Working with FounderProof

Serious operating work, properly scoped before anyone starts.

A small process-engineering practice — Calvin in the room for every client — that takes on at most four founder- and leader-led businesses at a time, in the UK and Ireland, at £5–20m revenue. Every engagement begins with the leaks named and costed, the scope written and the price fixed. You get judgement and implementation — not a proposal deck.

Free self-assessment first · then the Assessment, in 14 days at a fixed price · a written view either way
Revenue Leakage AssessmentA £10–15m UK manufacturer · anonymised
LEAK
Attract
First response
Win
 
Deliver
 
LEAK
Grow
Expansion
Annualised leakage found
£2.2m
about a sixth of annual revenue
Attract: new enquiries landing in a joint inbox nobody owned, and falling between the cracks
Grow: an account management team that did not know what drives partners to buy
The engagement, step by step

In the order it actually happens, from the first call to the twelve-month Blueprint

Nothing here is aspirational. Each of these is a working part of the engagement you would be in, with what you get and what we need from you at every step.

Week 0
The free self-assessment, then a first call

You score the business across the six areas and receive a written view. Then twenty minutes on the phone about how the customer journey runs today and where you suspect the leaks are. We say plainly whether a Revenue Leakage Assessment is worth your money — and if not, why.

Free
What you get
A written view · a straight answer on fit
What we need from you
A few minutes online, then twenty on the phone
Weeks 1–2
The Revenue Leakage Assessment

Fourteen days in your systems and with your team. We map the journey from first enquiry to long-term customer — every hand-off, queue and inbox — and cost each leak from your own data.

14 days · fixed price
What you get
The journey mapped · every leak costed and ranked · what we would fix first
What we need from you
Read access to HubSpot, inboxes and finance; an hour each with the people who run the journey
End of week 2
The read-out, and terms in writing

At the end of the fourteen days we walk your leadership team through the findings in person. If you want the leaks fixed, you get a written scope, a fixed price and a start date. If you would rather fix them yourself, the read-out is yours to keep.

Fixed price · no day rates
What you get
A written scope, a fixed price, a defined deliverable
What we need from you
A decision
Month 1
The Architecture — and the biggest leak stopped

A leadership workshop, on site, scores the six areas 1–10 and sets the baseline. In the same month the single leak with the largest revenue impact — already costed in the Assessment — is stopped inside the business, live, not in a plan.

30-Day Value Checkpoint
What you get
Scored baseline · first fix live
What we need from you
A half-day workshop with the leadership team
Month 2
Data & Foundations, then Implementation

The full performance baseline is read from your systems and the data, pipeline and process foundations are put in order. Then the remaining leaks are worked through in order of impact, fortnightly, across people, process and technology.

Fortnightly cadence
What you get
Fortnightly read-outs from your own numbers
What we need from you
The people whose work is changing, as it changes
Month 3
Training, testing, roll-out — and the Blueprint

The team is trained on the new standard, it is tested against live work, and what holds is rolled out. The six areas are re-scored against the baseline and you are handed the Blueprint: a one-page plan for the next twelve months, delivered in month three.

Month-three mutual-fit checkpoint
What you get
The standard in your systems · six areas re-scored · the Blueprint
What we need from you
A closing workshop
Month 4 onward
FounderProof Flex, if you want it

The ongoing retainer: one mini-project a month, each a defined deliverable drawn from the Blueprint’s ranked list, shipped on the same fortnightly cadence — with your team doing more of it each quarter. Rolling, with 30 days’ notice either side.

£5,000 a month · 30 days’ notice
What you get
A defined deliverable every month
What we need from you
A monthly decision on what is next
An example of what you get in Month 1
Example deliverable · Step 1The Architecture map
A UK manufacturer selling through partners · anonymised · people, process and technology on one page
Enquiry
Qualify
Quote & negotiate
Order
Deliver
Repeat & grow
People
Marketing → SalesWeb form · shared inbox · exhibitions · reseller
Sales (4 reps)One owner per enquiry, product interest captured
Sales + FinanceListing or one-off, product category, next-step date
Customer serviceHanded to operations with nothing re-keyed
Logistics + Supply chainOn time, in full, with a named owner
Account managersAccount plan per key partner: what triggers the next order
Process
Every enquiry logged, owned and answered within a set timeMeasure: First response time
Qualified within 48 hours or closed with a reasonMeasure: Need-to-pitch lag
Weighted forecast the whole business trustsMeasure: Forecast accuracy
One customer key across CRM and ERPMeasure: Order value vs quote
OTIF visible to sales and finance, not just logisticsMeasure: OTIF %
Every key account touched on a rhythm, cross-sell trackedMeasure: Repeat revenue · cross-sell touches
Technology
Website forms → CRM · inbox connected
CRM pipeline · stage definitions published
CRM deals · Outlook add-in · templates
ERP (system of record) → weekly export → CRM
ERP · BI for product analysis
CRM key-account view · quarterly review
Leak 01 — Enquiry.New enquiries landed in a joint inbox nobody owned. Fix: one owner per enquiry, forms and inbox connected to the CRM, a response-time standard.
Leak 02 — Repeat & grow.Account managers did not know what drives partners to purchase. Fix: an account plan per key partner with the buying trigger named, and a touch rhythm.
The rhythm.Connect → automate → insight → improve. One improvement chosen every two weeks; a weekly leadership report with four numbers: pipeline generated, revenue closed, OTIF, forecast-vs-actual.
The three ways we work

Different horizons, and we do not pretend they are one thing

Where every engagement starts
The Revenue Leakage Assessment
£4,500 fixed · 14 days

Where every engagement starts. The customer journey mapped, every leak costed from your own data and ranked by revenue impact, and a written read-out of what we would fix first.

