You stay in the first chair.

Second Chair is a standing relationship with the CEO, built around trust, perspective, and the kind of access that only matters if it is there before you need it.

I bring an operator’s instincts, an investor’s perspective, and a lawyer’s discipline around risk and governance. I understand what it means to build with limited resources, make decisions with incomplete information, and keep moving when the market has not yet caught up to what the business is becoming.

You stay firmly in the first chair.

I am there in the second, close enough to understand the business, independent enough to challenge the obvious answer, and ready when the stakes are high, the path is unclear, or you simply want another experienced perspective beside you.

I’ve spent my career on both sides of the table.

As an operator, I spent sixteen years helping build and lead a fourth-generation consumer products company, ultimately serving as CEO of a $120M+ business through growth, acquisition, disruption, transformation, and turnaround. Today, I’m Chief Operating Officer of a national architecture firm.

As an investor, I’ve spent years studying and investing in public companies, with a particular passion for smaller businesses where a handful of great decisions can change the trajectory of the entire company. Having served on a public company board, I understand the pressure, scrutiny, and weight of the decisions that come with leading in the public markets.

Those two worlds have shaped how I think. Operating has made me a better investor. Investing has made me a better operator. And both have taught me that, at the right stage of a company’s life, the quality of the decisions around the CEO can matter enormously.

The relationship is designed to flex around what you need, when you need it. I may be pressure-testing an important decision, helping you prepare for a difficult board conversation, thinking through an acquisition or capital allocation, sharpening how you communicate with shareholders, helping you work through internal structure and culture realignments, or making the right introduction at the right time.

As your priorities evolve, the work evolves with them.

You’ll have reasonable, ongoing access to me by call, text, or working session. The value is not in tracking time. It is in having an experienced and independent perspective available when it can be most useful.

The structure is simple: a monthly retainer, often paired with equity so our interests are aligned, with either of us free to step away on 30 days’ notice.