Market entry assessment
Six weeks of customer interviews, sizing and competitor work on a specific new market.
Founder led companies since 2016
One decision, answered properly, in six weeks
Which market, which segment, what price, build or buy. We take one hard question at a time, do the customer and market work, and give you a recommendation you can act on.
10 yrsadvising founders
6 wktypical engagement
85engagements delivered
5partners, no analysts
Questions we take on
Short engagements on decisions that matter
Fixed fee, fixed timeline, one clear question per engagement.
Pricing and packaging strategy
Willingness to pay research and a packaging structure your sales team can sell.
Segment and ICP definition
Where your best revenue actually comes from and how to concentrate on it.
Build, buy or partner analysis
A structured comparison with real cost, timeline and risk for each path.
Board ready strategy review
Three weeks pressure testing a plan before it goes to your board or an investor.
Advisory retainer
A partner available for the running decisions after an engagement ends.
About Northfield
Five partners, and the partner does the work
Northfield was founded in 2016 by three former strategy consultants who wanted to work directly with founders instead of through six layers of a large firm. There are no analysts here. The partner you meet on the scoping call runs the interviews, builds the model and presents the recommendation. That limits how many engagements we take and it is the point.
•One question per engagement, scoped in writing
•Primary customer interviews, not just desk research
•A recommendation with a position, not three options and a shrug
Reviews
What founders say
“We were about to spend eighteen months entering a market. Their interviews found the buyer did not exist yet. That was the most valuable no I have ever paid for.”
Sanjay P., Founder, B2B software
“The pricing work moved our average contract up 31 percent within two quarters and we lost almost nobody.”
Erin L., CEO, services company
“A partner ran every interview himself. That is why the recommendation had teeth.”
Tom B., Founder, consumer brand
FAQ
Before you hire a strategy firm
What size company do you work with?
Mostly founder led companies between $5M and $80M in revenue that are making a bet big enough to hurt if it is wrong. Below that, the fee rarely earns out. Above that, you likely have the internal team to do this yourselves.
Why only one question per engagement?
Because the failure mode of strategy work is a broad scope that produces a broad deck nobody acts on. A single question forces us to do primary research deep enough to actually take a position.
Do you help implement the recommendation?
Not as a project. We will stay on an advisory retainer for the decisions that come up during execution, but building it is your team's job. Consultants who implement their own recommendations have an obvious incentive problem.
What do you need from us during the work?
Access to your data, warm introductions to about a dozen customers and prospects, and roughly two hours a week from the founder. The customer interviews are where the answer comes from, so introductions are the piece we cannot substitute for.
Contact
Bring us the question
Tell us the decision in front of you and the deadline. We will say on the first call whether this is work we should take.
Phone(617) 555-0104
Address260 Franklin Street, Suite 1900, Boston, MA 02110, Boston, Massachusetts
HoursMon to Fri 8:30am to 6pm
AreaNortheast US, with remote engagements nationwide