Practice 03 · Scale-up CEO advisory
One person to call, on the decisions that matter.
A strategic advisor retainer for a small number of growth-stage CEOs — the raise, the M&A conversation, the re-org, the hard hire.See the case studies
We are practitioners, not consultants. We have started dozens of companies, invested in hundreds of startups, sat on their boards, and helped governments write the policy that lets them exist in the first place.
A CEO retainer is only useful when the advisor has genuine bandwidth for the company between calls — to read the numbers properly, to take the phone call at the awkward hour, to sit with the CFO through the difficult one.
We hold a small number of these relationships at any time. If we take the work, we mean it. That is why we take so few.
If you are looking for the person to sit on the board rather than beside the CEO, see the Boards practice.
Selected work · 02 case studies
The work, not the pitch.
Two recent engagements, written up in full: the brief, the decisions, and what was delivered.
Foundations before funding.
Data, technology and AI strategy for an emerging luxury hospitality group — set before the first supplier contract entrenched a silo, and before the first institutional investor asked the obvious question.
Structuring a UK clinical partnership for an international entrant.
Two counterparty-ready proposals for a London clinic and the Gulf health-technology company launching through it — presented together, contracted separately.
The engagement
How we work with scale-up CEOs.
Strategic advisor retainer
One CEO, on call.
Not a board seat. A working relationship with the CEO on the small number of decisions that will actually shape the next chapter — a raise, an M&A conversation, a re-org, a hard hire, an operating model that has stopped scaling. Monthly rhythm, on-call between.
Cadence
Monthly, on call
Term
12 months, renewable
Compensation
Retainer, on enquiry
Cantillon is the first call I make before the raise, before the board pack, and before the hard conversation. Placeholder— CEO, growth-stage healthtech company
Real companies, hard decisions.
We take on CEOs whose underlying business has already proved something, where the next chapter genuinely matters, and who are honest about what they do not know yet.
We do not take on CEOs looking for validation, for a name on the deck, or who are more interested in fundraising than operating.
If any of that sounds like the call you are trying to make, we are the right conversation.
If the call matters to you, it matters to us.
Advisor conversations start between principals — CEO and principal, no intermediaries.
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