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Founders and focus
Two Years of Building Work Around My Brain
Two years after first writing about my ADHD and dyslexia: the small adjustments that worked, getting things out of my head, and the catch for founders.
Founders · Agencies · Platforms
Maybe you're a founder who knows what needs doing and can't get to it. An agency whose new business stops when client work gets busy. A platform that needs a UK lead before it can justify hiring one. We build the system that keeps growth moving, with AI on the repetitive parts and a person on the judgement calls.
Everything keeps moving. Less of it runs through you.
Start here
Pick the one that fits. If it's a bit of everything, book a call and we'll work out where to start.
Founders
Busy all day, but nothing actually moves. You've tried the apps and the planners. We rebuild the repeatable, often painful workflows around the way your brain works, so they hold up when you're tired, busy or haven't opened them for a week.
Starts with whatever's costing you most
See founder workAgencies
It's feast or famine. You know who you'd love to work with, but follow-up depends on finding a spare afternoon. We install a signal-led system that tells you who to build relationships with, when, and through which route. It's called AllboundOS, and it's yours to keep.
Starts with the Growth Intelligence Workshop
See new businessPlatforms entering the UK
You have traction at home and interest from the UK, but nobody senior owns it. We become your UK commercial function until you're ready to hire.
Starts with a conversation
See UK market entryProof
Results, client words and live work from both sides of the business. Swipe or scroll to see more.
"Single-handedly established our presence in a new market… a rare talent."
Bryon Evje, former CRO at Winmo and author of The Signal & The Silence
Five new-business deals closed in under six months
The entire UK commercial function for an international platform, and the operating system behind it.
International platform, UK market entry
"Dan provided a safe, non-judgmental space that allowed me to honestly 'let him into the chaos'."
Gabs, Art Editor, Cultureshock
Running his own automation in four weeks
A four-week build ended with him maintaining and debugging his own workflow.
MD, independent travel company
First hire made, the backlog finally cleared
An exited agency founder rebuilt her week into clear lanes, hired her first team member and cleared tasks that had sat on her list for ages.
Exited agency founder
Building a process library for a consultancy founder
Twelve one-to-one sessions, turning what lives in his head into a system his partners can use.
Consultancy founder
£140,000+ of new business closed
While running a specialist agency's new business function, including its two largest new logos, each worth over £45,000.
Specialist agency
Signal to outreach in one working day
A buying signal became a scored brief, a named decision maker, a drafted angle and an automated CRM task, all on the same day.
B2B client
Competitor acquisition at 8pm. Repositioning brief on the COO's desk by lunchtime.
Competitive analysis and repositioning, delivered in under 17 hours.
International platform, UK market entry
Competitor displaced in just over a month
From proposal to signed contract. The client told their incumbent they were leaving two weeks in.
UK media client
CRM contacts up 137%
396 contacts added to the CRM during the engagement, and 12 pipeline opportunities logged where none had been created for 11 months.
B2B client
Installing a new business system for a UK search agency
From stakeholder interviews to a live weekly new business system, built around the founders' own judgement.
UK search agency
"For someone with a very active brain who finds it hard to find clarity amidst the chaos, the programme helped me to understand my behaviours and patterns."
Gav, Founder, Search Seven
Four hours of protected focus, every day
An independent creative director swapped a reactive day for a daily focus block, and found the headspace to rethink her positioning.
Independent creative director
Who you'll work with
I've spent 20+ years in agencies, as an MD and a BD director. Then I ran UK commercial for a US platform.
I run my own business on the same systems I build for you, which is why they're designed for the bad week as well as the good one.
More about DanSound familiar?
It happens whenever you find a free afternoon, then a big project lands and it stops for six weeks.
You meant to chase last week, and the proposal is still sitting in drafts.
Pricing, priorities and how you win work are in there, and nobody else could pick them up tomorrow.
Each new app or planner works for about three weeks, until a busy patch hits.
You win the work, shape the work and chase the payment, all on top of the actual job.
A week off or a bad week means everything waits for you.
We start with what you already decide well, then get it out of your head so it runs without you holding it together.
How we work
ORBIT is how we get what's in your head into a system that lasts. For founders, it's ORBIT for Founders. For agency new business, it's AllboundOS. For platforms entering the UK, it's UK Market Entry. Every engagement runs the same arc, and what you buy decides how far along it we go with you.
What's actually happening in your week, your pipeline and your calendar. No opinions yet.
Which decisions only live in your head, and which ones are costing you most right now.
The rules, templates and routines that turn those decisions into something anyone can run.
Put inside your business and run alongside you until it holds without us standing over it.
Weeks get messy and markets move. Someone has to keep the system honest after we step back.
We plan for the week you're ill, the week you win a big pitch, and the week you forget the system exists.
Questions
Coaching works on how you think. We build the actual system with you, the templates and routines that hold your work, and what we build is yours to keep.
No. You don't need a diagnosis, or to disclose one. We look at where work gets stuck and design around how you actually think, whatever's going on underneath.
Founder programmes run as one hour a week over about three months. New business systems need you to act on a short weekly brief, and the system does the legwork around it.
The system, the templates and an Operating Manual your team can actually use are all yours. With ongoing new business systems, the live signal feed and reporting run while we work together.
It depends on what you need. Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute call. The founder and agency pages set out exactly what's included and what it costs. UK Market Entry is scoped after a first conversation.
It may. If you're eligible, Access to Work can fund some or all of the founder work, and we'll invoice in whatever format your claim needs. Self-employed claims can take over a year, so don't wait on it to start.
Growth in your business runs through one person
You're great at the work and stretched on everything else
You'd rather own a system than rent another tool
You're up for being honest about how you actually work
You'd like to start small and step up when the work pays for itself
You just want more cold emails sent
You're after a tool to buy, rather than a way of working to change
You can't spare an hour or so a week to act on what the system surfaces
We'd rather tell you it's not a fit on the first call than take the money and watch it churn at month three.
The Messy Middle
Notes on workflows, new business, AI and running a business around how you actually work. All articles
Tell us where the work's stuck. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help and where we'd start. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so and tell you what we'd do instead.
