The Strategic Finance Diagnostic $5,000 · 30 days · one memo

You built the company. The finance function didn't scale with it.

The Pulse Check is a 30-day diagnostic across the three things that decide whether a founder-led company is fundable, sellable, or stuck... Cash, Margin, and KPIs. Fixed fee. One decision-grade memo. No retainer required to start.

If revenue grew faster than your finance function, you've hit at least one of these.

Cash

Revenue is up. The bank balance isn't.

Growth is eating cash and you can't see the next 13 weeks clearly enough to know how tight it gets.

Margin

You're bigger. You're not sure you're more profitable.

Margin by product, customer, or line is fuzzy. You suspect you're losing money somewhere and can't point to it.

KPI

The board or a lender wants numbers you don't produce.

And the numbers you do produce take days to pull together and don't always agree with each other.

The trigger

A raise, a sale, or a turnaround is on the horizon.

And the finance function you built for a smaller company won't survive diligence in its current shape.

A senior CFO read on where your finances actually stand. In 30 days. Without a retainer.

Thirty days. Three areas. One memo written for a CEO and a board, not an accountant. It's the fastest way to find out what's working, what's leaking, and what a buyer or lender will flag... before they do.

01

Cash

13-week visibility, runway, working-capital drag, and the timing gaps between what you collect and what you pay.

The question it answers
How many weeks of cash do you really have... and what's eating it?
02

Margin

Gross margin by product, customer, and segment. Pricing leakage and cost-to-serve that the P&L hides at the top line.

The question it answers
Where are you actually making money... and where are you quietly losing it?
03

KPI

The 8 to 12 metrics that should run the business, and the reporting a board, lender, or buyer will expect to see.

The question it answers
Can you produce the numbers a buyer will demand... on time and defensibly?

The Findings Memo.

Five to ten pages. Plain English. Findings ranked by priority, with the dollar impact sized where we can size it, and a 90-day action sequence you can hand to your team. You own it whether or not we work together after.

  • What's working, what's leaking, and what's a diligence risk... ranked, not dumped.
  • Dollar impact attached to each finding wherever the data supports it.
  • A 90-day action sequence... what to fix first, second, third.
  • Delivered as a draft, then walked through live in a 30-day readout.

Two signatures to start. Thirty days to a decision.

A standalone agreement... no master services agreement required. One person on your side as the single point of contact. A few hours of your time, total.

Day 0

Two signatures

Proposal plus standalone SOW. First $2,500 due Net 7. No MSA.

Days 1–7

Kickoff

Data request and a single CEO or sponsor as point of contact.

Days 8–25

Diagnostic

Cash, Margin, and KPI worked end to end.

Day ~25

Draft memo

Findings Memo delivered in draft. Final $2,500 due.

Day 30

Live readout

Decisions, not just findings. You leave with a plan.

One fixed fee. No hourly clock. No retainer trap.

$5,000
Fixed fee · 30-day engagement
At signing (Net 7)$2,500
At draft memo$2,500
  • 50/50 payment split
    $2,500 at signing, Net 7. The second $2,500 is due when the draft memo is delivered.
  • Non-refundable once Kickoff occurs
    Before kickoff, the first payment is fully refundable. Once the work starts, it isn't. The work starts at kickoff.
  • Out-of-scope work billed at $500/hour
    Only with your written go-ahead. The diagnostic itself is fixed at $5,000.
100% Tier Conversion Credit
Convert to any monthly retainer within 60 days and the full $5,000 applies as credit. Done that way, the diagnostic is effectively free.

Three doors at the readout. No auto-renew behind any of them.

01

Convert

Move to a monthly retainer within 60 days. The full $5,000 is credited. You keep the same operator who ran the diagnostic.

02

Take the memo and run

Fix it internally with the 90-day action plan in hand. The memo is yours either way. No obligation to continue.

03

Scope a project

Engage a defined project off the findings... cash forecast, QofE prep, transaction readiness... priced and scoped on its own.

Scott Magnano

25+ years in executive finance. Scaled Medicx Health from roughly $15M to $40M in revenue at 20%+ EBITDA margins... from three months of cash on hand to a $95M exit to OptimizeRx (NASDAQ: OPRX) in October 2023. Now embedded with founder-led and PE-backed companies across healthcare, technology, insurance, and services.

3 months cash runway at entry $15M → $40M revenue 20%+ EBITDA $95M exit

Before you raise your hand.

Who is this actually for?

Operating companies with revenue, roughly $3M to $20M, where finance was built for a smaller business and a raise, sale, turnaround, or board has raised the bar. Pre-revenue and idea-stage companies are a different problem... I'll point you somewhere useful. If you're not sure, a 30-minute call will tell us both quickly.

Is the first payment really non-refundable?

Only once kickoff occurs. Before kickoff, it's fully refundable. The trigger is the start of work, not the signature.

Do I need a master services agreement?

No. The Pulse Check is a standalone SOW. Two signatures and we're moving.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes. A mutual NDA is available before any data changes hands.

How much of my time does it take?

One person... you or your sponsor. A kickoff call, a data handoff, and the readout. A few hours over 30 days.

What if I want to keep going after?

Convert to a retainer within 60 days and the full $5,000 is credited toward it.

Tell me where the business is. I'll tell you if a Pulse Check fits.

Two minutes now. A 30-minute call to confirm scope and start. If it's not a fit, I'll say so on the call... no pressure either way.

Prefer to talk first?

Book a 30-minute call

No spam. Your information is used only to evaluate fit and follow up.