Notes on building, augmenting, raising, and re-starting.
Short, useful pieces written by Asta's senior principals, on the questions we are asked most often by the founders, CEOs, and boards we work with. New writing on a quarterly cadence, with occasional notes when something genuinely changes.
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Senior-led versus junior-led advisory.
An operating distinction, not a marketing claim. The economic gravity of the consulting industry pulls work down to the level it can most cheaply be delivered, which is rarely the level of the partner who sold it. The buyer's question, and the structural giveaways.
Read the note →The AI Transformation Process Diagnostic.
The most expensive AI mistakes are not in model selection or integration. They are in the choice of what to augment first. A four-phase diagnostic that produces a roadmap, not a tool.
Read the note →The Re-Startup decision framework.
When reset is a strategy, not a failure. The four signals leadership teams should evaluate, why early reset beats late reset, and the single question that opens the conversation honestly.
Read the note →What a Fractional CFO actually owns.
The scope of work, in plain terms. The five things a Fractional CFO actually owns, the structure that produces results, and the three pitfalls that turn the engagement into a recurring advisory project rather than an operating role.
Read the note →M&A Advisory and sell-side investment banking.
Where the work overlaps, and where the regulatory line cuts. The functional differences, the four cases where advisory is the right choice, and the compensation structure that defines the boundary.
Read the note →Why AI is augmentation, not automation.
The shorthand most companies use is automation. The work that actually compounds is augmentation. The two are different operations, with different economics, different scoping logic, and different measurement systems. Why the distinction is the difference between programs that work and programs that get cancelled.
Read the note →Five questions every founder should answer before raising.
The pitch deck is downstream of these answers. The five questions investors actually ask in the first ten minutes, what a defensible answer looks like for each, and why founders who walk in with the answers are negotiating terms while founders who walk in without them are introducing the firm.
Read the note →When reset is a strategy, not a failure.
Re-Startup is the discipline of choosing to reset on purpose, before the market does it for you. The strategic argument for pre-emptive reset by healthy companies, the signaling and capital-market consequences of waiting, and why the founders who do it early are almost universally grateful that they did.
Read the note →The Asta Quarterly.
A short letter, four times a year, written by Asta's senior principals, from the desk. No newsletters from the marketing team. No promoted posts. The pieces above are typical of what subscribers receive in long form, ahead of public publication.
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New subscribers receive Senior-led advisory: a buyer's checklist, a nine-page practitioner's note with the fifteen questions to ask before hiring an advisory firm, the scoring rubric, and the engagement-letter clauses that hold the firm to the seniority it has implied. Preview the checklist →