Let’s Talk About Your Startup, Your Challenges, and What Comes Next
Whether you are exploring an idea for a new company, working through the W Cubed™ Founder Launch methodology, confronting an important decision in an existing business, or returning after an earlier consulting engagement, I welcome the opportunity to learn what you are trying to accomplish. The most useful starting point is understanding where your company really stands today, where you want to take it, and which decisions or obstacles may determine whether you get there.
After more than four and a half decades of starting, financing, operating, and advising businesses, I have learned that the most consequential startup problems are often not the ones founders initially recognize. A question about pricing may actually be a question about cash flow; a hiring decision may conceal a weak assumption about demand; and an apparently minor delay may change the entire amount of financing required to get the company through launch. That is why the W Cubed™ methodology focuses on WHO is responsible, WHAT must be accomplished, and WHEN each decision and deliverable belongs in the overall execution sequence.
Before You Hire a Consultant, Explore What You Can Accomplish Yourself
I have made the complete W Cubed™ Founder Launch available free because I want entrepreneurs to benefit from the Compound Knowledge™ accumulated through decades of real startup decisions without automatically having to pay a consultant to explain what needs to be done. Rather than providing another collection of disconnected startup tips, W Cubed™ offers a coordinated execution methodology that helps founders see how the financial, operational, marketing, staffing, product, legal, and fundraising pieces fit together.
The Founder Launch includes 204 Action Items, 50 Milestones, nine coordinated Action Plans with Gantt charts, four Go/No-Go gates, and practical tools for examining assumptions, responsibilities, dependencies, and implementation decisions. It is the complete methodology, not a teaser for a more expensive W Cubed document, and it is intended to help you recognize what you can accomplish independently before deciding where professional assistance would genuinely add value.
AI Arsenal™ Lite — Turn Startup Questions Into Working Deliverables
W Cubed™ helps identify the work your company needs to accomplish, while AI Arsenal™ Lite is designed to help you begin producing many of the actual deliverables. Its 50 guided AI workflows interview you about your own business, identify missing information and unverified assumptions, challenge important decisions, and help generate practical documents, analyses, spreadsheets, action plans, and decision tools that you can save and refine.
These workflows are especially valuable when you want to move beyond asking AI a generic question and instead develop something you can use in operating your company. Examples include financial projections, pricing analyses, startup budgets, cash runway calculations, staffing plans, WHO Chart™ evaluations, investor preparation, and business planning. Although AI does not replace human judgment or make an unsupported assumption true, it can substantially reduce the cost and effort of producing and revising the first-pass work.
AI Arsenal™ Lite introductory pricing begins with the first 100 downloads free, the next 100 at $9.95, and the regular price thereafter at $19.95. The live offer page identifies the currently available price.
Who Should Contact Me?
Former CEO RESOURCE Clients
If we have worked together previously, I would be glad to hear how your company has progressed and what new developments have brought you back. Many of my earlier consulting relationships extended across multiple assignments, and I particularly appreciate hearing from founders who have encountered a new opportunity, financing decision, operational challenge, or strategic crossroads since our original engagement.
Former clients receive first consideration for my limited consulting availability. When contacting me, please remind me approximately when we worked together, the name of the company involved, and what has changed since our earlier work.
New Founders and Startup CEOs
If you are building a company and have reached a decision where experienced executive judgment could make a meaningful difference, tell me about the business and the question you are trying to resolve. You do not need to prepare an elaborate proposal or have completed every W Cubed™ Action Item before getting in touch, although any work you have already done can help us identify the most useful next steps.
I selectively accept new consulting relationships when the assignment is a good match for my experience and available time, particularly where a consequential driving assumption, financial decision, implementation challenge, or strategic issue deserves a more experienced second set of eyes.
The Chief ImpleMentor™ Ten-Hour Founder Retainer
My primary focus during semi-retirement is now the Five Year Life™ publishing program and preserving the startup lessons I have accumulated over more than four and a half decades. As a result, I have deliberately limited the amount of direct consulting work I accept, while making available no more than 100 ten-hour consulting retainer blocks at $2,500 each for founders and startup-company CEOs who want access to my experience.
The best use of that time is often not asking me to produce another document or spreadsheet that W Cubed™ and AI Arsenal™ could help you create yourself. Instead, it is examining the decisions that can determine whether the company succeeds, such as unrealistic revenue assumptions, underestimated cash requirements, uncertain launch schedules, hiring and contractor decisions, financing strategies, or other issues where getting the underlying judgment wrong can be far more expensive than correcting the paperwork.
A standard retainer provides ten hours of consulting time usable over twelve months under the applicable engagement terms. Because availability is limited, prospective clients should review the current consulting information and payment terms before purchasing, particularly if a deadline or urgent business situation is involved.
Tell Me Where You Are — and What You Want to Accomplish
A useful initial message doesn’t require a lengthy business plan, financial presentation, or detailed consulting proposal. What helps most is a clear description of the business, the problem or opportunity you are confronting, and what you believe may be at risk if the issue is not resolved. If you are already using W Cubed™, you may also want to identify the Action Item, Milestone, Go/No-Go decision, or driving assumption that prompted your inquiry.
- What does your company do, and who are its customers?
- What stage have you reached, from initial concept through active operations?
- What important result are you trying to accomplish?
- What constraints or obstacles are holding you back?
- Are you using W Cubed™ or AI Arsenal™ Lite?
- Which critical assumptions concern you most?
- What financial, operational, or strategic consequences could follow if those assumptions prove wrong?
- Is there an important milestone, deadline, or funding decision approaching?
- Have you already completed analysis or identified possible solutions?
- What specifically would you like my help accomplishing?
Send Your Message Directly to Robert
I read incoming messages personally, although my publishing commitments and limited consulting schedule mean I cannot promise an immediate response or provide individualized consulting through unsolicited email exchanges. If your inquiry concerns a potential engagement, a concise explanation of the business and the decision you are facing will help me determine whether I can be useful and whether the timing is practical.
Former clients are especially encouraged to identify the company and approximate period of our previous work together. New founders are welcome to explain how they discovered W Cubed™ and whether they have already completed any of its planning or decision-making exercises.
You May Already Have the Tools to Make Your Next Move
Before spending money on consulting, consider working through the relevant parts of W Cubed™ Founder Launch and using AI Arsenal™ Lite to help develop your company’s initial work products. A well-structured question, a realistic financial assumption, or a clearly defined dependency may reveal a practical solution you can implement yourself. And if you eventually decide that experienced executive judgment is warranted, having completed that preliminary work can make the time we spend together substantially more focused and productive.
Best wishes for stellar success,
Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
CEO & Chief ImpleMentor™
CEO RESOURCE LLC
“I Help Startups Start & Stay Started.”™
49X Founder | Raised Capital 44 Times for 44 of My Own Companies and Limited Partnerships — $120.1 Million in Today’s Dollars from 1,342 Investors | I Help Startups Plan, Fund & Implement.