Market and ICP
Where demand is strongest, which buyers matter and whether the market focus is specific enough.
Narrow Focus · Commercial diagnostic
Before you invest in more growth, understand what's actually holding it back.
A two-week, evidence-led commercial diagnostic for technical B2B founders who have a credible product and market interest, but not yet a repeatable path to revenue.
Focus starts with what already exists. We look for the commercial friction, preserve what works and establish the few changes that deserve attention first.
The problem
Plenty is happening. But what does the evidence say?
Perhaps you've secured investment, completed pilots, won early customers or built an encouraging pipeline. Yet the next sale still feels difficult to predict, and the founder remains central to every opportunity.
Hiring salespeople, spending more on marketing or changing the CRM can increase activity without addressing the underlying constraint. Focus helps establish whether the real issue is the market, value proposition, pipeline, conversion or commercial operating model.
What we examine
A practical view of your commercial reality.
Value and positioning
Whether customers understand the problem solved, the value created and why they should act.
Pipeline quality
What opportunities are supported by buying evidence rather than interest alone.
Sales and conversion
How opportunities develop, where they stall and what the founder is repeatedly being asked to do.
Commercial infrastructure
Whether processes, CRM and measurement support decisions or simply record activity.
Existing strengths
What is already working and should be protected, repeated or made more consistent.
What you receive
A clear diagnosis and a practical next step.
Focus concludes with an evidence-based assessment of your commercial position, an ordered list of priorities and a practical 90-day action plan. The aim is to distinguish what needs fixing now from what can wait — and where further investment would be premature.
- A view of the strongest evidence and most important gaps
- A diagnosis of the highest-priority commercial constraints
- Recommendations that respect the work already done
- A prioritised 90-day plan
Focus is a standalone engagement. If Build makes sense, its scope is agreed separately from the findings.
Fit
Is Focus right for your business?
Focus is designed for founder-led technical B2B businesses with a substantially developed product, credible validation and some market engagement — including deep tech, engineering, life sciences and complex software.
It's less relevant for concept-stage products without customer evidence, or businesses looking only for outsourced prospecting or appointment setting.
When to take stock
The moments when a commercial diagnostic earns its place.
Focus is especially useful when the next decision carries a real cost, but the evidence behind it is still unclear.
- Before a first sales hire: establish what the founder has learned and what can realistically be handed over.
- After investment: decide where finite runway should be directed rather than accelerating every activity.
- When pilots aren't converting: separate technical interest from a customer's reason and ability to buy.
- When pipeline looks healthy but revenue is uncertain: test whether the opportunities reflect genuine buying progress.
Not every situation needs the same solution. The diagnostic is designed to tell you which problem deserves attention first.
Practical questions
What to expect from Focus.
What do I need to have prepared?
Start with what already exists: your current proposition, target customers, pitch material, pipeline, sales process and examples of real customer conversations. Gaps are useful evidence too. There is no need to create a polished pack simply for Narrow.
Will you recommend changing everything?
No. The starting point is to understand prior work and preserve what is genuinely useful. Recommendations are prioritised by their likely commercial importance, rather than by how many changes can be proposed.
Do I have to continue into Build?
No. Focus is a standalone two-week engagement. You receive the diagnosis and prioritised plan. Any subsequent Build work is separately scoped and agreed.
Know first. Then act.
Let's understand where commercial progress is getting stuck.
Tell Nathan what you've built, what the market is doing and the commercial challenge you're trying to solve. No pitch deck required.