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Independent strategy and design, Manchester

Strategy that gets a small company moving

Senior strategists and designers working with founders for weeks, not quarters.

4.9 from 38 founder reviews, 61 engagements since 2017

What we do

Four practices, one small team

Each practice is led by a partner. Most clients start with one and pull in a second when the first lands.

01

Positioning

Who you are for, what you do better than anyone else, and the sentence that says so.

02

Brand

Identity, voice and a system your team can run without us the week after we leave.

03

Product

Strategy and design for the thing customers touch, from first prototype to launch.

04

Growth

Channel, pricing and funnel work, tested in small bets before you spend big.

We are six people who have run companies, not only advised them. We take few clients, so each gets a partner every day.

61engagements since 2017
6 weeksaverage engagement length
84%of clients return within two years
0juniors on your project
  • Positioning
  • Brand
  • Product
  • Growth
Two founders talking with a consultant across a long table
Why us

Partners on every day of the work

The partner you meet on the intro call is the partner in your workshops, your review and your handover. No pitch team, no bench.

  • Fixed fee and fixed dates agreed before we start
  • One shared working document, open to your whole team
  • A handover your own team can run alone
Selected work

Two engagements, real numbers

Shared with permission. Figures are from the clients' own reporting twelve months on.

Brand sketches and wireframes laid out on a wooden table
Positioning and brand / 7 weeks

Halden Freight, a Salford logistics software firm

Selling to everyone and winning no one. We narrowed the offer to mid-size hauliers and rebuilt the brand and sales story around it.

+212%qualified demo requests
31 daysto close, down from 74
Designer reviewing an app prototype on a phone next to a laptop
Product and growth / 8 weeks

Pocket Ledger, a consumer budgeting app

Strong downloads, weak retention. We redesigned onboarding and repriced the premium tier, testing each change on live users first.

+46%day-30 retention
£1.8madded annual recurring revenue
1240

hours of senior partner time spent with clients last year

38reviews from founders
9sectors served
3partners, all hands-on
How we work

Short by design: four to eight weeks

A tight loop keeps the work honest and your costs known.

  1. Week 0

    Intro call

    Thirty minutes with a partner. We tell you plainly if we are the right fit.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    Diagnose

    Customer interviews, data and a working session with your leadership team.

  3. Weeks 3 to 6

    Build

    Strategy, design and prototypes made together, reviewed weekly.

  4. Weeks 6 to 8

    Hand over

    A playbook, a launch plan and a check-in at 90 days.

Clients

What founders say afterwards

They told us what to stop doing. That was worth more than any deck.
Priya, founder, Halden Freight
Same partner in every meeting. No hand-offs, no surprises on the invoice.
Tom, COO, Pocket Ledger
Eight weeks, and our team could run the new brand alone on day one.
Mina, head of marketing, a Leeds fintech
Partners

Who will be in the room

Three partners, each leading two practices, all hands-on.

Portrait of Eleanor Vale, partner for positioning and brand

Eleanor Vale

Partner, positioning and brand

Portrait of Daniel Northgate, partner for growth

Daniel Northgate

Partner, growth

Portrait of Amara Okafor, partner for product design

Amara Okafor

Partner, product design

Questions

Before you book

How long does an engagement last?
Most run four to eight weeks with a fixed scope agreed up front.
Who will work on our project?
Partners lead and do the work. There is no junior bench behind them.
What does it cost?
Projects are priced as a fixed fee after the intro call, typically from £18,000.
Do you only work with Manchester companies?
No. We are based in Manchester and work with founders across the UK and Europe.
Intro call

Book an intro call with a partner

Thirty minutes, no slides. Tell us where you are stuck and we will say whether we can help. We reply within one working day.