For US Firms $500K-$10M
Embedded operators. 90-day sprints.
Diagnostic-first business development for growth-stage professional services, tech, and light manufacturing firms. Metric-locked scope. No indefinite retainers.
Engagement data. Not marketing claims.
- 47
- Completed engagements
- 91%
- Client retention to exit
- 23
- Avg days to first insight
- 0
- Open-ended retainers
How Engagements Actually Work
- 01
Diagnostic-First: Every Engagement Starts With a Scan
Two-week audit maps and quantifies constraints across eight dimensions before any action plan is written. You see the problem before we touch it.
- 02
Embedded Sprint: Operators Inside Your Business
Operators with P&L experience join your team for 90-day sprints. Daily standups. Weekly scorecards. Deliverables shipped — not advisory memos.
- 03
Termination-on-Metric: No Zombie Retainers
Every engagement locks to one measurable outcome. When the number moves, we exit. Some end at 60 days. Most at 90. None run indefinitely.
From Firms That Ran The Engagement
“City Prime Zone diagnosed our pipeline problem in two weeks — 1.2x coverage when we needed 3x. Embedded operator stayed 90 days and built a BD process that doesn't depend on me. Bookings: $800K to $3.1M in 12 months.”
“We hired them for federal market entry. GSA MAS schedule was the easy part. Real value: past performance framework and task order response system. Zero to $2.1M in task orders within two quarters.”
“Our realization rate was 71% — they found $400K in annual write-offs we absorbed as cost of doing business. Rate restructuring plus change order discipline pushed us to 89% in one sprint.”
“Embedded operators cut bench time from 40% to 12% in 90 days. Restructured service lines around demand signals, not partner preferences. Profitability up 18 points.”
“We burned $60K/month on a consultant who delivered decks and vanished. City Prime Zone locked scope to one metric — qualified pipeline — and terminated at 75 days on target.”
“The diagnostic alone justified the engagement. Surfaced a leverage ratio problem and pricing gap we'd missed for three years. First sprint recovered $340K in lost capacity.”
What Clients Actually Ask
How does the 8-dimension audit differ from a standard maturity assessment?+
Standard assessments score you on a maturity model and hand back a report. We map every constraint, quantify revenue impact, and rank by ROI. You get a constraint map with dollar figures — not a scorecard. Two weeks. Then we fix what we found.
What makes embedded operators different from strategic consultants?+
Our operators have carried P&L responsibility or generated books of business. They join your team, run daily standups against your actual pipeline, and ship results. Consultants tell you what to do. Operators do it alongside your people.
How is the fee structured?+
Fixed fee anchored to one primary metric. Scope locks at engagement start. Executive takes longer than projected — fee doesn't increase. Additional scope requires a signed change order. No surprise invoices.
What does termination-on-metric mean in practice?+
We agree on one measurable result. When the metric moves, the engagement ends. Some finish at 60 days. Most at 90. No performative time extensions.
We classify consultants as 1099 — is that a compliance risk?+
IRS Section 530 safe harbor is narrow. DOL enforcement plus Form SS-8 audits trigger back employment taxes and penalties ($1K-$25K per worker). We audit your classification structure before any engagement begins.
Non-compete vs. non-solicit — what changed recently?+
FTC's 2024 rule banned most non-competes. CA, ND, OK already prohibited them. Non-solicits prevent poaching clients or team — still generally enforceable. We build non-solicit frameworks. Jurisdiction matters.
Stop Collecting Decks. Start Moving Metrics.
Book the 2-week diagnostic. If we can't surface three actionable constraints with quantified revenue impact, you don't pay.
About
Embedded operators. 90-day sprints.
City Prime Zone diagnoses pipeline constraints in growth-stage firms ($500K-$10M revenue) and embeds operators to eliminate them.
2018. Routine pipeline review. Found a client with $4M revenue dependent on two rainmakers. Lose one and the firm collapses in a quarter. That pattern repeated everywhere. Growth-stage firms don't need slide decks — they need operators who stay to fix structural gaps.
Every engagement opens with a 2-week diagnostic across eight dimensions, locks to one primary metric, executes in 90-day sprints with operators inside your business, then terminates. Weekly scorecards. Real pipeline numbers. No theater.
Our path
- 20198-Dimension Business Audit framework launched
- 2020First embedded operator engagement deployed
- 2022GSA schedule advisory practice added
- 202447 engagements completed — zero open retainers
What we stand for
We don't prescribe before we scan. Constraint maps before action plans. Data before decisions.
Every engagement has one primary number. We lock to it and exit when it moves.
No perpetual retainers. Engagement ends when the metric is achieved. Not before. Not after.
Our people have run P&Ls, managed pipelines, and carried books of business. We advise from experience, not theory.
I built this firm after watching too many companies burn cash on consultants who vanished before a single metric moved. We operate, not advise. If we can't tie an engagement to a verifiable number, we don't take it.