Yours to keep, whether or not you go further with us.

After the Assessment
The Diagnostic
£20,000 fixed · three months

The five steps — Architecture, Data & Foundations, Implementation, Roll-out, Blueprint — with the biggest leak stopped in month one and a 30-Day Value Checkpoint.

Recover a tenth of a £2m leak and the Diagnostic has paid for itself ten times over.

After the Diagnostic
FounderProof Flex
£5,000 a month · one mini-project

The ongoing retainer after the Diagnostic. One mini-project a month, each invoiced against a defined deliverable — never hours. Rolling, with 30 days’ notice either side.

Longer horizon. The same fortnightly cadence, with your team doing more of it each quarter.

Every Flex mini-project is one of fifty measurable things that leak revenue across the four phases of the customer journey — the one that matters most and scores worst in yours. The seven that come first in almost every business:

195
First response time
First response
288
Need-to-pitch lag
Proposal
385
Same-call next-step commit
Qualification
485
Cross-sell touch points per year
Expansion
580
Discount from list as %
Decision
678
Discovery-to-proposal lag
Discovery
778
Time-to-first-value
Onboarding
1 Attract — Someone finds you and asks2 Win — The enquiry becomes an order3 Deliver — The order becomes a customer4 Grow — The customer stays and buys more
Also for

Three more kinds of business we say yes to

The same method, the same fixed prices, a different starting point.

Investors and acquirers
Buying or backing a founder-led business

Before the deal: the Assessment (£4,500, 14 days) names and costs the leaks and single points of failure, so the price reflects the business as it runs. After it: the Diagnostic (£20,000) as the first hundred days — the biggest leak stopped in month one and a scorecard the new leadership team runs without the founder.

Funded scale-ups with a revenue team
Six tools, three sources of truth, one pipeline nobody trusts

You have HubSpot, enrichment, a dialer, LinkedIn and a sequencing tool, and the revenue leader spends Friday reconciling them. We connect the stack, define the stages and hand you one pipeline the board believes: a six-week fixed-price project from £10,000 (€10,000 for Irish companies), then Flex. Same Assessment first, same fixed prices, and it counts as one of the four.

HubSpot partners and agencies
Senior delivery capacity for your clients

A customer-journey Assessment (£4,500) or a full Architecture on your client’s behalf, under your brand or ours, from someone who built an Elite partner. You keep the client relationship, in writing; we do the process-engineering work your team is not staffed for. Each client counts as one of the four, so you know exactly what capacity you are buying.

What is verifiable today

The practice as it actually stands, not as we would like to describe it

£2.2m
Annualised leakage found in one recent Assessment

A £10–15m UK manufacturer selling through partners: a joint inbox nobody owned, and an account team that did not know what drives partners to buy. About a sixth of revenue.

140+
CRM and revenue-operations engagements

At HubSpot and Centralise, before FounderProof — named on the About page.

4
Clients at any one time

A hard cap, with a waitlist. Every client gets the founder in the room, not an account manager.

Founder, two businesses exited

SmartRoutes (SaaS) and Centralise (Elite HubSpot Partner, ranked 19th of 6,000+ in HubSpot’s partner directory). Both checkable on LinkedIn and Companies House.

Software & technology
AmplienceKeelvarCalypsoAIParentPayPayPropMove.aiIndeemoFlexigrantGreyparrotAxelera AIMeshh
Managed IT, cloud & cybersecurity
EkcoBlacknightBluecubeCyberOwlFiremind
Professional & business services
KefronBabel PRBB7Ledger BennettICS-digitalGlobal Business CultureCMG TrainingHuman Focus
Manufacturing, distribution & engineering
Duplo InternationalGallery DirectCambrian PackagingCharles Faram & CoPackmePlumisEakin HealthcareHunters Contracts
Financial services & insurance
Howden InsuranceCredit GloriousKaris CapitalOmega Financial ManagementLumiant
Healthcare, education & not-for-profit
MovemberGAAGaelic Players AssociationCarebaseEcctisHistologiXDogpatch Labs
Media, events, consumer & hospitality
Mark Allen GroupConnect Global GroupCraft Irish WhiskeyCamp KeralaEthica DiamondsDriveSimple
A selection of the companies Calvin’s teams have supported in building revenue engines, by industry. Client names and results are published only with written approval; reference clients are available on request once we have met.
The commercials

Stated in money, before you are asked for anything

Every price is fixed against a defined deliverable. There are no day rates, no hourly invoices and no management fee on top.

