Scope & Terms
Engagement Terms
Four structures for working with founders, funds, and operating teams. Please sign in to see cash terms.
Strategic Advisor
Lightweight, high-leverage advisory across product, GTM, and engineering.
- i.2 hours per month (monthly call + emails / texts)
- ii.Ad-hoc work, billable # of hours per mutual agreement
- Reviewing technical architecture
- Interviewing engineering and product hires
- Reviewing product and business strategy
- Brand, design, and positioning
- Network introductions and extensions
- Base equity · 2-year monthly vesting
- No cliff · single-trigger acceleration on acquisition
Operational / Technical Advisor
Hands-on advisory for startups and funds — twice-weekly cadence.
- i.Up to 10 hours per month (2 meetings per week)
- ii.Ad-hoc work, billable per mutual agreement
In addition to Tier 1 support, in scope:
- Architecture design
- MVP development (ad-hoc, billable per hour)
- Investment / pitch and ad-hoc strategic client support
For funds, FoFs, and investment firms (billed as share of carry — see govclab.com/venture-share).
- a.Technical diligence meetings
- b.Strategic advisory for portcos
- c.Fund strategy
- Base equity · 2-year monthly vesting
- No cliff · single-trigger acceleration on acquisition
Technology Partner / CPTO (Fractional to Full-Scale)
Fractional CPTO ownership of product, engineering, and roadmap. Up to 35h/week.
Figures below are an uncommon allocation for most tier-1 VCs, but represent the current market rate and the opportunity cost for my time. I significantly de-risk revenue, product, technology, strategy, and downstream investments in a post-AI market: MVP and product cycles compress to 3–4 weeks, ability to spin off agentic workflows, and a single technical resource that works as well as five. I bring product and engineering experience at $500M ARR and billion-user scale across multiple product families and geographies. Founders have leveraged me to clear technical due diligence and gain investor trust to unblock funding.
- i.15 hours per week retained (floor)
- ii.Up to 20 additional hours per week of ad-hoc work, billable per agreement
In addition to Tier 2 support, in scope:
- Managing product, engineering, and general management teams
- Owning the product roadmap
- Client and P&L ownership
- 5% base equity · 15% target at 35h/week
- 2 to 4-year monthly vesting · no cliff
- Double-trigger acceleration on acquisition
Tier 3 spans a spectrum based on dedicated bandwidth:
Outsourced Product / Engineering Org + CPTO
Studio model — preserve cap-table while securing architectural leadership and rapid execution.
For founders seeking to preserve cap-table space while still securing strong architectural leadership and rapid execution, we can deploy a studio model. Great for founders looking to focus solely on GTM / fundraise and bring me along.
- i.My personal time: up to 10 hours per month (2 meetings per week)
- ii.Unlimited extended product, engineering, and design resources (billed at a considerably discounted rate), staffed to your needs
Same scope as Tier 3, with these adjustments:
- Non-strategic engagement with your clients is managed by my team
- Managing employees inside your organization is out of scope
- Base equity · 2-year monthly vesting
- No cliff · double-trigger acceleration on acquisition
- i.You may list and leverage me personally as CPTO (for investor relations and strategy); I sign off on the team's work.
- ii.Allows non- or semi-technical founders to outsource all product and engineering while keeping a clean cap-table.
- iii.Created IP belongs to you (provided the studio is not barred from any future business).
- iv.Requires at least a 6-month commitment with the studio (minimum 600 hours), plus the base CPTO retainer.
Specific vesting mechanics and acceleration triggers are outlined within each tier. Custom engagement blends, extended studio capacity, and fund-specific arrangements are scoped on request.