What founders say, in their own words.

I came in with a fairly developed idea and a lot of confidence about it. The session involved James asking questions that I thought I had answers to — turns out I didn't have answers to all of them. The summary afterwards was useful in a way I wasn't quite expecting: it reflected back what I'd said more clearly than I'd said it. I booked the setup engagement two weeks later.

May 2025 · Sounding Session

The sounding session was good — honest, no fluff. I'd been going around in circles on pricing for months and the conversation helped me see why I was doing that. I did find one part of the session a bit uncomfortable because some of my assumptions got challenged fairly directly, but looking back that was probably the point. The note that came after was clear and short, which I appreciated.

April 2025 · Sounding Session

I've been on the retainer for four months and the biggest thing I'd say is it's helped with the isolation piece more than anything. Running something early-stage can feel quite solitary, especially decisions that feel big but aren't big enough to bring to a co-founder or investor. Having a regular session where I can just think out loud with someone who doesn't have a stake in the outcome is genuinely useful.

May 2025 · Advisory Retainer

I did the setup engagement while transitioning from employment to running my own practice. The three sessions were very practical — not much theory, mostly working through how to describe what I do, who I was going to approach first, and what I needed to put in place before I could operate properly. The priority plan at the end was honest about what was urgent versus what could wait. That was helpful.

March 2025 · Early Business Setup

Good experience. I did a single sounding session and didn't proceed to a longer engagement — mainly because the session helped me decide to slow down on the idea rather than accelerate it. That sounds like a failure but it wasn't — I would have spent a lot of money and time on something that had a significant flaw. The session paid for itself several times over in that sense.

April 2025 · Sounding Session

I've tried other advisory relationships before and most of them involved a lot of the advisor talking and me writing things down. Driftwood Co works the other way round — you do most of the talking, they mostly ask. It takes some getting used to but the format produces better outcomes, at least for me. Now in month six of the retainer and the quality of thinking in our sessions is still solid.

May 2025 · Advisory Retainer