A worked example — a £12m business, first year: £84,500 all in
The Assessment, 14 days
£4,500
Fixed
The Diagnostic, three months
£20,000
Fixed, agreed before the start
FounderProof Flex, per month
£5,000
One mini-project a month — about three senior days
A comparable in-house hire
£120,000+
Fully loaded, per year — before a three-month search and ramp

Assessment £4,500 + Diagnostic £20,000 + twelve months of Flex £60,000 = £84,500, against a £120,000+ fully loaded hire whose knowledge leaves with them. Not included: HubSpot or other software licences, travel for on-site days (agreed in advance, itemised, never marked up) and VAT. Irish companies are quoted in euro at a fixed equivalent set in the proposal.

No day-rate billing. Every invoice is against a deliverable you agreed to.
30-Day Value Checkpoint: stop, having paid £10,000, keep the Architecture map, and the remaining £10,000 is waived.
Month-three mutual-fit checkpoint, with a clean exit either way.
The 9× rule: every 90 days we audit the work against nine times the fee. If it is not there we re-scope, change the owner, or you exit on 30 days’ notice.
Continuity and handover: everything is documented in your systems, so nothing we build depends on us.
Four clients at a time. If we are full, you join a waitlist rather than a queue.
Irish companies may qualify for grant support through Enterprise Ireland, LEO and others.
How we contract
An NDA before your data
Yours or ours, signed before we are given read access to anything. Every engagement starts with the confidentiality in place, not promised.
A written scope, then a signature
Deliverable, fixed price, start date and the checkpoints — in one document, e-signed, before any work. It does not change without your agreement.
Everything built is yours
Every process, standard, workflow and report is built in your systems, under your accounts, and documented as we go. There is no FounderProof IP inside your business.
Access that ends when we do
Named user accounts, least privilege, nothing exported to personal devices, and access removed at the end. A data-protection statement is available on request.
Invoicing: the Diagnostic 50% at the start and 50% after the 30-Day Value Checkpoint; Flex monthly against the agreed deliverable; GBP for UK companies, euro for Irish companies. Time off: the practice takes four full weeks a year; Flex clients get eight weeks’ notice and are billed at 50% for any month that includes a break. A supplier information pack — company details, insurance, data-protection statement, standard terms and references — is sent within one working day of a request.
The questions you are actually asking

Answered from the terms in force, not from a brochure

Who actually does the work?

Calvin — in the room, in your systems and on every read-out. Outside consultants are used only to challenge our methodology, never to deliver it. That is why the cap is four clients.

How much of our team’s time does it take?

An hour each with the people who run the journey during the Assessment, a half-day leadership workshop in month one, then roughly a fortnightly read-out. The people whose work changes are involved as it changes — that is the point — but nobody is asked to assemble a reporting pack.

What if it is not working?

Day 30 of the Diagnostic: if you cannot see the value, you stop, you have paid £10,000, you keep the Architecture map and the remaining £10,000 is waived. Month three: a mutual-fit checkpoint with a clean exit. Flex is rolling with 30 days’ notice either side from the first month, and every 90 days the 9× audit gives you a formal point to re-scope or leave.

What happens to our data?

Client data is never processed inside external AI models. Our AI tooling works only with abstracted frameworks and methodology; your numbers stay in your systems. It is written into the terms.

How is this different from a HubSpot agency?

An agency is usually paid for the build. We are paid to stop revenue leaking from the customer journey — and we only touch HubSpot once the stage definitions, owners and numbers are agreed. If the honest answer is that you do not need any build, you will hear it, because we are not paid by the build. Some of the best agencies send us their clients for exactly this step.

What if my team resists?

Most will, at first — change is 80% psychological and 20% mechanical, and we plan for that. The people whose work changes help define the standard, the first fix is chosen for visible relief rather than maximum disruption, and nothing is rolled out until it has been tested against live work by the people who do it.

Can we talk to someone you have done this for?

Yes. Reference clients are available once we have met — we ask them for their time only when there is a real decision on the table, not as a sales step.

What happens if Calvin is unavailable?

A small practice has to answer this honestly, so it is written into the terms as a continuity and handover protocol: everything is documented in your systems every fortnight, not at the end; the Architecture map, the scorecard and the Blueprint are yours from the day they exist; and if we cannot deliver, the remaining fees for undelivered work are not owed. You are never left holding a half-built system only we understand.

An invitation

A few minutes to know whether this is worth your time

Take the free self-assessment, or book a first call. Either way you receive a written view before you are asked for anything — where we would start, or plainly why not. Nothing is published, nothing is shared, and there is no pitch.

FounderProof

We show you where revenue is being lost and help you fix it. A process-engineering practice for founder- and leader-led businesses in the UK and Ireland at £5–20m revenue: the customer journey mapped from first enquiry to long-term customer, then process, HubSpot and AI to make it run without relying on any single point of failure.

calvin@founderproof.comCork & Dublin, Ireland · London, UK
© 2026 FounderProof Advisory is a trading name of JCS Advisory Limited, registered in Ireland, company number 816874. Registered office: 27 Cork Road, Midleton, Co. Cork, P25 K162, Ireland.PrivacyTerms of businessLinkedIn