Engagements.
Four tiers. Every engagement begins with a diagnostic. Fees are stated as bands because the scope that sets them is specific to the portfolio company. No hourly billing appears on the page because no hourly billing appears on the invoice.
AI value-creation thesis, three to five prioritized use cases, a tech stack and data readiness assessment, a ninety-day plan, and a sponsor-ready operating committee memo.
Four to six weeks, fixed.
Two to three forward-deployed engineers on site.
A written thesis the operating committee can read in one sitting, a prioritized use case shortlist, and a plan the portco CFO can defend.
Fixed fee, starting at $500K. Priced at parity with the model-vendor JV diagnostic band, not at a discount.
One or two production use cases taken from diagnostic to live system, with evaluation pipelines and a handoff plan to internal owners.
Twelve to twenty-four weeks, fixed.
Three to five forward-deployed engineers embedded in the portfolio company.
Live production systems, measured KPI lift against a baseline agreed in writing, evaluation pipelines wired from day one, and documentation for internal owners.
Fixed fee plus an outcome component tied to a pre-agreed KPI. The outcome component typically replaces the bundled software margin a model-vendor JV can carry and we cannot.
Multi-workstream engagement across operations, revenue, finance, or customer experience, with sponsor-level governance cadence and tenure that reaches the first earn-out.
Nine to eighteen months.
Five to ten forward-deployed engineers, including an evaluation lead and a sponsor-facing principal.
Material EBITDA uplift thesis executed end-to-end, with the operating committee receiving quarterly translation of technical progress into the language of the deal model.
Fixed fee plus a success component tied to the KPI the sponsor and the portco have agreed is the one that matters. Positioned just under the JV band so the comparison reads as leaner and faster, not cheaper.
A multi-year framework executed across a sponsor's portfolio, with a consistent engagement model, shared governance, and cross-portfolio learning that still respects portco confidentiality walls.
Typically two to three years, covering ten or more portfolio companies.
A pool of forward-deployed engineers allocated by portco, plus a firm-level partner dedicated to the sponsor.
Consistent engagement quality across the portfolio, a single point of governance for the operating partner, and reporting that feeds directly into the sponsor's value creation review.
Negotiated. Fifteen to twenty-five percent off the per-portco rates, tighter than a JV master because Tengwar is not using software margin to subsidize the services line.