The Challenge Founders Face
As a startup CEO, you’ve likely felt the frustration of watching once-reliable systems start to break down. You may have built a strong product, attracted enthusiastic customers, and even secured funding, yet growth has stalled. At the same time, operations might feel increasingly chaotic, investor updates are rushed, and the pitch that used to land so well suddenly falls flat.
So, what is going on? Unfortunately, many founders avoid the hard truth: startups fail because their business strategy wasn’t defined or built to scale.
At The Field Group, we partner with early-stage founders and have repeatedly observed the same pattern: CEOs with bold visions and brilliant products, but lacking a strategic framework to convert early traction into sustainable, repeatable growth. Our business strategy consultants services help bridge the gap between building a great product and creating a successful business, saving you time, effort, and money, and potentially even saving your business.
Why the Old Paradigm Doesn’t Work
There’s no shortage of conventional advice for startup founders: “Move fast and break things.” “Raise as much as you can.” etc.
But advice without context can be dangerous. That’s why business strategy consultants focus first on your market fit and growth stage before recommending any playbook. Not only does moving fast without a clear direction burn through cash, but raising too much, too soon, can mean losing control and creating unnecessary dilution. Moreover, copying another company’s model overlooks the unique conditions that drove their success, and also ignores the realities of your own market fit and growth stage.
For a deeper look at how strategic guidance benefits smaller teams, read “Why Your Small Business Needs a Business Strategy Consultant.”
Here are the most common pitfalls we see early-stage CEOs run into:
- Operating reactively: You spend more time putting out fires than building systems that prevent them. (ie. Using a tactical approach rather than a strategic one.)
- Fundraising missteps: Early deals create messy cap tables or unnecessary dilution.
- Investor confidence slipping: Updates that are inconsistent or overly tactical leave backers uncertain.
- Pitch Panic: Rushing to put together a deck, but not telling a clear, compelling story, because you are missing an overall strategy.
- Scattered go-to-market efforts: Sales and marketing decisions are made without alignment to an overall growth strategy.
A Better Way: How Field Group’s Business Strategy Consultants Work
We built The Field Group’s business strategy consulting practice to help founders move from uncertainty to clarity, and from improvisation to intentional growth.
Our business strategy consultants’ services cover ten key areas. Each one is designed to address a specific pain point that holds back growth.
Putting the Model into Practice
Here are some ways early-stage CEOs can start applying these ideas right away:
- Identify your blind spots: Which of the ten areas above are you improvising instead of managing with intention? Be honest and reflective in your assessment. Business Strategy Consultants can help illuminate blind spots.
- Set a 90-day agenda: Choose one priority in revenue, one in operations, and one in investor confidence. Make these your primary focus and resist falling into the trap of following the next “shiny object.” Such distractions rarely improve overall success. Consider making progress the goal, not perfection. To paraphrase Voltaire, “don’t make perfect the enemy of the good”!
- Reframe your pitch: Your pitch should tell investors what you’ve built, but also why you’re positioned to win. Remember, you’re on a mission to share your vision. Oftentimes, investors invest based on emotion. If they share in your excitement, you’re far more likely to get an investment!
- Level up investor communication: Illustrate your professionalism by elevating your communications. Adopt a structured email cadence that shows consistency and builds trust. Put yourself in an investor’s shoes and be one step ahead of the investor’s needs. By anticipating their requests, you can be poised to seem more professional, accomplished, and trustworthy – Business Strategy Consultants can help you design that proactive cadence, making an investment far more likely.
These steps help transform growth from unpredictable to planned and elevate your stature in an investor’s eyes.
If you’re unsure which type of advisor your startup actually needs, our guide “Business Strategy Consultant vs Management Consultant: What’s the Difference?” breaks down the key distinctions to help you decide.
Our Principles: How We Work at The Field Group
Every engagement with The Field Group is grounded in our principles:
Clarity over Chaos: Founders need more than general advice; they need specific frameworks that bring order and focus. An engagement with us guarantees a customized strategic approach, designed to bring the clearest path into view – a core discipline of effective Business Strategy Consultants.
Intentional Growth: We believe in going slowly to move fast. Every strategy is intentionally tied to realistic and desirable outcomes and is tailored specifically to your business.
Founder-Centered: As business strategy consultants, we believe in coaching and educating leaders because a strong founder is the multiplier of all growth, setting the groundwork for future success. Our goal is that we become redundant and that you are equipped with all the tools and skills necessary to lead your company forward toward growth.
Sustainable Success: Growth should be repeatable and resilient. With founder knowledge, strong operational procedures, a passionate, skilled team, and a clear strategic blueprint, you will be well-positioned for the future.
These principles shape how we partner with early-stage companies, ensuring that strategy becomes a living practice, not just a one-time deliverable.
From Chaos to Clarity with The Field Group
Startup leadership can be exhilarating, but it’s also exhausting. The pressure to build, fundraise, hire, and deliver results can overwhelm even the most visionary and capable founders. At The Field Group, we partner with founders as business strategy consultants to provide the clarity, support, frameworks, and confidence needed to scale. We help leaders replace chaos with structure, uncertainty with intention, and fear with momentum, because good products and unique market fit alone don’t build enduring companies; a strong and clear strategy does.
Great ideas deserve to become great companies. With the right strategy, they will!
FAQs Relevant to Business Strategy Consultants
What does a business strategy consultant do for a startup?
They diagnose gaps, run market and competitor analysis, set measurable priorities (product, GTM, finance), and deliver an executable, time-bound growth plan.
How can consultants help founders raise funding?
They refine your pitch, tighten unit economics, prepare a clean data room, target the right investors, and rehearse investor meetings to increase conviction.
When should a startup hire business strategy consultants?
Typical triggers: before a major fundraise, when scaling past product–market fit, when operations need structure, or when founders need an outside, experienced lens.
How do I choose the right consultant for my startup?
Pick someone with stage-appropriate experience, domain fit, strong references, KPI-based deliverables, and a clear knowledge-transfer plan.
Will consultants replace my leadership team?
No, good consultants mentor and transfer skills so your team owns the plan; the ideal result is the consultant becoming redundant.
