Fractional leadership, scoped to what you actually need.
Forge Ahead works with founder-led and scaling businesses that have outgrown ad hoc operations but aren't ready for (or don't need) a full executive team. Engagements are fractional, scoped, and outcome-driven.
How Forge Ahead Works
Every engagement is scoped to the problem, not sold as a fixed package. Most work falls into one of three models.
Fractional Retainer
Ongoing embedded leadership, typically 1–3 days a week equivalent, for businesses that need permanent senior capacity without a permanent hire.
Project-Based Engagement
A defined scope with a clear start and end, such as a HubSpot implementation, a fundraise-ready financial model, or an automation rollout.
Audit + Roadmap
A focused diagnostic that maps the gaps and sequences the fix, often the first step before a retainer or project engagement begins.
Fractional COO
For founders who need senior operational leadership without a full-time hire. Strategic direction, governance frameworks, KPI systems, and delivery management that keep growth from outrunning your infrastructure.
Typical engagement: ongoing fractional retainer, embedded 1–3 days/week equivalent.
Operational CFO / FP&A
Financial modelling, forecasting, budgeting, and cash flow planning built to investor and board standard. For businesses that need CFO-grade numbers before they need a CFO-grade salary.
Typical engagement: monthly retainer or project-based (e.g. fundraise readiness, annual planning cycle).
RevOps & HubSpot Implementation
CRM architecture, lifecycle design, and reporting dashboards, turning your CRM from a system of record into a system of growth. 7+ HubSpot implementations delivered across distributed, multi-geography organisations.
Typical engagement: project-based implementation, 6–16 weeks, optional ongoing optimisation retainer.
AI Automation & Workflow Design
AI strategy, workflow automation, and agent design (n8n and similar tooling) that eliminates manual operational grind. Delivered by a firm that builds its own AI products, not a generalist consultant reselling a framework.
Typical engagement: audit + roadmap, followed by phased implementation.
Growth Operating System
A productised alternative to the one-off website build: a professional website bundled with CRM, marketing automation, an AI assistant, and reporting dashboards, delivered and maintained as a single system, not a project that goes stale the day it launches.
Typical engagement: monthly subscription across Starter, Growth, and Business tiers, with onboarding delivered over 4–8 weeks.
Past engagements have ranged from $40–50K focused projects to $800K multi-year transformation programmes, scoped to the size and stage of the business.
The Economics of Fractional
A full-time Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer combined typically cost $150K to $300K a year in salary, benefits, and overhead, before accounting for recruitment time and the months it takes a new executive to reach full productivity. Forge Ahead delivers the same calibre of strategic and financial leadership on a fractional basis, scoped to what the business actually needs.
Full-Time Executive Hire
$150K–$300K+ a year in salary and overhead. Three to six months to recruit and onboard. A fixed commitment regardless of workload, and coverage limited to one discipline per hire.
Fractional Forge Ahead
Scoped to the engagement, at a fraction of full-time cost. Embedded within weeks, not months. Scales up or down with the business, across COO, CFO, RevOps, and automation, under one operator.
Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a proposal.
Book a Strategy Call