trying to replace or fix? Two sentences is enough. Where should the reply go? I want to book an hour of advice instead: $250 for fifteen minutes of prep, sixty minutes on a call, and thirty minutes of written follow-up. Leave this empty

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We reply within two business days. If the vendor is the right answer, we say so.