For CEOs of software businesses · Scaling, or getting ready to sell

The mechanisms that make businesses work.

Growth has gone flat. You have added people and everything still moves too slowly. Your leaders bring lists of activity to the Monday meeting and you still cannot tell whether you will hit your targets. You find out about problems a month after they started. You are stuck.

In two weeks you have the diagnosis and the plan. In a quarter you can see every week whether you will hit your targets, and your time goes on the decisions only you can make.

Request a call

Two minutes
We talk this week. You get a scope within 48 hours.

01Consulting

Work with me

I work with CEOs of software businesses who want to get growth going again, or want the business worth more when they come to sell it. Plenty of people will teach your team a method and leave. I stay and run it with them until it holds. Most people start with the Growth Diagnostic.

Growth Diagnostic

I go through what you have tried so far and where the money is going, then tell you what is working, what is not, and what to fix first.

You get a written report you can act on the same day it lands. There has never been a company where I found nothing.

Two weeks · Fixed fee · Written report on day 14

Transaction Ready

I go through your numbers, your team and your technology the way a buyer will, then tell you every gap and what it costs you at valuation.

You get the gaps ranked by cost and a plan to close them. Do it now and you have time to fix them; once diligence starts you just take the hit on the price.

Six weeks · Fixed fee

Coaching for CEOs

We take a standing hour on whatever is in front of you: scaling the team, the strategy, or the problem of the week.

We speak every week, work out which mechanism the problem actually needs, then put it in. Between calls I read anything important before it goes out.

You get the same answer I would give a board I sat on, which is not always the one you want to hear. Four clients at a time, so you are never a calendar slot.

Monthly retainer · 3-month minimum · Four clients at a time

Workshops

Your team stops bringing you decisions to make and starts bringing you decisions they have made.

Writing to Decide. Your team learns the Amazon writing standard, which sharpens how they think and how they decide. Up to 25 people.

The 10x Session. A day working backwards from what will actually grow the business, down to the few bets that deliver it.

A full day each · Fixed fee · I return after 30 days

Writing to Decide also runs as a public 4-week cohort. 15 seats, next one in October. Join the waitlist →

Within a quarter

What actually changes

01

You know where growth is coming from

You can name the three things moving growth right now, and you know what each one is worth.

02

You work on the next quarters, not this week

The day to day stops reaching your desk. You spend your time where only you can help.

03

Your team is organised for speed

Every leader knows what they own and what they are on the hook for, and can decide without asking you.

04

Your business is worth more to a buyer

The issues that would have cost you at valuation are fixed. You are transaction ready, whenever you decide to sell.

How it works

Fixed scope, fee agreed before we start, so you know what you are committing to. Most clients then move to a retainer.

02Writing

Read how I think

I write about useful mechanisms from time to time. Each piece comes with the template, so you can run it yourself.

[DATE]

Transaction ready: what an 18-day close looks like

Buyers pay for clean data and a team that runs without the founder. How Earth Class Mail closed in 18 days against an industry norm of 45 to 60.

[DATE]

Growth is a system, not a hire

Growth underperformance is almost never a people problem. It is a system nobody designed. The four parts, and the order to fix them.

[DATE]

10x or 10%: why your team thinks small

If nothing in the way you run the company makes room for a big bet, you will only get small ones. How to change that, and how to keep one big bet alive past the first month.

All essays on Substack →

03About

I'm Fergus Burns. I have had your job: I turned a company around in under 600 days, then sold it.

Since then I have bought and sold software businesses at Scaleworks and Rathlin Capital, and fixed others from the outside with a combination of useful mechanisms, focus and common sense. What comes out of it is a more valuable business, one that is ready for a buyer, and a CEO who enjoys the work again. I will tell you what I think, including when you are the problem.

Clients in the US and Europe · All remote

04Contact

Let's talk

Send me the high level on what you need and we will have a 30 minute chat this week. No charge, and you will get my honest view of what I would do.

© 2026 Useful Mechanisms · Fergus Burns
LinkedInSubstack