founder operating review

The review is designed for early-revenue physical-product, manufacturing, importing, or distribution businesses that have moved beyond the idea stage.  Customers are buying, but the founder is still carrying most operating decisions and needs greater clarity around what the business should build next.  Companies are typically six months to three years into operation and producing approximately $250,000 to $2 million in annualized revenue. 

 Generally, no.  The review depends on actual operating experience, customer activity, and business information - not projections alone.  If you are still validating the idea or have not yet generated meaningful customer demand, an incubator, SBDC adviser, or startup-development resource may be a better fit. 

You will complete a focused questionnaire and provide a limited set of relevant operating, financial, product, and organizational information.  The review is deliberately bounded; it does not require a full data room or every document the business has produced.  The specific information requested will depend on the questions and constraints facing the company. 

That is not automatically a problem.  Early-revenue businesses rarely have perfect reporting, documentation, or systems.  Gaps in the information may themselves reveal where the business needs greater structure, although there must be enough reliable information to support a useful review. 

After the questionnaire and requested information are received, ER3 reviews the material and prepares for a 90-minute Operator Working Session.  That session is used to pressure-test assumptions, surface constraints, and determine the correct sequence of priorities.  You then receive a written 30-, 60-, and 90-day operating roadmap, followed by a 60-minute debrief. 

The roadmap identifies what needs attention now, what can wait, and where additional people, systems, funding, or specialized expertise may be required.  It is built around your business and its current constraints - not a generic business plan or startup template.  The objective is to leave you with a disciplined operating sequence and clear next actions. 

This is a fixed-scope operating review, not an ongoing coaching relationship.  ER3 evaluates the business from an operator’s perspective, challenges assumptions, identifies constraints, and provides a sequenced roadmap.  The engagement has a defined beginning, deliverable, and completion point. 

Business information provided for the review is treated as confidential and used only to complete the engagement.  If the nature of the information requires a formal confidentiality agreement, that can be addressed before documents are exchanged. 

The purpose is to identify the correct sequence - not pretend that one person should solve every problem.  If the business needs legal, accounting, engineering, funding, manufacturing, or another specialized resource, the roadmap will identify that requirement so you can engage the right expertise at the right time. 

The Founder Operating Review is delivered remotely over one week, beginning after the questionnaire, requested information, and payment have been received. 

The fixed investment is $1,500. It includes the structured review, preparation, 90-minute Operator Working Session, written 90-day roadmap, and 60-minute debrief.